Nathan Deal: “In the 1996 Telecommunications Act, one of the purposes, and the primary purpose, was to deregulate the issue of…”

“In the 1996 Telecommunications Act, one of the purposes, and the primary purpose, was to deregulate the issue of telecommunications in this country, but we have not deregulated the regulators. I commend the gentlewoman for bringing this bill because it attempts to take one further step in the direction of dealing with the monopolistic system that we have now said the barriers must be removed from. As long as regulations are in place with a one-size-fits-all approach, these smaller providers, in this case those with 2 percent or less of the providing capacity in this country, are faced with regulations that really make their operations sometimes prohibitive. I commend the gentlewoman for offering this bill to remove these regulatory restraints because many of these small 2 percent or less of the carrier providers are located in States like hers and in rural areas of a State like mine. They are the ones who need to devote their funding and their resources to an infrastructure development, because without that they cannot be competitive with the bigger competitors in the marketplace. So I support this legislation, and I again thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time.”