Steve Daines: “small businesses are the backbone of America. They generate more than half of the country's private GDP and support…”

“small businesses are the backbone of America. They generate more than half of the country's private GDP and support millions of families. In Montana, thanks to technology, geography is no longer a constraint and entrepreneurs have been able to build world-class companies without leaving the state. Access to the global marketplace is largely dependent on access to the Internet. Large incumbent carriers often do not have enough of an incentive to serve rural America so States like Montana really depend on small businesses to fill in the gaps and connect our communities. Without small broadband providers, many Montanans would remain unserved. This is why it is so important to support our small businesses and allow them to continue to provide jobs and economic growth in their communities. Burdensome regulations like the FCC's net neutrality rules are strangling our small businesses and preventing growth and investment. The enhanced transparency requirements in particular require small businesses to disclose an excess amount of information including network packet loss, network performance by geographic area, network performance during peak usage, network practices concerning a particular group of users, triggers that activate network practices, and the list goes on. Small companies like Grizzly Internet in West Yellowstone, MO, operate with only three employees and do not have a team of attorneys dedicated to regulatory compliance.…”