NEWS                                         December 26, 1996


HUNDT WELCOMES CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT OF LOCAL COMPETITION PROVISIONS
 
     FCC Chairman Reed Hundt today welcomed the amicus brief (or friend of the 
     court) filed in the 8th Circuit by Senators Lott, Hollings, Inouye and 
     Stevens and Representatives Bliley and Markey.  The brief was filed in 
     support of the rules adopted by the FCC to implement the local competition 
     provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

     "It's clear that the top congressional leadership has checked the FCC 
     twice and decided that we've been not naughty but nice," said Hundt.  "I 
     think it's a great Christmas present for the country and a tremendous 
     pat on the back for the hard working FCC staff."

     In this brief the authors write that the arguments made by those 
     petitioning against the FCC rules "reflect several critical 
     misconceptions about the Act and the purposes underlying it."  The 
     authors cite several examples including, "Perhaps most fundamentally, 
     petitioners seek to remove the federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
     from any role whatsoever in implementing the Act's provisions requiring 
     that incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs) charge their competitors 
     rates that are 'just reasonable, and nondiscriminatory,' and to leave 
     that critical duty solely to the states.  That result would be an 
     extraordinary reversal of a clear Congressional decision."

     Continuing in a discussion of the jurisdictional dispute, the authors 
     write, "The Act instead expressly contemplates overlapping federal and 
     State participation; it directs the FCC to adopt regulations implementing 
     the requirements, including rate requirements, of [section] 251, while at 
     the same time relying on the States to arbitrate specific agreements 
     between carriers consistent with those regulations and the provisions of 
     the Act."  The authors, each of whom played a key role in passage of the 
     1996 Act, and each of whom was a member of the House-Senate Conference 
     Committee on this legislation, state that "the Act replaces a patchwork of 
     differing State policies with a single overriding national policy."

     The authors note in this filing that they take no position on the 
     substance of the FCC's rules but the Commission's "overall authority to 
     implement the local competition sections of the Act is plain." 
     
     -FCC-