(Editor’s Note: Last week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke on the House floor on Representative Greg Walden’s (OR-02) Small Business Broadband Deployment Act, the first bill of the Innovation Initiative. His remarks on this small business endeavor are reprinted below.)
“Mr. Speaker, government policy is stuck in the past. Regulators from the 20th century agencies are trying to manage and control a 21st century world, and it isn’t working. The world is too complex and individual situations are too unique for a big, bulky government to try and apply standards to everyone.
“And every time government tries to micromanage the markets or the free exchange of ideas or the development of new technology, our country and our people fall behind. We lose out on new companies, new jobs, and new services.
“So in the House, we want to free innovators from Silicon Valley to Boston by removing the obstacles that hold us back. We want breakthrough technologies and positive disruption that ensures American leadership around the world and brings government itself into the 21st century. It is our Innovation Initiative. And today—thanks to Greg Walden—we have the first bill from the Innovation Initiative on the floor, protecting the Internet for hundreds of thousands of users.
“The Internet is arguably the most dynamic contributor to a growing economy and higher quality of life in the world. It delivers information and education, supports new business and workers, and increases our ability to communicate and experience the world.
“But right now, small Internet service providers that bring Internet to homes and businesses in less populated parts of the United States worry that the Washington bureaucracy will swoop in and impose regulations on them, and this will create a compliance burden that could put them out of business. These small providers don’t have enough resources to navigate the bureaucratic maze and bring broadband to communities at the same time. And if these small Internet service providers go under, it could leave many people with limited Internet access and no access at all.
“The Administration delayed these rules once, but that was only temporary. These small Internet providers need permanent relief so they can focus more on doing the job of delivering Internet to the American people. So, we’re passing a bill today that lifts these regulations on small providers for good.
“We need to take every opportunity we can to create the space for innovation to thrive in this country. That’s the purpose of our Innovation Initiative, and that’s how we can make a more prosperous America that works for everyone.”