Washington, D.C – Today, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) voted in support of H.R. 4596 -- the Small Business Broadband Deployment Act. This bipartisan legislation protects small businesses from burdensome requirements in the FCC’s Open Internet Order that affects smaller Internet Service Providers. This legislation also increases the threshold to protect more small internet service providers that have up to 250,000 subscribers, an increase from 100,000.
“Expanding access to rural broadband is critical to ensuring the North Country can compete in a 21st Century economy,” said Congresswoman Stefanik. “This bipartisan legislation protects our local internet service providers from burdensome FCC requirements, helping North Country families and businesses’ access to broadband service.”
Small businesses that would be affected by this legislation include the Nicholville Telephone Company in Nicholville, the Champlain Telephone Company in Rouses Point, Crown Point Network Technologies, Inc. in Crown Point, Chazy & Westport/Westelcom in Westport, and Rainmaker Network Services in Chestertown.
This legislation passed the House today by a vote of 411-0.
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