386
Opinion of the Court
Finally (as to jurisdiction), respondents challenge the claim in the Commission's First Report & Order that § 208, a provision giving the Commission general authority to hear complaints arising under the Communications Act of 1934, also gives it authority to review agreements approved by state commissions under the local-competition provisions. First Report & Order ¶¶ 121-128. The Eighth Circuit held that the Commission's "perception of its authority . . . is untenable . . . in light of the language and structure of the Act and . . . operation of [§ 152(b)]." 120 F. 3d, at 803. The Court of Appeals erred in reaching this claim because it is not ripe. When, as is the case with this Commission statement, there is no immediate effect on the plaintiff's primary conduct, federal courts normally do not entertain pre-enforcement challenges to agency rules and policy statements. Toilet Goods Assn., Inc. v. Gardner, 387 U. S. 158 (1967); see also Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, 497 U. S. 871, 891 (1990).
III
A
We turn next to the unbundling rules, and come first to the incumbent LECs' complaint that the FCC included within the features and services that must be provided to competitors under Rule 319 items that do not (as they must) meet the statutory definition of "network element"—namely, operator services and directory assistance, operational support systems (OSS), and vertical switching functions such as caller I. D., call forwarding, and call waiting. See 47 CFR
but in a few specified areas (ratemaking, interconnection agreements, etc.) has left the policy implications of that extension to be determined by state commissions, which—within the broad range of lawful policymaking left open to administrative agencies—are beyond federal control. Such a scheme is decidedly novel, and the attendant legal questions, such as whether federal courts must defer to state agency interpretations of federal law, are novel as well.
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