410
Opinion of Thomas, J.
§ 2(b)'s reach; indeed, it has done so quite recently. For example, in 1992, Congress enacted legislation providing that § 2(b) shall apply "[e]xcept as provided in sections 223 through 227" of the Communications Act of 1934. Pub. L. 102-243. The following year, Congress also exempted § 301 from § 2(b)'s purview. Pub. L. 103-66. With the 1996 Act, Congress neither eliminated § 2(b) altogether nor added §§ 251 and 252 to the list of provisions exempted from its jurisdictional fence. I believe that we are obliged to honor that choice.
C
Even if the rulemaking authority granted by § 201(b) was not limited to interstate and international communications and the 1996 Act rendered § 2(b) a nullity, the FCC's argument would still fail with respect to its pricing rules and its rules governing the state commissions' approval of interconnection agreements. We have made it clear that "[w]here there is no clear intention otherwise, a specific statute will not be controlled or nullified by a general one." Crawford Fitting Co. v. J. T. Gibbons, Inc., 482 U. S. 437, 445 (1987) (emphasis deleted; internal quotation marks omitted). Section 201(b) at best gives the FCC general rulemaking authority. But the 1996 Act gives the state commissions the primary responsibility for conducting mediations and arbitrations and approving interconnection agreements. Indeed, as I have described, Congress set forth specific standards that the state commissions are to adhere to in setting pricing, § 252(d), and in approving interconnection agreements, § 252(e). The majority appears to believe that Congress expected that the FCC would promulgate rules to "guide the state-commission judgments." Ante, at 385. I do not agree. It seems to me that Congress consciously designed a system that respected the States' historical role as the dominant authority with respect to intrastate communications. In giving the state commissions primary responsibility for conducting mediations and arbitrations and for ap-
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