Cite as: 525 U. S. 366 (1999)
Opinion of Breyer, J.
1109 (arguing that the FCC's prohibition of Ramsey pricing will "minimize rather than maximize consumer welfare"). The FCC disfavors Ramsey pricing, but it does not explain why a contrary judgment would conflict with the statute or otherwise be arbitrary or unreasonable.
These examples do not show that the FCC's rules themselves are unreasonable. That question is not now before us, and I express no view on the matter. The examples simply help explain why the FCC's rules could not set forth the only ratesetting system consistent with the Act's objectives. The FCC's regulations do not set forth an outer envelope surrounding a set of reasonable choices; instead, they constitute the kind of detailed policy-related ratesetting that the statute in respect to local matters leaves to the States.
* * *
Two Terms ago the Court held that Congress could not constitutionally require a state sheriff to fill out a form providing background information about a buyer of a gun. Printz v. United States, 521 U. S. 898, 935 (1997). Dissenters in that case noted that the law deprived the States of a power that had little practical significance. See id., at 961 (opinion of Stevens, J.); id., at 977 (opinion of Breyer, J.). Today's decision does deprive the States of practically significant power, a camel compared with Printz's gnat. The language of the statute nowhere reveals any "clear and manifest purpose," Rice, 331 U. S., at 230, that such was Congress' intent. History, purpose, and precedent all argue to the contrary. I would hold that, in respect to local ratesetting, the FCC's reach has exceeded its legal grasp.
II
I agree with the Court's disposition of the FCC's "un-bundling" rules. As earlier explained, the Act seeks to introduce competition into local markets by removing legal barriers to new entry, by requiring interconnection, by re-
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