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                                May 8, 1997
                                           
           SEPARATE STATEMENT OF
                      
       COMMISSIONER RACHELLE B. CHONG
                      
Re:       Section 257 Proceeding to Identify and Eliminate Market
          Entry Barriers for Small Businesses: GN Docket 96-113,
          Report
      
     In our Report today, we reaffirm our commitment to
identifying and removing impediments experienced by women or
minorities in the telecommunications market.  In addition, we
announce that we plan to conduct a comprehensive study of the
participation of women and minority-owned businesses in the
telecommunications market.  Such a study is necessitated by the
Supreme Court's decision in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, in
which the Court held that the federal government's use of race-
based criteria for decision-making must satisfy the requirements of
strict scrutiny.

     Although I am pleased to see that we are once again
pledging to proceed with this Adarand study, I am concerned about
the length of time that it has taken to get the study underway.  In
July 1995, when we eliminated our race and gender-based bidding
preference for the PCS C Block auctions, we said that we were
considering the means that we should take to develop a
supplemental record that would support the use of race or gender
based preferences.   Since then, we have stated in a number of
decisions that we were working to develop this record.

     In this Report, we have committed to complete the auction
related portion of this study in time for our September 1997 section
309(j) report on auctions to Congress and to release the study
findings later this year.  I urge my colleagues to join with me in
making efforts to get this important study underway and completed
without further delay.