Leadership Quote by Frank Lautenberg

Lautenberg’s line lands like a pocket-sized brief for why broadband policy is economic policy. “Municipal networks” sounds technocratic, but he immediately translates it into the language that wins arguments in Washington: opportunity. That first clause is doing coalition work, framing city-run internet not as a public-sector indulgence but as infrastructure that unlocks jobs, entrepreneurship, and investment. In a debate often derailed by ideology (“government versus markets”), he sidesteps the purity test and plants the flag in outcomes.

The second sentence is the rhetorical hinge. “We’ve got to” carries the moral pressure of necessity, not preference. Then he chooses a blunt, physical metaphor: doors. It’s a classic American image of mobility, but it also smuggles in a critique of gatekeeping. “Open new doors” positions local governments as builders of access; “slam them shut” implies someone else is actively trying to block it. The unnamed antagonist matters: it lets him condemn state laws and industry-backed restrictions without getting trapped in a brand-name fight with telecom incumbents. The subtext is clear: if you preempt municipal broadband, you’re not defending competition, you’re defending scarcity.

Contextually, the quote sits in the 2010s clash over whether cities could build their own networks when private providers under-served them, and whether states should outlaw those projects. Lautenberg’s intent is to reframe that conflict as a choice between enabling local self-help and enforcing dependency. In two sentences, he makes “local control” sound like the market-friendly option.