The mesh rescue plan did, what it means to put infrastructure dollars back into the economy, all of that which was helpful in terms of putting people back to work, get through this pandemic, making sure were rebuilding this country. More has to be done still but in terms of age, theres not much difference between donald trump and joe biden. Host one more question about the president. He says hes visiting striking workers, striking with them thank you everyone for being here. It was more than three years ago when the covid virus reached our shores and upended our everyday life. I thought it was bewildering. We were told to stay home, hunker dunn and live life online. Soy grabbed what i thought was important at work and i moved my office to my dining room table. At home i kept changing the location of the wifi router, feverishly trying to identify the sweet spot where the signal would reach everyone in my family. We had two parents, two kids, two jobs, and a toocrowded house with all of us on the internet all the time. It was a lot. And we were lucky. Because so many others were digitally disconnected. We had people sitting in cars in parking lots, to catch a free wifi signal for work and health care appointments. We had kids lingering outside of fast food restaurants with laptops just to go online for class. We had cities and towns fearful they would never thrive without new efforts to extend broadband to their residents and businesses. As a nation, we we responded to this crisis with extraordinary action. We made a historic commitment to broadband for all. Congress invested tens of billions of dollars into building Internet Networks and making access more affordable and equitable. Culminating in an investment of 65 billion in the bipartisan infrastructure law. The f. C. C. Is a big part of that effort to close the Digital Divide and that includes our efforts to map where broadband is and is not across the country and our efforts to assist 21 million households getting online and staying online through the affordable connectivity program. But you know, the pandemic did Something Else. It made Crystal Clear that broadband is no longer just nice to have. Its need to have for everyone, everywhere. Its not a luxury. Its a necessity. It is essential infrastructure for modern life. No one without it has a fair shot at 21st century success. We need broadband to reach 100 of us and we need it to be fast, open, and fair. Yet even as our society reconfigured itself to do so much online our institutions havent always kept up. Today, there is no Expert Agency ensuring that the internet is fast, open, and fair. Since the birth of the modern internet, the f. C. C. Has played that role and if you think about it it makes sense. These are principles that have deep origins in Communications Law and history. After all, back in the era when communications meant telephony each and every call went through, the phone company couldnt cut you off from your call or edit the content of your conversation. Now fast forward to the present. Communications means a whole lot more than just phone calls. It means access to the internet because broadband is the most important infrastructure of our time but as a result of the previous decision to abdicate authority, the Agency Charged with overseeing communications has limited ability to eversee indispensable networks and make sure that for every consumer their access is fast, open and fair. I think thats not right. Because for everyone, everywhere, to enjoy the full benefits of the internet age, Internet Access should be more than just accessible and affordable. The internet needs to be open. And thats what i want to talk about today. The internets open design is revolutionary. It is right there at its foundation. It means creating without permission. Building community beyond geography. Organizing without physical constraints. Consuming content where you want it and when you want it. And cultivating ideas not just around the corner but across the globe. I believe it is essential that we sustain this foundation of openness and thats why, since i have served at the f. C. C. I have always supported Net Neutrality. At this point, i think its worth acknowledging that Net Neutrality is one of the most widely discussed issues in telecommunications policy. But the debate around it often yields more heat than light. So im going to keep my comments on the history here short but focused on the basics. So roll back before the pandemic. Before the smartphone era. Before the Washington Football Team called itself the commanders. Lets start in 2005. That was when the f. C. C. Adopted its first open internet policy statement which was built on policies that had long been in Communications Law and history. The agency made clear that when it came to Net Neutrality, consumers should expect that their broadband providers would not block, throatle or engage in paid prioritization of lawful internet traffic. In other words, your broadband provider has no business cutting off access to websites, slowing down Internet Services, and censoring online speech. Your broadband provider was not allowed to play favorites like steering you to some Online Service that had given them a payout and assigning you to a bumpy road for those who had not offered up the same pay. As a consumer, you can go where you want and do what you want online without your broadband provider getting in the way or making choices for you. After 10 years of policymaking and what i think were, when i count, three rounds of litigation, in 2015 the f. C. C. Finally, finally adopted Net Neutrality protections that were upheld by the courts. The f. C. C. Had produced open internet policies that passed judicial muster. We had clear rules of the road and those rules were popular. 80 of americans support open internet and Net Neutrality policies. So, this looked like it was going to be the end of the net knew tallty saga. But not so. Because in 2017, the last administration took it up again and did something different. It announced that it would break with over a decade of consistent f. C. C. Policy and repeal the f. C. C. s open internet rules, the ones that were held up by the court. Now the public backlash was overwhelming. Maybe you remember it. People lit up our phone line, clogged our email inbobbings and jammed our online Comment System to express their disapproval. And despite this overwhelming opposition from the public, the f. C. C. Repealed Net Neutrality. In fact, the f. C. C. s actions were so extreme the United States senate voted to restore the agencys open internet protections. Now i believe this repeal of Net Neutrality put the f. C. C. On the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the american public. It was not good then, and it makes even less sense now. It determines that the infrastructure which the pandemic proved is think thats. So today we going a process to make it right. This afternoon, im sharing with my colleagues rule making that proposes to reinstate Net Neutrality. This is the first step. When we vote on this rule making well invite Public Comments about how restoring Net Neutrality rules can help ensure Internet Access is fast, open, and fair. We will need to develop an updated record to identify the best ways to restore these policies and have a uniform National Open internet standard. Now, i recognize that were kicking off this rule making and that will be the headline today. But while i have your attention, theres Something Else i want to share with you about this process and this policy today. The repeal of Net Neutrality rules was problematic not only because it wiped away enforceable brightline policies to prevent block, throttling and paid prioritization. It was problematic because what the agency did reversed the decision to oversee broadband as an Internet AccessTelecommunications Service under title ii of the Communications Act. Well, it had a lot of downstream consequences and i think we should talk about them. That last sentence is complicated. I realize if you are not from washington, its a little hard to unpack. So let me do it for you. Title ii is a part of the law that gives the f. C. C. Clear authority to serve as a watchdog over the communications marketplace. And look out for the Public Interest. Title ii took on special importance in the Net Neutrality debate because the courts have ruled that the f. C. C. Has clear authoritytone force open internet policies. If Broadband Internet is classified as a title ii service. And providing a Strong Foundation for Net Neutrality rules is a good reason to support classifying Broadband Internet as a title ii service. But again there are downstream consequences that flow from the agency retreat trg title ii and they need attention so let me explain. Back to the pandemic. It made clear that broadband see entcial essential infrastructure for modern life. Access to the internet is now access to everything and commonsense tells us the nations leading Communications Watchdog should have the muscle it needs to protect consumers and make sure their Internet Access is fast, open, and fair. Commonsense also tells us a thing or two about the state of competition in the broadband marketplace. Im a big believer in the power of competitive markets to drive innovation, investment, and consumer benefits. But i also recognize the high cost of entry makes competition a challenge in many places. That is why almost half of us have High Speed Service with 100megabits per second download speed and only half of us can get it from more than a single provider. On one fifth of the country has more than two choices at this speed. So if your broadband provider mucks up your traffic, messes around with your ability to go where you want and do what you want online, you cant just pick up and take your business to another provider. That provider may be the only game in town. You need a referee on the field looking out for the Public Interest. And ensuring that access is fast, open, and fair. On one issue after issue, classifying broadband as a title ii service would help the f. C. C. Serve the Public Interest more efficiently and effectively. So lets start with Public Safety. In a in its remand of the f. C. C. s decision to roll back Net Neutrality the court found its disregard of its duty to analyze the impact of Public Safety renders the decision arbitrary and capricious. I agree. The record before the court demonstrated that when firefighters in santa clara, california, were responding to wildfires they discovered that the Wireless Connectivity on their command vehicle was being throttled. As a result of title ii repeal, the f. C. C. Didnt have any authority to intervene and fix it. Title ii would also bolster our authority to require Internet Service providers to address internet outages. This issue really hit home for me when i visited detroit last year. I heard about hope village. A neighborhood of nearly 7,000 people that went through a 45day internet outage in the pandemic with little recourse. Remember, when the f. C. C. Backed away from overseeing broadband, it meant that the only mandatory outage reporting system we could have in place is focused on Long Distance voice outages. Let me submit to you, in a modern economy and during the pandemic, collecting only day 25 ability when the voice system goes down just doesnt cut it. Look at National Security. The f. C. C. Has take on a series of bipartisan actions to reduce our dependence on Insecure Communications equipment and to keep potentially hostile actors from connecting to our networks. This is good. But it is not enough to keep our adversaries at bay. Today, when we take away authorization to provide service in the United States from state affiliated companies who may wish to do us harm, we take away what is known as section 214 authority. But remember, thanks to the retreat from title ii in the last administration that authority does not cover broadband. This is a National Security loophole that needs to be addressed. Look at Cyber Security. The f. C. C. Is actively involved in federal interagency Cyber Security planning, coordination and response activities. You want the Expert Agency with all sorts of knowledge about Network Technology to be sitting at that table. But without reclassification the f. C. C. Has limited authority to incorporate updated Cyber Security standards into its network policy. Then look at Network Resilience and reliability. We want to make sure that our Communications Networks hold up during emergency situations like natural disasters. Title i could help us better monitor the degradation of service in times of emergency with the kind of required outage reporting i mentioned earlier. Then look at privacy. The law requires Telecommunications Providers to protect the confidentiality of the proprietary information of their customers. That means these providers cannot sell your location data among other sensitive information. These privacy protections currently extent to phone various customers but not to broadband subscribers because title ii does not cover the latter. Does that really make sense . Do we want our broadband providers selling off where we go and what we do online . Scraping our service for a payday from new Artificial Intelligence models . Doing any of this without our permission . Then look at broadband deployment. As a nation we are committed postpandemic to building broadband for all so keep in mind that when you can instruct these you can construct these facility, utility poles are really important. Title ii gives cable and Internet Companies rights to attach to utility pole whence they deploy service. When the f. C. C. Rolled back open internet rules it eliminated the pole attachment right of broadbandonly providers. If you really wont want buildout and competition this is not good. It needs to be fixed. Then look at robo texts. Along with robo calls theyre a big source of consumer complaints. One thing we have learned about the bad actors behind this jung is they are continuously evolving their technologies to reach us with their scams and fraud. Title ii authority would give us the maximum flexibility to count they are fraud and evolve our approaches as technology changes. To be clear, the f. C. C. Is actively engaged in all of these issues but at times it can require duct tape and bailing wire to jerry rig the justifications to make sure all our actions are on sound legal footing. It doesnt always work. And it renders unnecessarily vulnerable some of our most important security objectives. Reclassification of broadband as a title ii various would make the f. C. C. Work more efficient and effective and consumer more confident that their Internet Access to fast, open, and fair. On top of this, restoring our open internet policies will mean that a uniform legal frame wrkwork applies to the whole country. Because if you think that nothing much has happened since the f. C. C. Retreated from our Net Neutrality policies and are asking yourself whats the big deal . Think again. Then look harder. Because when the f. C. C. Steps back from having these policies in place, the courts said the states could step in. But when washington withdrew, california rode in with its own regime. Other states too. They put Net Neutrality rules in state laws, in executive orders and in contracting policies. So in effect we have open internet policies that providers are abide big right now, theyre just coming from sacramento and places like it. But when you are dealing with the most essential infrastructure in the digital age, we benefit from having a National Policy. All of this means that we are choosing between Net Neutrality and no rules, well, thats a false choice. Because what were really discussing are having one National Standard or patchwork of state regulations. Having gone through this drill before i know theres a small but vocal chorus of naysayers who is surely already raising objections. They say title ii is heavy handed. And if we are seeking comment on anything like applying title ii broadband in its entirety id say they have a point. But were not doing that. Were approaching it with a light touch. Back in 2015, when the f. C. C. Last had Net Neutrality policies upheld by the court the f. C. C. Chose to fore bear from 27 provisions of title ii of the Communications Act and over 700 Agency Regulations for broadband and broadband providers. We are sticking with that approach. They say this is a stocking horse for rate regulation. No. No how, no way. We know this is the best way for competition. This is the best way to make sure service is affordable for all. They say nothing bad has happened. States stepped into the void created by the f. C. C. Retreating from Net Neutrality. I think its time for washington to step back in with a National Policy to make sure Internet Access is fast, open, and fair. All right. So what happens next . On thursday, i will release the full text of this rule making. It seeks comment and putting back in place policies to prevent your broadband provider from engaging in block, throttling and paid prioritization. Along with a general conduct rule that prohibits your broadband provider from unreasonably interfering or unreasonably disadvantaging consumer from going where they want and doing what they want on the internet. Now for consumers this means internet openness, security, safety, and one nationwide Net Neutrality standard they can count on. Three weeks from now on october 19, ill ask my colleagues to vote and if we get at least three votes, we will kick off this rule making and i promise you i will do a lot of listening. We all need to have an open mind. And would all benefit from a fresh record on this subject. Now as we move forward, i want to make one lars plea. I have ever expectation that this process will get messy at times. I have in fact been to this rodeo before. And i believe peaceful protests are a sign of a healthy democracy. What i worry about is when things get ugly. In the past when this subject came up, we had Death Threats against chairman pai and his family. That is completely unacceptable. And im grateful to the Law Enforcement that brought the individual behind these threats to justice. We had fake bomb threats called in to disrupt a vote. I know, i was there. We had protesters blocking chairman wheeler in his drive droi, keeping him from his car and we saw a dark effort to tear down a proNet Neutrality candidate for the agency. I recognize that those who go to these extremes are not listening or reading these remarks. But those of you who are, set the tone for the debate. Make some noise. Raise a ruckus. But keep it in the lines. Above all, keep speaking up. We are here now because so many people let the agency know that this issue matters. We are here now because the covid pandemic caught us with painful clarity just how important Broadband Access is in modern life. In the United States we have now made a historic commitment to make sure that high speed Internet Access reaches all. We have invested in this infrastructure like never before. Now lets make sure its fast, open, and fair for consumers everywhere. Thank you. [applause] the house is currently scheduled to gavel back in at 4 30 eastern today to consider whether to block a Biden Administration education policy and to extend several veterans programs. Current government funding expires at midnight on saturday. Later, members will start debate on four separate yearlong spending bills, some 440 amendments to the defense, homeland security, agriculture and state foreign operations measures are covered under the rule being considered today. In the meantime, Senate Leaders are considering a shortterm continuing resolution to avert a shutdown that contains little or no additional money for ukraine. Its not clear if Speaker Mccarthy would bring that c. R. To the house floor due to potential objections of conservative lawmakers. As always, live coverage of the house here on cspan. And of course the senate on cspan2. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] a healthy democracy doesnt just look like this, it looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work, when systems are truly enforced, democracy thrives. Get informed, straight fromthe source, on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, wordforword. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. Because the opinion that matters most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. This year, book tv marks 25 years of shining a spotlight on reading nonfiction authors and their books. With talks from more than 22,000 authors, nearly 900 cities and festivals visited and 16,000 events. Book tv is provide has provided viewers with 92,000 hours of programming on the latest literary discussions on history, politics, and biographies. Watch book tv every sunday on cspan2 or online at booktv. Org. Book tv. 25 years of television for serious readers. President biden joined members of the United Auto Workers union on the picket line in wayne county, michigan. Workers are in the 12th day of strikes demanding higher wages and Better Benefits from three auto companies, general motor, ford and stellantis. The president s visit happened one day before leading republican president ial candidate donald tru