[inaudible conversations] are right. If i could is this on . If i get everyones attention, please. If we get everyone in, take a seat. We want, we want welcome great champion for our broad bands, for competition who served on committees of significant importance to our industry, on both on the technology, internet, all of the infrastructure. She serves on the Commerce Committee, Judiciary Committee education . Agriculture. Its like a quiz. Is the chair of the Senate Broadband caucus and the senate rules committee. How could i forget . But she is you know an important voice and t most important debates facing our country and our industry, and so were very talkful that she has come today about the issues of most importance to all of us in this room. So with no further ado, senator [applause] okay. Well, thank you, everyone and its wonderful t get off the field for a little bit, i will say. Theres a lot going on as you know we are not in a to be here. We also have been working on the budget somewhatpropos of our topic at hand of competition. I been working to try to make sure that the antitrust Division Topic of my talk today, gets funded as we believe senator be with the merger of the change that we passed on Something Like 88eight vote. If you only get that for of the, and so weve been working about some technical language thats in there here it all sounds really small ball but its really a ball. And so we have been trying to get that changed and thats been occupying my mind but now i get to come and see you and kind of go out for the forest for the trees and talk a little bit about all the work that you are doing and what needs to be donet we have strong competition in america. And want to thank chip andngie for inviting me, and i know theres reps from Great Plains Communications and metronet here. Where are you guys . Summer. There. Of course minnesotas in the back. Humble humble. Thank you so much. I did notice they were the audience members that were nodding their head thank you. So just so some of you know, my street cred still be here is i started out at a law firm. I was actually in years. Thats part of why i really care about competition. And one of big clients was mci. Actually changed law firms to keep representing them when there was a conflict. And i loved doing their work. Back then they were a really scrappy company. The federal law was in the midst of getting past and we were basically taking on the bell monopolies at the time to get into the market. The case had been done but it was a where they were actually doing the work. And i was loved some of the regulatory hearings which were maybe a little monday sometimes but i remember i told the story about when Alexander Graham bell, the first were decent as we all know when we got the as come here, watson, i need you. Right . That was a fuzzy set on the telephone. At the hearings i note that in the wild west world they were getting ready to relate the first communication between st. Louis and chicago, the investor erwin hirsch memorialized that great moment not exactly with Connie Watson i need you, but these words, ill be damned. It actually works. [lau9ugh■cing] and i know that many other companies and people you work with might feel the same way when new discoveries are made, when new innovations are made but the really drove me, that work with mci which i loved and started doing work for them all over the region before i became a prosecutor. It really, it drove me to be bin i got in the market. I also represent macaca medications by the way and has a blue see how that really spawned ce pw. ■r right . Before when they with the big bricks like the phone in wall street and how it brought downe lodistance charges in a big way. Thats what you wonder why kick and obsessed with making sure we still of competition in tech in the fields and we broadband people can access them, it is really driven from that experience and from seeing what it means when we have actual competition. Im also a big believer capitalism. I believe one of the ways you do that is, i make sure your guided thereby enforcement of our competition laws. It was one of grandfathers of want to get the words rightare, here, beware the unbridled por of monopolies. And we got remember that as a go forward. I actually wrote a book on all of this. It was called the antitrust, if remember, during the president ial campaign. My friend pete buttigieg, we truly are friends, we go back and forth a little bit in the debates, and since were on super tuesday i may as will■l commemorate that moment, one of the more amusing things is when we got done with the campaign pete wrote a New York Times trust, not to be outdone wunderlich i came up with my own two weeks on the noontime bestseller list book, antitrust. [laughing] that is actually true story. I want to talk about first of all incompas, your members have been great partners in effor to close the Digital Divide and bring fast, affordable, reliable and competitive highspeed Internet Access to eve mobile pn america. Your work is the bedrock of our digital economy, and we all know that c 2024 in the marketplace if you cant get online. Its about education. Its about healthcare. I visit all 87 counties in minnesota every year, some counties are so small i know every Single Person in the county, but it also does a lot of ruralncluding just about last month winners of four hockey days, all another store in war road, minnesota come just enoug tbeen a gold mey team in the olympics without a player from not just minnesota, from account of 1500 people were road. And went to some hospitals near their and the use of technology, if they are is phenomenal because they have realized a lot of their seniors some of this came out of the pandemic are much better off accessing from home now that youve learn to use it, or coming into more likely into the hospital, their rural hospital. They set it up. Because the primary doctor there, thats clinic, its clinics attached to the hospital and then they get a doctor from mail or someone else who talks them through whats going on. This is just an increasing use of technology mayo some of the last mile areas i would say that must have highspeed internet. And you see this with Mental Health care. The wazoo. All of the innovation going on that is for not going to be able to have a doctor with every specialty have Mental Health provider. Its a game changer but its not going to exist with the head if they dont have highspeed. I remember several hearings, i used examples of why we need highspeed to every household. My favorite was one of my colleagues i always use this example, i commit the mom of a High School Kid who had to do oa liquor store parking lot. Its a true story, right . I dont know if you want to keep talk about that kid going in the liquor store. Unlike know, that was the only place that had highspeed. No, they just didnt get it because i dont think of a lot areas. These are true stories of what goes on. The doctors who sit in the mcdonalds parking lot reading xrays. So that was why i was infrastructure law. I do want to thank my colleagues who worked on it. I worked on the broadband part because of the debt deal witn bk on, i mentioned that today because senator sinema has announced today shes not running again and i just want to for her work on that agreement and negotiating including this latest agreement where i worked extensively withvz help my afghan refugees, the 80,000 people who are here that are interpreters the worked with our troops that are still in limbo, and she w include that ie border bill. It got included and then unfortunately that part of it we will see anotherope because really important part but its just an example of the work she does every single day. So the bipartisan infrastructure law you to me that we go those extra last miles. Ive some counties in my state that maybe 20 dont have highspeed. At it having visited iceland went and saw that they the best highspeed internet next to sng just maybe we can get it on the Canadian Border where theres like no hills at all. So those are some of theb thins involved in this. You know the investment we see in states across the country, and also making it more affordable that program is already empowered over 20 million american households counting . Ine. Other things that ive worked on and believe in when it comes to fair competition, Net Neutrality. Since the communication act was enacted in 1934 congress always intended for the fcc to have the authority to ensure americans have reliable and stateoftheart communication service. As you know way back that meant telephone. Now it means broadband. For years Net Neutrality divided the framework to just do just that. It held large internet providers accountable for providing the connection consumers expect while promotingband networks. Its also a reason one of the reasons the internet became oney of the Great AmericanSuccess Stories transforming not only how we communicate also the Way Companies do business, how educate our kids. Ds and unfortunately, from my perspective, it was repealed in 2018. And i continue to believe we a t area and make sure that everyone is going to be able to access the internet on affordable basis, spatial with ai coming along. Ill get to that in a moment. Theres just a reason we want to make sure it continues to be accessible. Im glad this last year the fcc took the first steps toward restoring Net Neutrality, andi look forward to working w the commission along with Business Leaders from across the Telecom Sector to make sure we have a fair and open internet. Next up, privacy. I have always found that to be one of the more ironic things. I dont think you thought i would say■÷ that, in the lobbyig world of washington, d. C. In that when i first got to the senate no one really wanted to have a federal law but companies were lobbying against it. Its kind of an instructive for just kind of giving a little at the beginning and maybe thats a good way to be because it was all this lobbying against it and then you know what happens, right . We see it happen and then the states start having to fill in the void and so then one state think something is okay, thats okay, another state to something you hate, no, increasing of a patchwork of laws. Sonata number of the same companies are saying we need a federal privacy law, which i believed all along. Im still hopeful, im on senator cantwell ill. Theres a number of other proposals way back. I had a proposal with senator kennedy on these lines lit hope we are able to reach some kind of agreement so that we have a federal privacy law like so many other countries have. It would just make it a lot easier for everyone other things along these lines that i just hopeful we can move on, very soon is kids safety on the internet. You know we had that rather famous hearing recently, and i am myself im sort of done with the at people and i think we need to actually legislate and get something done. I think one of the issues thats so challenging for families with the internet right now is yes, whats on it on the platforms in terms of what the kids can see, and the need to do everything we arents be parents. Im glad were going to empower them with better tools and the like but i■a do get sometimes jt relying on it as the postage is trying to get the stuff off of their and monitor better ttechn. One mom told me she knows theres all these controls but she has three kids and every time she tries to get oneng on one platform, then another thing, the kid gets around it and then just to have older kids try to teach the younger kids what to do a s fined she said its just reminder like theres a a bigk in front of her and its overflowing all the time and teachers out there with a mop tryo it up, those were her words, not mine. And i think we just have to remember that as we look at how can we put in some laws tha these kids dont get exposed to really dangerous content. Its one of the reasons im working on safe the reven the ih dr. Singh where kids think their life is over because some has tricked them into sending a naked picture. Weve had 15 suicides according to the fbi of kids just this year, and that we just need come fentanyl laced pills, 30 of people that have exposure to fentanyl, we will have t do something on this kids front in addition to the privacy law and to be go into somewhat other stuff, go to talk about todayatk putting our heads in the sand because the privacy stuff is probably a great example that, if you wait so long and you do nothing, and thats what senator schumer and young and heinrich and rounds are trying to move on a eye. Not just a cohesive federal policy. Thats why on think we did some rules of the road. So im one of the few senators that attended nearly every session, i had a near perfect attendance record of ai. And maybe because of my background, the worknd appreciaa number of the companies have come forward and said we want to have some rules of the road in place when it comes to ai. And as you know we had been working with them as well as consumer groups, nonprofit groups and the like to try t ag. First and foremost, senator thune and i, neighbors in minnesota and south dakota, hes a little taller than me, have introduced kind of a base bill for nonsecurity ai, and and thatfor the federal government n it comes to number of companies and groups have endorsed this bill. We kind nonsecurity topics into two areas. One is is high impact, things that could be more infrastructu, criminal justice, biometric identification, identification for example, if using ai to improve efficiency we need to make sure the systems undergo rigorous testing. So put some higher staar uses o. And then a second group is the ones may be health care, education when we task mr. Pak which is widely believed to be the one that could do this with developing some of the standard with nist dash instead of expecting agencies will go off on their own pickup talk better federal agencies that seems a a little scary. So the idea that nist would be a coordinating force and you work at nist. Im kidding. He works at an agency. To be able to put those an up first. Other things. Voice scams primarily concern about this at protecting peoples identities and voices in general. I was just meeting with our veterans groups on this, andallt home her son is in the marines and at the time they got this call he was deployed and they did nowhere. It were not supposed to nowhere, and they get this call, her husband who is a recently retired reporter, and gets a call and its and their sons voice. Its been scraped off the internet and says dad, dad, im in trouble, i need your help, need your help. I think it was a grapple or if it was someone that was more naive than the somewhat cynical reporter, i think it mightve fallen for it but he immediately starts saying where are you . How can you be calling the . And then hung up. And so that is just one example and a talk to other families that are seen this so the scraped his voice off the internet and trying to suck the pair into sending money, which is what weve seen in a lot of places. So senator collins and i have teamed up to call the ftc and the fcc to raise awareness and prevent aiee more of this last thing ive been really focusing my work on ai and all of these things i hope will be included in this yet, you see them going to Start Talking about democracy [laughing] and okay,o, thank you, russia. Thats nice. [laughing] okay. So this is going to be like hair on fire problem if we dont do something about it. I believe fcc is going to try to use with the camp of their laws, and they have traditionally been pretty dysfunctional. They have been doing a few more things on a bipartisan basis lately with some of the newer pele we put on. I chair the rules committee, its inner jurisdiction. So im hopeful they will step up in some way. Will receive fcc and others, but the best thing would be as if we put in some clear roles in law when it comes to our election. And what weve seen so far is disturbing. New hampshire primary in january, fake robocalls using the president s voice to tell people not to vote. We now know that came out of a democratic campaign, although the candidate was not aware a me talked, i dont know. But that is a very kind of lukewarm little example, but just put it out where theres actual major forces trying to do this in a big way. And you could literally trick after voter after voter into thinking it is your own candidate last year, one republican president ial candidate released false ai generated images of former President Trump hugging dr. Fauci. u viral video of what appears to be my colleague Elizabeth Warren where she basically says republicans shouldnt be allowed to vote. It wasnt her but a l was. This is not ai but if you dont believe me how bad this is going to be, just three weeks ago, or two weeksve the horrific shooting, the murder of the two Police Officers in minnesota, they were killed and ed seven kids. Think of the kids out of the house and then they were shot the paramedic that went in, rn cpr was also killed. Well, a few days after that, photo goes out on the internet and it was a true picture of me at a rally, at a political rally Keith Ellison was in the photo. We actually have the picture which is not going to be normal when these things happen. And someone, and actually think it is for and interest based on the tax ive had on my advocacy on strong advocacy on they put e signs in the hands of everyone there. The police. I read the bill for cops funding and the senate the cops bill. But that thing went viral and finally had call x and facebook and actually we could show the actual photo which is most people end up with altered cotton, false content. There were some articles written and it basically went away. But thats just one example of that using ai, of the pure evil of what we are going to come out of this when it comes to democracy. So that is why two bills that i the rules committee. The first is to go after the really bad stuff, the deepfake we call it. That bill i have with hawley, and it actually bands the deepfakes. It has exceptions for things likee. Weve had it reviewed by democratic and republican lawyers, Susan Collins i iw your face over there. Susan collins is on the bill as well as many, many democrats, supported by democrats. Rickets is on the bill. Around with this on both sides if we dont have some clear rules in place. The other bill, its Yvette Clarke spill. Also worked on a bipartisan one right now with some other senators that i did mention but that is a labeling bill, right . Not like every■it is a problem. We had a hearing on and i kind of thought you dont want to like you change the color a little event produced by ai. Meaningless as a label. We are trying to capture that middle ground for things that are significant but they are nn. That is another bill that will be introduced i believe soon and similar has done a lot of work in the house. Just wanted to let you know i dont mean a bigger one thing on your mind to think it will become just a huge aspiratea hut get ahead of it. And get something books that which will enable the platform s down because. No, you have to have a label on this because, because as you know im not telling you a secret in the area politics, if they start going off and just making up their own stuff they may have to do if they wont have choice, its much better if it is submitted in legislation of what the rules of the road should be. So those are some of things that im working on right really excn state just of the expansion of highspeed. We have already seen what that means for people. Im a big believer that if you grew up in rural minnesota you should be able to live in rural minnesota. I love our small towns, and dont have access to highspeed internet. So for those of you on that area of work, i want of you in the kf tech provider side, thank you for all the great innovions that you have given us. And im just hopeful we are going to be able to come up with some rules of the road that actually work when i comes to the childrens issues that i mentioned, privacy, and when it comes to competition policy or news organizations. Theres just a lot of the things that in sitting there waiting for action, and i just think its time to kind of find some kind of compromise so we can■ move ahead, and hopefully ai will go out the first because we have to do that immediately and can be a model for us getting ahd of t of simply saying oh, weve gone years now, companies are no longer little startups in a Device Company in minnesota starts in a garage. And at what it was going to do . We dont have any rules in place. It just doesnt to run a railro. Someone who strongly believes in competition and capitalism, i want it to thrive in one way it thrives as ifeood about the businesses that they work with and you dont get ripped off and they dont have bad stuff happen and the kids dont get addicted to fentanyl. I could could go on and on. But weve got to just try to do actually, ill end with this, in the last year that was maybe not so aptly called the joy of politics. Just s sta our time. Actually came out on the same, it was announced the same day that bernies book w announced in my book is called the joy of politics and bernies book is called its okay to be angry at capitalism. True at the end of not this year the end of last year, and so i was desperately trying to get that afghan refugee bill i i just told you about done then. Lindsey graham was my lead author and its got you know, ricker, all these people on it, its a big, big d military to get this done. I just couldnt get attached to anything about just getting madder and madder and getting this way and obstacle that way. Ernie cant come up to me on the floor and going, wheres the joy . I dont see the joy. [laughing] so i hope i answered some of this for you today. There is a joy in supporting the great work that you do. There is joy in trying to find Common Ground because couge a longer just stand in an empty Senate Chamber and scream at people. Courage is whether or not you you dont always agree with for the betterment of this country. I hope you take those words and that joy with you, and im going to go back to that fund house■ right now. Thank you, everyone. [applause] there is love and joy■m and hope still in congress. We are thankful for senator klobuchar, our work, her commitment to competition and were very thankful that she came to share all other us today. Our next speaker is going to be another tremendous policymaker and leader,q congresswoman dors matsui. I dont know if shes here here she is. Now, we going to set up our chairs, doors, and then we will have the conversation. [inaudible conversations] could i have everyones attention . ■ and panels, and i want to thank you for, one, your work inss, te second year in a row that youve come to our policy summit. Right. And more importantly for all your good work in the energy, on the energy and Commerce Committee as the Ranking Member of the subcommittee that has most of the jurisdiction over all ofurpanies your thoughtful leadership, your good relationships across the aisle and this is kind of a time where the midst of modernizing every Single Network from copper to 5g, lowearth orbit satellites, fixed wireless newce marketplace. Our technology and Internet Companies have just had the commercial generative ai applications. A lot is happening and you are in the midst of everything. Id like to ask you to start, youve been a great leader onhes deployments over all the different years. You have a great staffer in flynn tell me what you think about the spectrum strategy that ntia has done but more important the congressional efforts auctie fcc . Well, thank you very much, skip. You know, i really feel you were one of the reasons why i like to come here. You know, hes really wonderful as you all know. I remember you in the house pics easy to work with. And in technology basically its not really political. Many times it might be regional but on its not political to a degree. And we find Common Ground probably much more easily than other committees might. But i must say that this is an interesting time. But we say that about almost any sector now. At a moment in time when things have so drastically changed. I think particularly since we all experienced the horrible pandemic. People started thinking a little bit differently, and young people in particular are[f lookg at the things that we do all the time in much more different ways. And as you know they are far more advanced than we are. They understand these things much more quickly. They pick up these devices and they know what to do. They exploit. Sometimes the export much more than we want them to explore and then we have to get involved. But i must say that it is a thrilling time, too. I dont know whether i can bring joy as senator klobuchar says, but i really feel that this particular area of technology as it impacts everything in our lives is is such an interesting■ place to be. Theres nothing that technology does not impact. I think that is thrilling but i also believe it is really ry to look at various things that might impact various sectors and he it geo be overwhelming. But we have to be engaged. The world is moving so quickly. I know were talking spectrum. Mo what spectrum . Whats spectrum . But now more people know what spectrum is, and were trying to do with it. Obviously we dont like the fact that the Spectrum Authority has lapsed. Thats not a good thing and its been almost a year and we do have to do something about it. It is unconscionable. It affects innovation. It affects our global leadership. It affects everything we tried to do. Its very fundamental. And i have to say that whats happened with, i have hope though, because with a National Spectrum strategy and also the president we have a way to actually start doing things. And because ive always said that when it comes to spectrum governments, the United States has to speak with one voice, particularly today. We dontf different voices. And i believe thats what the president memorandum has done. Iji mean, whats trying to virtually tied to bring, and power ntia to really bring the federal agencies together, to ah the spectrum we have available to maximize its use. Its very limited. And then with the National Spectrum strategy is to look at what might be available there and really looking at what might be really, really ready for some sort of use, right . So with the two of them i think we have a lot of opportunity to move forward. I like the fact that we are now looking at this as being something that is so important to all of we are aiming our way into it right now. And my understanding there with the implementation soon, of strategy or plan moving forward which will really help us particularly as we move forward. So were looking at. H t positiv. And obviously we are hoping that we can do anything we can to ensure that, inticular, we get off the dime on some of these things, the lower three. And the chairman and ive written both dod and ntia to say lets figure out where you are. Woul likeo b engaged as much as possible. This is a time that we really have to decide that we have to anything we can do to have that conversation we are available. So were looking forward to that. And i said that in a very hopeful manner because it took some time to get to this place. So now we kind of our focus on one needs to done, particularly with those two agencies. We ended the last session on joy, and you brought in the first minutes hope. To the session. Reality . One of the important aspects of the spectrum auction authority, the it could help us solve other problems, not only our global leadehip and 5g, 5g and beyond wireless deployments, but it could also help pay for important critical programs like the acp. Sure. Or rip and replace. Anything would like to add on . Well, you know, those are two critical programs, we all know that. I have not had some p to me, jul constituency at home, then mikea the acp. It has reached the people that know that they need the connectivity. It is probably the most important connectivity weve had in history, reaching 23 million households, just an awful lot. In areas difficulty. And when you think about what happened during the pandemic and the lack of connectivity, people embrace this. You can have access but if you dont have affordability, you dont get to the right place, people dont get it at all. So now it is so important to make sure that we dont lose the funding that we, in april, so were looking at this as something that is an emergency. We need to get some stopgap funding for this. I think its criticaiml thatng t is, you know, many times we do things in congress where people done, right . Thats what happens a lot of the times because they dont see the effects of it right away. With acp they that we owe that to our constituents to get this done. And i realize we need to make is moment in time lets at least try to make sure the funding continues. I think we have s■sz÷ething whef the year, thats not enough but on the other hand, lets try to get that done. I am a member of the usf of us. We are trying to look to see how we can make a usf better but also to findo make acp or systema president having to wait all the time for appropriations. So were doing that and we hope to come up with something, but you know how it is for that. Thats a huge deal so it will take time. So as we work on that we have to doesnt lapse for acp. There are so many people committed to this. Itse, and we want to make sure that theres something that when the constituents really feel it and ask for it, we have to respond. And were really ready to try to fight for this. Earlier today senator lujan game speed is my partner in a lot of this. Yes. He also enjoyed the trouble and mischief together. But he said that a package that would extend acp come believes that well get to the senate. The question is can it■ can we find a vehicle in the next few weeks as we have the appropriation and different funding bills so that the hope be actual and realize . I think as you know its more challenging in the house. But having said that though, a lot of this acp funding has been, well, lets face it. Doesnt matter whether youre a red state or a blue state. Everybody loves us here. Most in my district has always been urban. It is still mostly urban. But now in the last redistricting i have a huge rural area of large territory many people but wonderful small farmers, big phrmas, towns, hamlets and things like that where i talk with them and listen here they really need this connectivity and they know what it can do for them in their persona lives, in the business lives. Its a sense for the young people to really get the sense and be able to connect in wayses they never could connect before. And so im working with my rural colleagues. It is so important. Ive i have an urban area, i should say mostly urban, but urban areas and rural areas have to Work Together pick becaus have in urban areas many unserved, event in the rural areas you know, they are not serve at all. We all have a reason to be engaged in this, and i really feel particularly when you think about it, it is reallymany of td governors of rural areas, rural ces are in all favor of this. So i think we are going to make sure that this becomes louder and louder. As you know sometimes you have to many, many voices here and just like the person who came up to me at a local concert, he was there because someone gave him a ticket. He was a senior, and he came up to me and said, congresswoman, what do you do with acp . I thought we, he acp. But then there are other people can represent are you talking to her about the acp . We need that funding. Listen company, when i have people like that come up to me at a concert, its got out there far and wide. So im using that, and i listen. You need to speak. You need to be able to talk to people in a sense, you of smalltown newspapers, you can talk. Lets blow this up in a sense so people understand exactly what this means. You know, one part of the acp than most people dont realize, are our Member Companies like sonic in San Francisco that is rated as the best isp with the highest speeds, is a competitive fiber to the home and just tremendous story of one of our Member Companies, but acp is very important for them to deploy new networks. Because they can create a Business Model and the Business Case that if they deploy everywhere and people can afford it, and■< acp allows for the big Business Plan and financing to deploy to all neighborhoods in all parts of or town. Thats right. And sometimes people forget that very important component, and thats true whether its in it really helps or sacramento, if it helps us to play the networks. ■ it does create new businesses and its a huge economic develop aspect of that. I realize we can emphasize the other side of it at that side of it is really important, too. Thats why we get so much support. Now weve got any sense to make sure everybody understands i so that might be something we talk about even more now. Thank you. One other area where youve really been a cmp is on 12 giga. The proceeding at the sec which is look at whether we can have highpowered to weigh fixed. Theres another company from california thats a a Great Success story called toronto that the best examples of how much improvement we havn technologies that minimize interference that maximize propagation capacity and speeds, and we are seeing rapid adoption of fixed wireless broadband around the country. Sure. And as we have a huge infusion of historic funding, if we can also have a tremendous infusion of new spectrum and behind the band, and 12 is a stat opted. It does, it does, it really does and i been talking about thve gets an opportunity because this limited spectrum, we know that. This is another way ofe to lookt everything. And in essence we are a very Creative Society we have a lot better, and where do we have to find new spectrum. Im all in at this because we just really need to do it. I the chairman rosenworcel to make sure lets try to push this out and really thinkut it even much more intentionally. I know some of the 12 gigahertz people have made some kind agreement with i guess the cher this, which i think is really critical because they really i think they can work on this thing and i think would bee how good this could be. Im hoping thats just one example as we move forward. Well, we thank you for your leadership on that. It means a lot to our Member Companies as we been running the coalition. Member how many years weekly that the record is complete, the time is now. You have now joined senator nown, senator blackburn and you and quickly pick so we appreciate the bipartisan, bicameral support of getting 12 approved for to weigh fixed. We do think the timing is essential because it coiid fedeh the deed and if we can get the convergence of spectrum in the market and private and funding, it can do a lot of good. No, its huge. Closing the digital■s divide. We have to grab the moment. We have funding opportunities now that we are ever going to have. We need to take advantage of that and all the great thinkers are thinking about what we do here, and im excited about what we can do now. And we have to be all in on this. You know, weve got an fcc, its a full fcc net and i think were going to compel them tota working hard on these things because we have, when you think about it, you know, the young people of thi morning a center for in Public Policy and responsibility. We have a number of university, academic, industry, government leaders who will be on the advisory board. Anything that you would like to leave the audience on ai, best practices, Public Policy, tremendous benefit but alsoe wet as senator klobuchar said, some of the misuse and abuse at the things that could damaging, both to our children and to our democracy. Any words of advice to us as we get started . Well, you know, its think anyone really thought about ai until we had chatgpt, right . That wasnt that long ago, and yet ai has been involved in our system for a very long time. And weeed it. Think about some f the damage that social media has come around, particularly of hesitates. Lets try to avoid all of that. But as difficult as we know, and i t w all have to look at what the harm could be and answered some guardrails, but also understand that there are ways that i can help, particularly i look at health care. You look at the many scientists and researchers who are lookingy to look at the whole range of what is happening, and yet implement thing or using ai to see where the research is and what type of outcome or possibilities might happen, it is really remarkable, particularly now when we think about in this time we have s gog at how do we solve some of this as far as some of the Health Problems that we have in the you look at energy and you look at the way we use ai in many of the Energy Things pipes ande, tl of this. Thats really, sector by sector you can see where its been implemented. Its just that when we get to the point where we wonder whether the fear is that whether our jobs will be taken, and once that gets into what people are thinking about, all of a suddenf what can we do to ensure as human beings we can control our ive. And there is that fear that comes through, so theres that and then theres the fact that theres a practical element to all of this. I like to be involved in the way we look at this in a way that is intentional and reasonable about how we can use ai. ■f■i we need to have a conversation with a lot people, the american peoples parents what this really means. I have a good friend whose daughter had been involved in social media and she was on all of these, you know, chat things very much influenced by the whole thing and she he couldnt do anything about it, took the psychologists and had to talk to her friends and he is at the point where anything that comes up, anything new, like with ai, hes constantly texting me and saying, youve got to stop it, youve got to stop it. Thats really not the answer, but i can understand the fear. So thats a lot of what we have to deal with. We dont want irrational fear to really get in the way, but we do need guardrails. We need to have understanding and teachers involved in this. We need to have people who actually work with other people to say, this is what we do with where it can go awry. The Human Element is really, really concerning to me and we have to figure out how to put it together in a wayhet with so the good things that can happen with ai and probably more of understanding about what other sectors are us with our lives an try to bring in what we need to do in order to protect ourselves and our ■lchildren, too. Thats a long way of saying that were just at the beginning of this here that we cant have fear overrun us. Weve also got to be very, very careful and we know there have to be guardrails here and we understand that part of it. As we kd of finish up, you know, our conversation. I think thats a good place to end. Okay. I think its wise counsel and thoughtful approach as we, you know, weve seen from the commercial internetou. Yeah. I think google 1998, that its hard to cprd what the early days of the commercial internet and all of the things that its brought to individual, every community, every sector, every part of our daily lives now. Ai is going to be just as pervasive and just exactly. And it will be so for the next decades to come and so, i look forward to working with you, trying to get it right, and trying to take an approach thats thoughtful. That brings in all the stake holders and gives our policy makers like you the best information possible as you make the decisions and we really appreciate your wisdom and your servi. Well, thank you. Let me just say that its like ive always felt that i needed to work with everybody. Because i need to hear the voices. Policy makers can just talk to each other and get nowhere because we need to hear from all of you and just like the parent who called me up or the person that came about acp. We dont know everything. So we need to hear from you and thats really very important in this world today in particular because its complicated. But we dont want it to become so■d confusing that we cant fd a way out and solve some of these problems and move forward in a very optimistic way. Thats why ive always felt being a policy maker is can be challenging, but it can be t too, as we all Work Together to try to make sure that the people we love, our communities, and our country can move forward in a way that shows not only the fact that we believe in each other, but we also believe in how important our country is in showing leadership to the world, too. I think thats really critical for all of us. Osed the last two sessions on joy and hope and thats a good place to be. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. [applause] all right, so were going to quickly set up. We have two more panel■s■8 a then we have a reception to follow after the last two panels. [inaudible conversations] q4 please welcome the next president of the United States, president donald j. Ru