[applause] good afternoon. Thank you to everyone for being here today. You got me somewhere between senator and the Deputy Attorney general. So its a treat to be back at the state of the net conference and a special thank you to the Internet Education Foundation for having me and thank you for the good work you do to foster conversation about internet policy. Upfront i think i need a disclaimer. As a commissioner at the fcc speaking at the state of the net Conference Im going to defy some expeditions today. Im not going to t neutrality. I support Net Neutrality and i voted against last months decision to go back those rules and i made a ruckus and there is no shortage of place where you can read my heated and sometimes fiery take on what happens. But today instead of talking about the substance of Net Neutrality i want to use it as a launching pad and i want to go big and discuss policymaking in the internet era. I want to talk about some shortcomings in our Civic Infrastructure because i think we need to make real changes if we want to give the public a fair shot at getting through to those who make decisions in washington. Yeah that is lofty stuff so let me start small. Let me start with three quick stories about three individuals. For story, ketchikan is the largest city in southern alaska and fight largest city i mean it got 8000 residents. Ketchikan is nestled right at the entrance to alaskas Inside Passage which is the network of waterways which provide access to some of the states most idyllic scenery. Areas known for its thriving fishing industry and for having the World Largest collection of standing totem poles and the misty national monument. No surprise its a regular stop on the cruise ship circuit. The charm of this area brought carl up from the lower 48 when in 1995 he assumed the position of ketchikans chief admonition of officer and for more than two decades he has quietly helped run the city ensuring that residents get the service they need from local authority. He was surprised in december when the local Radio Station found his name on a comment in the fcc Public Record asking the agency to repeal Net Neutrality. As he told the station he deftly did not submit a comment and poking around a bit more the station found that just shy of 900 comments were submitted to the fcc from little old ketchikan. As in other official in the city its really unlikely that so many Public Comments were authored by the residents of this little alaskan inlets they look fake and something looks wrong. Second story. Jessica lives in new york and thats in upstate about midway between utica and syracuse. It has one Elementary School and one very active Boy Scout Troop and jessica is an assistant scoutmaster. Its a role she takes seriously. As part of her commitment to the troops she says she is very careful not to express political position to the scouts she oversees. She was surprised and angry to find her identity had been stolen and used it to file a comment in the fcc record regarding Net Neutrality. She asked quite plainly how the hell is this possible . Third story. Lake bluff is located in northern illinois, a little more than an hour north of chicago. Its a pictureperfect midwestern smalltown complete with a Village Green and a little beach along the shores of lake michigan. In fact, during the First World War it was proclaimed the most patriotic town in america for the efforts of its residents to support our troops abroad. Donna made her home in lake bluff and in june of this year she filed a comment in the fcc record and it began hello, i like to comment on internet freedom. She went on to ask the agency asked it to repeal its Net Neutrality calling them and exploitation of the open internet and this stunning this stunning because she died more than 12 years ago. Those are three brief tales and those stories are not unique because people from across the country from every political persuasion have found their names and addresses and identities stolen and used to file fake comments in the fcc Net Neutrality. They include senator jeff merkley, usa today communist edward, deceased actress patty duke, 13 yearold in Northern New York and a 96 yearold world war ii veteran in southern california. At last 2 million individuals have been the victims of theft with filings in a record that they never wrote, sent or authorized. These comments are not the only odd and nearly half a million come from russian email addresses just under 8 million comments were submitted and this is not subtle fake mail generator. Com. Over 1 million comments were designed to make it appear like unique submissions everywhere you look there is something strange. Working with retirement accounts to act in the best interest of their clients. The fiduciary role as its known and played it the full implementation next year in 2019. In the meantime the department of labor is gathering feedback on the likely impact of this role. On one hand youve got Insurance Companies and Brokerage Firms who contend that it could add new cost to make it harder to serve clients who have small nest eggs. On the other hand consumer groups point out that without this rule in place retirees could be saddled with purchasing Investment Products with high commissions that are not actually in their best interests. The backandforth the department of labor has been and among the comments you will find one from Robert Shubert of death in pennsylvania that thanks krysta layer he opposes the fiduciary role. He writes, i do not need, do not want an object to any federal interference in my Retirement Planning. But this filing was a fraud. Confronted with that Robert Schumer said he was disgusted people could post comments using his name but his experience is not unusual. A brave survey conducted by the wall street journal found that two and five comments involving the fiduciary rule involve stolen names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. The Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau has made comments about payday lending. Last year they adopted new rules designed to curb abuse of the Million Dollar shortterm loan industry. This year however they announced they will revisit and reconsider and lets be honest the backandforth here has been messy. So has the Public Record. Actually Marie Morales of Fresno California was surprised to see a comment posted under her name. In it she offered a personal and no about how helpful a payday loan was when she had unexpected inexpensive car repairs. She knew instantly it was a fake as her family owns an auto body shop and its the one place where she doesnt have to pay. Filing wasnt the only irregularity in the record that at last count there were more than 4000 comments like hers that had been submitted. The securities and Exchange Commission reviewing the fail of the chicagos doc Exchange Investor group with ties to china. The Public Record has some curious filings including one from john figaro he him for half of Global Investigative journalism network. It raised concerns about the proposed Ownership Structure and suggested it would facilitate money laundering. The only problem is that the executive director of the network said the letter was a fraud but you can still find it in the fcc record. Final story. The federal Energy RegulatoryCommission Approved the Nexus Natural Gas pipeline last year. This is a 255 mile pipeline that will carry natural gas from the marcellus shale to users in places like ohio and michigan. While evaluating this pipeline ferc asked to the comments on its merit. Landowners and president s along the nexus Pipeline Route werent shy about offering their concerns. But merry england of rising sun ohio was surprised to see that her husband glen sent a letter to ferc supporting the pipeline moving to the Buckeye State pressure surprise was more than substandard because her husband died in 1998 and this was by no means the only filing in the record. Others in ohio and michigan have complained to ferc that they did not write the pro pipeline letters posted in their names. That is a lot of stories. We know thats five agencies the ksc the department of labor cf tv, the sec and ferc have had problems with stolen identities that made comments in the Public Record but i suspect they are not the only ones. The administrative procedure act is a law from 1946. As attorneys and all of these agencies know its the law that sets up the basic framework for rulemaking. When the Government Agency proposes new policies it has a duty to give interested persons an opportunity to voice their opinion. After considering these Public Comments agencies may adopt final rules and they do so when it includes a general statement for a basic purpose. That structure has worked well for decades. Its a rocksolid foundation for so many Agency Rulemaking that Seek Public Input for its decisions. Over time when we have identified deficiencies in this framework we have made adjustments and as a result in 1980 the regulatory flexibility act amended the administrative procedure act to make sure agencies consider the impact of the proposal on Small Business and we have got other laws like the paperwork reduction act which doesnt really reduce paperwork, but anyway an Unfunded Mandate which trains new comments in the concerns that what we are facing now does not reflect what is come before because its apparent the specific infrastructure we have for accepting Public Comment in the rulemaking process is not told for the digital age. As the conference of the United States acknowledge his while the basic for rulemaking from 1946 has stayed the same that technological landscape has evolved dramatically. No kidding. The problem may seem small but i think the impact is big. Administrative decisions made in washington affects so much of our daytoday lives. They involve everything from internet openness to Retirement Planning to the availability of loans and the Energy Sources to power our homes and businesses. So much of the decisionmaking that affects our future takes place not just here in congress but in fact in the administrative sense. The American Public deserves a fair shot at participating in those decisions. Experts agents are duty bound to hear from everyone not just those who can afford to pay for expert lawyers and lobbyists. The framework from the administrative procedure staff is designed to serve the public by seeking their input but increasingly they are getting shut out. Our Agency Internet systems are illequipped to handle the mass automation and fraud that is corrupting our channels for Public Comment. Its only going to get worse. The mechanization and weaponization of the filing process has only just begun. We need to do something about it because ensuring the public has a say in what happens in Washington Matters because trust and Public Institutions matter. Last week edelman released its annual trust barometer and reported that only one third of Americans Trust the government. Thats up 14 Percentage Points in decline from last year. Fixing that decline is worth the effort and we can start with finding ways to give all americans no matter who they are or where they live a fighting chance at making washington listen to what they say. We can give into the easy cynicism that results when are public channels are flooded with comments from dead people stolen identities batches of filings and commentary that originated from russian email address is. We cant let this delusion further delegitimize washington and he rode public trust. No one said digital age democracy was going to be easy but we have got to brace ourselves and strengthen our Civic Infrastructure to withstand what is already underway. This is true regulatory agencies and across her political landscape. Because if you look for them you will find uneasy parallels between regularity regulatory proceedings and the barrage of posts on social media that was part of a conspicuous campaign to influence our last election. There is a concerted effort to exploit our openness. It deserves a concerted response response. This is not yet happened. At the ksc for instance anyone who is found their names stolen in the Net Neutrality record has been advised to file another statement to that effect in the public docket. Let me put this as gently as i can. This is not a scalable solution. The fcc has refused to work with state authorities like the attorney general of new york who found that tens of thousands of residents in his state as well as in california, georgia, missouri, ohio, pennsylvania and texas have had their identities stolen. This is not right. For starters i think it set up for the basic spirit of corporative federalism. But more critically the steps to identities like this is often a violation of state law and for the record its also a violation of federal law. Section 1001 of title xviii makes it a felony for any person to knowingly or willfully make any materially false fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation in matters before the federal government. It makes the unwillingness of our regulators in washington to address the fraud we are at the no exists especially chilling. Now for some good news. Earlier this month the Government Accountability office announced in response to an announcement he made with his colleagues they would be reviewing the pervasiveness of fraud and american identities in the federal making. Thats a start. But its not enough. We knew about more investigating from the department of justice, the federal bureau of investigation because we are looking at a systemic effort to corrupt the process by which the public purse is a pizza and some of the biggest decisions that are made in washington. If we want to build specific infrastructure to withstand we need to understand its origins and take out those that are stealing identities cheating the public and destroying our trust. Plus why we built this Civic Infrastructure we can take some pretty basic steps to improve rulemaking processes. Every agency could should perform its own internal investigation. Every agency should consider simple security measures like to factor authentication that enhances security without decreasing Public Participation and every agency can do something oldfashioned. They can hold public hearings. The truth is we need to get started because thats what Good Governance and digital age democracy requires. Thank you. [applause] Gabe GoldbergFreelance Technology writer. Across the agencies you mention with all of those different phony comments being made on such disparate issues is there any thinking on who is behind it it . Did somebody by a pot back . Was it russia . Taking it an issue esight at random just to mess things up or is there a deeper conspiracy where was people with an interest in the issues at hand finding a way to submit all of those fraudulent comments . Ozar truther questions, related questions. My point right now is i dont have an answer to them but i think its incumbent upon agencies in washington to get to the bottom of the because we have to build systems that can withstand this assault and in order to do so we need to know where this is all coming from. Thank you for your presentation. My name is laura kelly with social impact innovation. Ive worked on right now Research Project which is how members of commerce or crowdsourcing in their districts. You might know crowd law and other ways of opening up deliberation is happening around the world and the United States is behind other countries when it comes to inclusivity in the deliberative process in the executive branch and other agencies encircling congress. Im wondering have you had a chance to examine what might match up or integrate best with the american system xml for example parliaments have a much easier time doing this kind of reconfiguration and congress which is the most complex powerful complicated legislative creature in the world really. Thats the question and what are your favorite examples and how can we see ourselves within the scheme of things . These are all good questions. Most agencies in washington are constrained by this law from 1946 the administrative procedures act and the updates that remained of the law over time it been rarely modest and the failure for instance to look at how Small Businesses are the by these proposals, things like that. What im talking about is more fundamental and every agency that interfaces with the public can create the opportunity for the public. We are going to have to rethink that interface. We need to be accessible to all but we also need to make sure there is intervention we think about from the getgo and im hoping to come up with a good waive can do that being crowdsourcing or something else. I am Jane Patterson brought carolina. Speaking of networks is a possible for the fcc to consider additional funding for Health Care Connect being as we are at a right now of 400 billion in the fact that we have so many elderly across the country and getting to them with health care will mean they get good care. You are absolutely right about that. There was a time when telemedicine was reserved for most rural areas where was hard to find doctors and specialists but the chew this telemedicine is part of a mainstream modern medicine. The fcc late last year started a new rulemaking to update its existing Rural Health Care programs to try to address the growing demand and think more thoughtfully about how to push those dollars out there in the future. Theres an open proceeding on just this issue underway right now and its really important. Thank you commissioner. Im a graduate student at m. I. T. Im curious given your investigation and this crosscutting expertise on fraud section and systems how do you think we should find across the federal government using data science and Investigative Journalism and maybe the deep breath groundwork that also the Technical Work necessary to shore up the system . Youve probably heard of before but i think like most people we need more technologists in the United States government. It is how we interface with the public right now and its more than just needing more of them in volume. We need them to be participants in the most basic decisionmaking because coming up with the perfect package of policies is pretty useless if you can figure out a good way to make sure the public participates and uses them. I think that is a longterm project that is my hope would develop more programs to bring people into government and Public Service over time with technology backgrounds. Jerry berman with the Internet Education Foundation. With the comments by the f. C. C. How long did it take you since comments are coming in for a very long time for you to figure out when you are getting 9000 comments from something is wrong . This is a great question and the honest truth is i gave you what i understand it to be today for what we found in my office is a handful of people was limited to our research capabilities. We need more experts on the outside combing through that record and identifying problems. Ive made very clear along with the help of folks like the new York Attorney general that we have a few million individuals whose identities were stolen. You can do some easy counting to figure out how much is from foreign addresses. We need many other outside experts to look at this record and help us identify the problem that we should focus on because i think there is more here than what ive described to you today. Again i think its incumbent upon us to get to the bottom of it and figure it out. Thank you so much. Thank you tim. Thank you all. [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [applause] thank you everyone for sticking around. I wanted to preface our conversation with the slight disclaimer at the toprated know theres a lot of interest in the news events of the day however