Transcripts For CSPAN2 FCC Chair Ajit Pai And Fellow Commissioners Testify Before House... 20240713

Good morning. Welcome to the subcommittee on communication and technologies. I am glad to welcome our witnesses back before the subcommittee. I know it has been seven months since we had you before us and i know we all missed the warm welcoming atmosphere of our hearing room. Despite that passage of time many issues that were of concern to us then still remain unresolved today. For example, i asked about the investigation into phone carrier selling the realtime location of nearly every american. Mr. Chairman, you told me even after more than one year had passed we still cannot tell whether this practice has stopped and could not say whether the impacted individuals have been notified and could not tell us that members of congress and lawenforcement had their locations sold or tracked and in june of this year you told senator blumenthal that you were wrapping up this investigation and with that recommendation shortly. That was six months ago. We still dont have them. Chairman sloan and i wrote to the chairman in november asking for an update and we got a response yesterday saying he now expects an answer of the endorsement bureau by the end of january. The chairman says he will share those results with us as soon as practical. We will be interested to learn when that will be, mr. Chairman. Looking at your announcement yesterday about your new planet with mobility it still seems you have finally realized that the data you collected is garbage and that you need to go back and do this all over again. Everyone has been telling you that for years and instead of acting decisively, folks in Rural America will have to wait even longer to get broadband as you finally collect the data you need to. At our last hearing seven months ago and the hearing nine months before that members brought up the same concerns and here we are with you just yesterday announcing you are kicking off another lengthy rulemaking process to try again to fix the process. Stamping your new plan 5g does not change the fact that communities were these were desperately needed have been waiting years and will have to wait even longer because of a bungled process. That to add insult to injury, you arent even taking action against the carriers that submitted the faulty or fraudulent data in the first place. What is the incentive in the future to provide accurate data if they know they will get a pass two where is the justice for the people in the communities who have suffered because of this . Mr. Chairman, i would remind you you are charged with protecting and serving the American People, not the telecom industry. Shifting gears, on a more holiday spirited note, i am pleased about chairman pies recent comments about the tea ban. This is used by First Responders and reports have shown the value of selling this ban will not even come close to covering their relocation costs. Where i live it would cost upwards of 250 million for Public Safety to relocate that spectrum. I think once and for all we need to repeal this mandate and it makes no sense to me or many on this committee to go forward with it. Regarding seat ban i am pleased that you have finally come around to see the benefits of a public auction. For all of the discussions for need for speed in this debate you have been moving at a glacial pace and questions at the commissions Legal Authority remain in terms of lawsuits still hang out bully over the commission. I, along with subcommittee, have introduced the c ban act and similar legislation has been introduced in the senate. I believe Congress Must passed legislation and resolve the Commission Authority to ensure a fair and transparent option and capture option revenue so that it may be used to pay for the deployment of Rural Broadband nextgeneration 911 and closing the Digital Divide. We all know if we want to address these challenges the federal government needs to buy funding for the c ban auction represents our last best chance to do that in the foreseeable future and i stand ready to work with my colleagues on the committee and in the senate to address this issue promptly and swiftly. We need Real Solutions to address these problems and real protections for the American People and accountability from our federal regulators and industries that they oversee. I want to think the witnesses for being here today and i look forward to your testimony and with that, it is my pleasure to recognize my good friend the Ranking Member on the subcommittee for good medications and technology for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman thank you to the commission for being with us today. Great to see you all. I appreciate that you are also willing to be to travel across country to see how the revelations are affecting companies and consumers. This past year commissioners both came to my district to speak on role broadband and learn about telehealth and decision and agriculture to see how it serves a local up service. A few years before he came to a town of less than 700 people to meet with a packed room to discuss rural call completion. This was happening outside of the dc puts our work and perspective and i appreciate the work you do and the people with us today. At the hearing in may the chairman i expressed a need for Real Solutions that address illegal robo calls and yesterday we passed bipartisan bicameral legislation out of the chamber with strong Consumer Protections to combat robo calls. This problem will only be solved with a multipronged approach and i want to thank the chairman and the rest of commissioners for their work thus far in pushing industry to curb fraudulent robo calls. I also want to thank the commission for injecting urgency into the 5. 9 gigahertz ban and long organized the value of the spectrum for Vehicle Safety and wireless innovation and we proposed to start the discussion to modernize the ban. The ongoing certainty for Safety Technologies to hamper the expansion of wide buy services with focus should put an end to that certainty and automobile safety and lack license use to help consumer demand for wifi services. I look forward to hearing more about how we can ensure both interest and advance our protecting the income and wifi is appurtenant to our economy and our overall good indications landscape which is why im interested to see that the sec is looking for the six wristband for [inaudible] we must be aware that the gigahertz ban i fully encourage them to have their robust Technical Analysis and every ban can have appropriate protection while harmful interference. [inaudible] the commission has made many advances in reducing revelatory red tape and wireless broadband and for and more work remains. In july a letter with nine of my colleagues on the subcommittee encouraging the fcc to clarify its rules regarding the statutory cap on fees. Some franchise authorities have stretched to include those that may deter broadband infrastructure and part of the solution can be found by improving the underlined maps and im pleased this committee reported favorably hr 4229 broadband data at act on the house floor which i work with my friend the gentleman from iowa but the maps are only the beginning to closing the Digital Divide. Last year he and i included our position agriculture activity act in the farm bill. This provision will spur broadband deployments on rural, agricultural to help farmers better utilize and get connected quicker. I was pleased to see they recently announced the creation of a task force as mandated by our legislation to offer advice and recordations on how to best achieve this important goal. I look forward to continuing to work with the industry and the commission to further direct the connectivity issues. On the mobile broadband site there is more work to be done with china and others for 5g leadership. It is vital we continue to look for opportunities to expand the reach of 5g across the entire country especially in Rural Communities. I hope to hear more about the plan stay for the two prioritize the developing in Rural America. I also Welcome Ideas they may have on how congress can better promote broadband deployment and competition and underserved areas. Again, i thank you all for being here to testify and i yield back but id also ask unanimous consent for the four letters to be cemented. Without objection. So ordered. Thank you. I yield back. The chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you. Congress mandated the federal can medications commission do it in the Public Interest and that means its actions, policies should put consumers first but unfortunately this fcc under chairman of pi turns its back to consumers in favor of big corporate interests. Time and time again the commission has ignored the voice of the people and has taken a different path laid out by billiondollar companies. The prime example is the fcc action turning control of the internet over to large corporations by eliminating strong Net Neutrality safeguards that protect at a free and open internet. That was just the beginning. As part of an effort to expedite the rollout of 5g service the fcc stripped away vital protections to help safeguard important religious and cultural travel sites but luckily the court struck down that effort and did not end there but the fcc similarly attempted to strip away protections the promote diversity in the ownership of Media Companies and again the court struck down the fccs action. Just when you think the commission cannot slip further down the fcc intentionally undermine the rule of that court are improving more consolidation afterthefact. More and more challenges just like this are coming and catering to corporate interests the fcc has repeatedly stretched the law to the point of breaking. This has resulted in delays and unsuccessful initiatives that benefit no one. Beyond that the commission has stalled when it comes to holding those megacorporations accountable for violating the slim safeguards that remain. We are, still waiting for conclusion of the fccs investigation into the widespread realtime location data by wireless carriers. That investigation started over a year ago and is unacceptable. Effective deterrence require swift and Decisive Action in the fcc has demonstrated neither. In other instances it is this commission has intentionally going after vulnerable americans. The commission is proposing to cut off support to connect schools and libraries, rural health care, broadband deployment and support for low income americans by capping the universal service fund. This is shameful and preys on americans the need our help. If that is not bad enough, the lack of actions have put American People in danger where they experience hurricanes and wildfires that the commission has all talk and no action in the wake of these disasters. I have asked the fcc to take steps to improve the Wireless Network resilient cooperative framework but nothing happens. Finally the ongoing Government Accountability Office Investigation into the fccs electronic comment filing system is producing disturbing results. I cant speak more specifically to its findings because the report is currently marked for limited or official use but i ask determine pi to dedicate the resources are needed to quickly address the issues that gal has found. I think the fcc should get back on track and put consumers first read that i yield the balance of my time to the [inaudible] thank you. I want to thank the commissioner for making themselves available to be in front of the committee and the staff. We note this country continues to face the deep persistent Digital Divide. Unfortunately i do not believe commissioner pai under this leadership has done enough to bridge that divide and a concern that just occurred yesterday despite bipartisan agreement that the United States of america must fix our nations broadband map we know the mapping system that the fcc has to accurately capture where there is connectivity and not is broken. It is not accurately collecting that information and then to find out that wireless carriers submitted false information, false mapping information, inaccurate information that means wireless carriers submitted misleading coverage information to the fcc and im concerned its been swept under the rug. When consumers go by their mobile phones they have of beautiful brochure put in front of them and it shows coverage areas where they live in those coverage areas are supposed to show where there is connectivity and many people especially in rural areas by their mobile phones based on those maps. Because they need to make a phone call to save someones life and that elderly parent that needs conductivity but theres no other family around so why in the world would they not be held accountable especially when there is bipartisan agreement from this congress and democrats and the publicans need to fix this problem. I hope we hear more about that and how we can be connected and then on top of that chairman pai was announced that the fcc would rush or repackaged usf funding based on this data but the dollars are precious and we need to make sure we put those dollars where they matter most and we get connectivity especially Rural America. Thank you for the time i go back. Gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes mr. Walden Ranking Member of the full committee for five minutes. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for your service to america. I know we have disagreements on some policy issues but we do appreciate the meetings we have had and the discussions weve had in the service you are providing. You all heard me all along the talk about the need for broadband in Rural America and mr. Chairman pai joined me in oregon and we still lack access to Broadband Internet service and millions of americans who live in Rural America faced the same sort of internet and the universal service fund is an important [inaudible] policymakers rr prime is a goal to ensure the federal resources are allocated responsibly. In that vein we have two have accurate broadband maps identified those places and we express that in different terms with different emotion. I started way back when the obama stimulus was going to this committee and money was going out the door before the maps determining where underserved areas were and i did not have an amendment to fix that but it went down unfortunately. Here we are an administration or so later and anyway this committee recently passed to bipartisan mapping bills aimed at improving Data Collection and mapping efforts of the fcc. There are committees that do have concern for us and we learned from the press release yesterday the fcc establishing a new 9 billiondollar fund with a billion specifically for precision agriculture trade it sounds good but i support filled out for 5g in rural areas but i have no details on this plan. I do have questions. Im also unclear as to whether the 9 billion came from and still waiting for maps to accurately be updated and as you all know we are the committee of oversight for the federal committee Occasions Committee and we take our jobs seriously and i know you know that. You take yours seriously but we expect to have more notice and medication on some of these big announcements and that would be helpful and alleviate the questions that will come today. Since we need to be Crystal Clear about our intentions for the fcc action for this committee id also like to note the importance of ensuring federal programs outside the energy and Commerce Committee remains consistent with the committees goal of promoting private investment in broadband infrastructure to plemons and sometimes various programs trying to achieve the same goal are not always in sync, as you all know. Last congress we appropriated more than 600 billion toward broadband and funding programs and that money and makes its way out the door i welcome an update from the commissioner here today now the fcc is consulting with other agencies as required by legislation last year. Switching gears i like to turn spectrum issues that recently raise quite a bit of attention and the fcc announced they would pursue a public auction of spectrum and is the law stands now any proceeds for the fcc auction would go to the treasury for deficit reduction rather than toward bipartisan priorities like facility the National Transition 911 and i think its prudent to legislate and look to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us on this issue in the coming weeks. As we have these discussions we must work with the current licensees, potential bidders and others so this auction was quickly and we preserve the u. S. Wireless leadership. Id said the solutions to challenges and chairman pai will knows that one of these issues ive been focused on is challenges facing our Public Safety officials and talc medications and we continue moving into a Digital World and this includes the finance solution to the t ban auction and at the same time is also imperative we put a stop to 911 feet in diversion so state stop using fees paid by consumers to support and onemonth services as slush funds for unrelated programs. At the last fcc oversight hearing and other times over the last of the years i floated proposals as the delay or repeal these auction process and welcome thoughts on how to reconcile these related issues paid im not been taken up on that offer but i must say i find it interesting that just last week the chairman pai called on congress to repeal the mandate which was not coordinated nor discussed with me or my staff despite our efforts to find a solution for it with the deadline fast approaching i like to take this opportunity to repeat my call to affected parties to work with us and my colleagues to find a consensus solution on this issue. I realize its a need to address but there are other issues and i like to implement the 911 Commission Findings that are set up into the auction in 2012. I know these issues pretty well and we have got to take care of our First Responders and we will but there are other issues associated with this set of issues that we also need to address and work together. Mr. Chairman, with that i will yield you back six seconds. Thank you. The chair thanks the gentleman. We like to remind members that pursuant to Committee Rules all members written Opening Statements shall be made part of the record. It gives me great pleasure to introduce our witnesses were to name hearing. Honorable ajit pai of the federal Committee Case and commission welcome. Honorable michael oreilly, welcome. Honorable brendan carr. Honorable jessica [inaudible], welcome and last but certainly not least the honorable jeffrey stark. Welcome to all of you we thank you for joining us today and we look forward to your testimony and i will be recognizing each witness for five minutes but before we do that we will explain the lighting system in front of you. There is a series of lights that will initially be green at the start of your Opening Statement and will turn yellow when you have one minute left. Please wrap up your testimony at that time when the light turns red. Your time has expired. Chairman pai, we now recognize you for five minutes. Thank you. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member, numbers of the subcommittee thank you for holding this hearing and i appreciate the opportunity to apprise you of the fccs work to a dance of the Public Interest. I like to focus my statements on two important issues that will pick up at our meeting next week. The first unfortunately his home with millions of americans. And involves my proposal to establish 988 of the three digit number dedicated to Suicide Prevention and Mental Health assistance. Under my proposal anyone who called 988 would be routed to the established national Suicide Prevention lifeline where they could be assisted by trained counselors. This proposal has a tragic backdrop. Suicide rates in the United States are at their highest level since world war ii. 2017 more than 47000 americans died by suicide, 33 increase since 1999. More than 1. 4 million adults attempted suicide and atrisk populations are disproportionately affected part. For instance, everything with a 20 veterans died by suicide. More than half a million lgbtq youth will attempt suicide this year alone. I believe 988 could help. It has an echo of 911, unnumbered we all know and the awareness of this resource should make a real difference when those in crisis the date lifeline. I believe we can get 988 up and running more quickly than other three digit numbers. More calls will mean more demands or centers which in turn will require more resources and that is why its important that this effort has bipartisan congressional support. The particular i like to thank irishman Chris Stewart for leading on this issue in the house. My proposal has support outside congress including from the department of Veterans Affairs and health and Human Services National Council for Behavioral Health and the trevor project. They agree a simple number 988 could make the difference between life and death. Working together im confident we can and will dave lives. The second issue i like to discuss is my proposal to reform the gigahertz ban. Heres the background. In 1999 fcc allocated 75 megahertz spectrum in this man for technology called dedicated short range medications or ds rc. Was intended to ubiquitous automated medication but has not borne fruit. After two decades they have evolved slowly at best and not widely deployed in the spectrum and public resource has rained largely unused. This is unacceptable and that is why i am proposing an alternative approach to allow consumers to benefit from improved automotive Safety Technologies and more unlicensed innovation. With respect to unlicensed innovation and promoting to prevent unauthorized in the lower 45 megahertz proportion of the nine gigahertz ban and this would be a big benefit for American Consumers. Wifi is growing popularity and launching in 1999 the same year the fcc allocated the ban for ds rc wifi has become a staple of everyday life. This has raised a challenge but we need more unlicensed spectrum. Allowing the operation and lower 45 megahertz portion of the gigahertz ban would help be that challenge. With respect to automotive safety the effort for this ban would be allocated for cellular vehicles or cb acts which is a new Cellular Based Technology which would allow direct creations between vehicles and everything from other vehicles, labels to pedestrians. Its also expected to support new applications as we transition to 5g. It is backed by automakers ford, audi, b w, dimer and tesla. And we are closing the door on ds rc. Japan has a single 10 megahertz channel for ds rc that is actively used for collision avoidance. Im proposing we Seek Public Input on whether to allocate the remaining 10 megahertz of spectrum in the upper part of it or ds rc or cb acts. Advocates of each technology could make their cases. I appreciate the bipartisan support for reforms for the gigahertz ban and in particular Ranking Member Committee Vice chair clark and representatives. There is diverse thirdparty support including tech freedom, Public Knowledge and government waste 5g Automotive Association ordered and the Internet Service providers association. These three digit numbers for Suicide Prevention and the five gigahertz bands are two examples of how the commission is availing the Public Interest and strong bipartisan support and many others such as our actions last month to protect the security of our network to improve the First Responders to quickly locate wireless 911 calls. Id be happy to answer any questions you may have or any other issues. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee thank you for holding this hearing. We look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. The chair in a wreck arise commissioner for five minutes. Good morning big members of the subcommittee. I thank you for the opportunity to join the subcommittee as it conducts further oversight on the commission. With the indulgence i like to raise three topics for consideration. First, i will begin with the communication conference in 2019 wrc 19 in egypt which i just attended two weeks ago. I like to say despite meeting some of the spectrum policy goals wrc 19 raise fundamental concerns to call into question the value of this International Spectrum conference. Several countries particular russia, france and china clearly sent delegations to egypt with directors to port the red states and other forward leading countries. From my viewpoint this is done apart for larger geo political purposes and protect the industries from usbased competition. International spectrum harmonization isnt readily valuable, especially in the 5g universe. It must not, the expense of the u. S. Interest and our likeminded allies. We are not without options for certain member nations to continue to disrupt progress for the next generation wireless world. U. S. Could explore the formation of a g7 like organization or loose coalition of leading wireless nations as an alternative to itu. When it comes to spectrum policy more generally wic profits reaffirms my belief that for the u. S. To lead and 5g Wireless Services we must avoid any delay in finalizing allocations especially mid ban. I would argue that we must pursue ahead of other social objectives and to do otherwise and give other countries a head start and the ability to dictate the progress of our future. I believe the premier opportunities reside not given that the chairman has announced the c ban auction for 2020 we must do all we can within legal constraints and respecting current licensees to complete this option. For the three. Dot 13. Dot five gigahertz ban commission is initiating on a fairly narrow aspect and the remaining effort which involves moving dod radars and opening the best of the ban to share needs to be addressed in the very near future. This requires heavy lifting and the subcommittees assistance in this matter will be invaluable. Finally, the subcommittees held requested in addressing the diversion and ive reported many times to the subcommittee on the progress they are making to reduce the number of feed diverting space. We have sexily removed several. The remaining states we have begun the process of changing the labels of various fees or downright ignoring our call to end the thievery. As mr. Walden recently suggested diversion for the tea ban plans may be one strong option to consider and i would add establishing further statutory diverters is much needed as well. Thank you for inviting my testimony and i welcome any questions you may have. Thank you, commissioner riley. You are not recognized, mission or car. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member, distinct numbers of the subcommittee. Its a privilege to appear before you. When i testified seven months ago i outlined the bold steps the fcc is taking to accelerate the buildout of 5g and other internet structure. Im pleased to report the commissions reform are delivering results. The internet speeds are up 56 compared to two years ago. The Digital Divide narrowed by about 20 last year alone. Providers buildout more miles of highspeed fiber than ever before. America now has the worlds leading 5g platform. The very first commercial 5g Service Launched here in the u. S. More than one year ago. The private sector brought 5g214 communities last year and quickly expanded that to over 30 in the first part of this year and now one provider alone has committed to building 5g99 of the u. S. Population. Small cell bills have jumped from 130002017 to about 60000 in 2018 to a total of 200,000 by the end of the year. These figures show the momentum america now has 45g. Of course, numbers alone dont tell the full story and if id bills were limited to the wealthiest neighborhoods of americas biggest cities we cannot claim our policies are working. We reach the finish line when every community has a fair shot it next gen connectivity. That is why i spent time on this job outside of dc. In the communities we cant leave behind in the transition to 5g but theres much more to do and im proud of the result modernize infrastructure rules and are already delivering. Take houstons second word. A neighborhood that always has not shared in the prosperity and investment of neighboring communities. I spent time there with the mayor Sylvester Turner and talk to the broadband providers who were then trending fiber and empowering up new small cells. Infra structure bills that are boosting capacity in a community where for many there Wireless Connection is there only onramp to the internet. Take sioux falls, south dakota. A Community Many would not associate with the leading edge of 5g. In a few months back they showed me the 5g cell sites that are already going up. This is great news and its 5g opportunity can be a unique privilege of living in a big city. That is why we focus on ensuring Rural America is not left behind. Not left out of the jobs, the healthcare and innovations that will arrive on the 5g network. To further extend u. S. Leadership we need to expand the Skilled Workforce that can buildout this infrastructure. Industry can fill another 20000 tower climbers to complete this 5g bill and these are good paying jobs. Ones you can raise a family on trade they dont require extensive fouryear degrees. Earlier this year i announced the Jobs Initiative the looks to committee colleges as a pipeline for these 5g jobs and met with officials at a Community College in south dakota to recently announced they are launching their own program this next month. The new jobs fulfill that this will enable, create the platform for Innovative New services and telehealth is a great example. I saw it earlier year with Ranking Member lata at eight hospital in toledo. A doctor showed us how a video up on his phone now lets them see and treat patients from almost anywhere shaving precious minutes and saving lives. Its an example of a new trend in telehealth with apps that can be accessed on the patients own device, quality care cannot be delivered directly to patients. If the healthcare equivalent of moving from blockbuster to netflix. The fcc should support this new trend, particularly for low income americans and veterans that ive led the work to stand up a new one a milliondollar connective care program which can do just that. Id like to move to the order and that is proceeding in 2020 and i look forward to working with all stakeholders in doing so. In closing, i want to thank you again, chairman doyle, Ranking Member lata, members of the subcommittee to testify and i look forward to your questions. Commissioner you are wrecking eyes for five minutes. Good morning. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member lata and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to be here today. The wall street journal published an article a few weeks ago entitled the people left behind in a broadband world. It began by describing a parking lot in Southeastern Ohio and it is right next to it county library. Every evening long after the library has closed its doors the lot is dotted with cars with passengers lit up by the light of their laptops and cell phones. You see, the library keeps the wifi on even after it has shut its doors. It means students who need Internet Access to do their schoolwork can get their assignments done while sitting in the cars of their family and friends because so many of them do not have access to broadband at home. Today seven and ten teachers assign homework that requires Internet Access but fcc data repeatedly show that wanted three households do not subscribe to broadband. Where those numbers overlap is what i call the homework gap. According to the Senate Joint Economic committee homework gap is real. It affects 12 Million Students in every state all across the country. You see it in communities everywhere, kids lingering after hours in Community Parking lots were striving into fast food restaurants to do their homework with a side of fries or urging their parents to shuffle them to the homes of friends and relatives just to cobble together the connectivity they need for nightly schoolwork. The homework gap is the coolest part of the Digital Divide. There are things we can do to solve it. The fcc could start a homework gap proceeding to identify solutions and new ways are universal Service Policies could help. We could explore how the programs could equip school buses with wifi and in turn right time in rural areas into connected time for homework just as legislation before the committee recommends. We could even go bigger and establish a National Fund that solves the homework gap for a portion of the funds raised from the future auctions of our airwaves. The fund could be used to make sure there are wireless hotspots for loans in every School Library across the country. It would give every student a fair shot to do their homework keep up in class. It could solve the homework gap virtually over night. We can do this if we set up a fund from the revenues raised by new licenses in the c ban. To this end i am glad the chairman has announced we will have a public auction of these airwaves and i think the next step to be exploring how we can solve the homework gap using the revenues from this auction. If we do this we can ensure no child is left off line. I think we should because in too many fcc policies we are leaving too many people behind but we disapprove the largest wireless transaction in our nations history allowing two of the four National Carriers to combine and we all know what happens to consumers when market concentration increases following a merger. In the Airline Industry this consolidation brought us more baggage fees and for smaller seats. Why do we think it will be different this time . On top of this we are taking the wrong road in a race to 5g auction off highbandwidth airwaves and the rest of the world has focused its efforts on mid ban of spectrum we are have a serious risk of falling behind. Moreover we have real work to do if we really want to secure our 5g network and coordinate across the government because we do not have a national 5g Security Strategy and experts agree we need one. When it comes to the resiliency of our existing networks we need to organize wildfires and hurricanes are becoming more common and that Communications Outages that accompany them are becoming more severe but we have not updated our fcc framework for Disaster Response and we need to. Finally, the fcc is issuing all kinds of press releases about how we will update our universal Service Policies with the new funds Rural Broadband through wireless but how will we do this when our maps are so inaccurate we cannot say with certainty where service is or is not. Common sense says we need maps before money and data before deployment. I fear that is not how we will proceed. These things need to be fixed. Im glad you are holding this oversight hearing today and we have problems and resources that are constrained and communities that have real difficulty to navigate the digital age. I still believe medications technology can help. I believe with the right fcc policies in place we can help solve the homework gap and so much other challenges that are before us. Thank you and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner starks you are recognized for five minutes back thank you. It is a privilege to appear before you today. Since i began in the seven months since i last appeared before you i repeatedly stressed through critical importance of reliable, affordable broadband to committees thought america and thats why once again the Digital Divide is heartening into the state of internet inequality and how the fcc needs to improve universal Service Funds to address this issue. Millions of americans remain in the hardest served areas are getting left behind. I have proposed a fourpoint plan to address Rural Broadband. First, fcc must fund Rural Broadband with six maps. Youve heard this here today but the fcc recently proposed attorney . 4 billion plan, tenure World Digital Opportunity Fund critically 16 million with nearly three quarters of that fund will be spent over ten years on the data and maps in nearly every stakeholder agrees is badly flawed. We should have proceeded with the smaller initial budget and shorter Service Terms while we fix that data and mapping and proceeded with the bulk of the support over longer terms but unfortunately, the structure adopts are ready, fire, aim approach that savers speed over funding. To address world connectivity we must consent buys providers to bring future proof broadband to our communiques. Close review of the proposal by many communities will be deemed eligible are currently underserved, already received fcc high cost funding. How did this happen . That is why i called for a data driven tenure look back on how our highcost programming has performed in bringing broadband to our hardest to reach areas. Sometimes you have to look forward or look back in order to move forward. We cannot have a world in ten years from now when we wake up with another 20 billion dollars spent we still dont understand the precision which communities remain underserved and how we can accurately finish the job to connect them. Third, we must hold our op auction winners accountable. Sadly, more than a dozen winners from her last universal service fund auction have already defaulted on their bids. To provide that Necessary Service we must be absolutely sure the carriers receive u. S. Funding will deliver and the connectivity to communities that needed the most. Finally, to address Rural Broadband we must advance a more affordable way for our poorest Rural Americans to connect to the internet. The fcc should require u. S. Auction to have an affordable option. We should examine the experience of a number isps including comcast, cox, att and spectrum that you provide lowcost offerings for the internet around 15 or less of families participating in low income federal programs. Connecting all americans is not enough if those connections are not secure. Back in may i raise the alarm that we need to focus on problem of untrustworthy chinese equipment that is in our networks. We need to find the insecure equipment, find it, fix it and fund it. Last month my colleague and i unanimously voted not only to no one but also critically to address what to do about the equipment that already stands on our networks. There are additional security risks that must be addressed. One in particular that i focused on his Election Security print reporting indicates that a least sixstates and washington dc use Voting Machines that transmit results over Cellular Networks meaning result could be blocked, altered by criminals or our adversaries that can use fake cell towers and hack untrustworthy routers. Because of these risks i met with the major wireless carriers to address or discuss and have them tell me how they are protecting our Network Security but the important goal here that we must have is every vote needs to be counted accurately each and every time. Finally, we must make sure all americans share in the benefits of 5g. That technology has the opportunity to drive solutions, Real Solutions on issues that matter most in our world not just for today but for our shared tomorrow. The future of work is one of these great 5g will allow Massive Iot Networks using automation and Artificial Intelligence to achieve unprecedented productivity and efficiency and that transformation will also displace millions of workers and in particular, research from mckenzie shows this revolution will disproportionally Impact Communities of color and women. That is due to the overrepresentation for truck drivers, food machinists and we need to partner with private sector to encourage develop programs used by cheat better. Lastly, i will highlight the issue of Climate Change. It is an issue that we are seeing that our folks and companies are deploying and info structure to plummet to account for Climate Change where there are disasters but 5g and electric grid will play a Critical Role Going Forward. Thank you for having me here today. Thank you. Weve concluded our openings. We now move to member questions. Each member will have five minutes to ask questions of our witnesses. I will start by recognizing myself for five minutes. Chairman part, im glad you have come to see the public auction is in the best interest of the country and best approach. I want to ask all the commissioners to respond to my question by raising your hand if you agree. I wont make a statement. If you agree, raise your hand read good the commission under its Current Authority use spectrum auction revenue from the sea ban to pay for Rural Broadband development . Could you use it to pay for deployment of nextgeneration 911 . Could you use it to close the homework gap . Would Congress Need to pass legislation to authorize revenue from an auction of the cband in order to delineate those things . Exactly. This is why we need to move quickly to pass legislation to address these issues and i stand ready to work with all members of this committee and the senate who wish to do the same. This is an opportunity we dare not miss. I also want to ask all the commissioners to respond to my question by raising their hand if they agree. This is a different approach. [laughter] the fcc broadband Deployment Data is significantly lacking and deeply flawed, do you agree with that statement . These laws are so bad that some of it as the chairman has said in the case of the Mobility Fund to data we will need to redo it. They need to be redone. When you have bad data as you did a Mobility Fund it to, you cant make good decisions. Do you agree with that . Mr. Chairman, will you commit to collecting new, accurate data as it seems that you need to do for other proceedings . Mr. Chairman. We havent done that with a Digital Opportunity Data Collection which we adopted august 1 to fix broadband. The greenfield bill will be exploring the news proposed rulemaking early next year. The way to move forward given the expanse we had and thats why i agreed with the recommendation that we should close down the challenge process. It was inaccurate maps and we cannot go forward with good decision on the basis of that data. Let me ask commissioner starks, does it seem to you at the chairmans decision on when he needs accurate data and when he doesnt is rather arbitrary because i cant find any rhyme or reason for why he excepts he needs good data for these renewed Mobility Fund to data but other proceedings such as this new forbearance proceeding regarding Competitive Services and the next round of connect america fund grants the commission seems to be ignoring the lack of accurate data and its decisionmaking but would you like to comment on that . I agree with you, chairman pete i think youre right and it is the symbol. We need maps before money and data before deployment. I could not agree more. It took us over one year to say the Mobility Fund to date it was broken. That seems shocking to me. Im disappointed as well and Enforcement Capacity we will not hold folks accountable for those misrepresentations. Thank you. You told senator blumenthal in june of this year were wrapping up your investigation into location sharing by mobile carriers and you would respond to the incident in the near future. It is december and we still have not seen anything. I note yesterday your office did email me a response to my request for an update saying you tried to share the results of your infestation as soon as practicable. Could you tell us more specifically when we will get that information . As i pointed out in the letter after consulting with the career staff of the Enforcement Bureau they have told me that they would be in a position to provide those recommendations to me or to wrap up that part of the investigation by the end of january which is why its as soon as possible thereafter id be happy to share with you but those results would be. Commissioner, do you have anything to add to that . It has been well over a year since we learn there is a black market out there for where we are with our wireless phones for a few hundred dollars, anyone could bite where we are within a few hundred meters. That is it dangerous for our personal security grid is crazy to think Wireless Companies sold this data to skip tracing firms that who then sold it to bill bosman who then sold it to bounty hunters and here we are once a month later and i still dont know what happened in the Chairmans Office has refused to provide information about letters of inquiry or what we are investigating. I think this is something you need to follow up on because it goes to the security of every one of us who hold onto eight mobile phone. I see my time has expired but do you agree with that . I do, mr. Chairman. Thank you. I now yield five minutes to the Ranking Members back thank you, mr. Chairman chairman pike, if i could start my questions with you. I applaud the work that you are doing to make the six gigahertz available for unlicensed use. Im concerned about how it might impact the utilities in my district who rely on that fixed Wireless Services. The commission has the Technical Knowledge to craft rules that ensure the incumbent users are being protected . The answer to that question is yes. Its led in part by our sterling chief engineer and the other talented staff of engineering and technology but we are doing the necessary Technical Analysis to understand the extent to which the sharing of that 59257125 ban with unlicensed operation will be consistent with the important functions that that spectrum serves four the electric utilities and others you identified. I appreciate that. Will you commit to ensure the incumbent uses protective [inaudible] absolutely, congressman. I said consistently we will make sure we balance both those interested we want to preserve those important incumbent uses and look at unlicensed and other operations connect thank you. Please follow up. You put forward a new [inaudible] which would make 45 megahertz of spectrum available for unlicensed use all the remaining 38 megahertz would be split between two different auto Safety Technologies ds rc and ce agent to ask. For the proposal allow automakers to continue using the 5. 9 gigahertz ban to send safety messages and provide other critical lifesaving services. It would, congressman prayed i would argue my approach would deliver the most significant benefits to the American Public in decades. The reason is it would allow cellular vehicle to everything in particular in the upper 20 megahertz part of the ban to progress under the current rules, and cannot go forward at all and were stuck with the ds rc approach. My goal is to enable automotive Safety Technologies are to thrive and at the same time we want to recognize, as i mentioned in my Opening Statement, dsr c should have a fair shot at making its case and given the fact the japanese employee 10 megahertz channels that is why i concluded in my proposal that seeking a comment on whether dsr c or cb acts would have it in additional time megahertz but that they 30 wide megahertz channel [inaudible] tremendous benefits for American Consumers and when it pointed out automakers quick followup, have you followed up with the transportation on that . Extensively. For many months i personally and my staff and the staff of the engineering and technology office, among others, have consulted extensively and revised the proposals substantially to accommodate the interest and the approach that i published on the internet a couple of weeks ago with flex that compromise that we are singling out or we essentially focused on a balanced approach that would give Automated Safety Technology and exclusive home and unlicensed operations and exclusive homebrewed we feel thats the best of both worlds. Thank you. As the sec you talk about this as the fcc [inaudible] thats a good question. That is a reason the approach i have suggested is the best one. Under the Previous Administration the contemplation was we would share the entire ban between ds rc and unlicensed operation in order to test the feasibility extensive testing is required. That testing has taken a long time. Under my approach with separation that created the separate phone they dont need to worry about the unlicensed operations interfering with them. Similarly, on the unlicensed side because there that 45 megahertz home [inaudible] there is no problem in terms of interference with automated safety. Essentially everybody gets a different bite of the apple, so to speak, and those bites dont have to conflict. Commissioner carr, earlier this year you achieved the secs launch of 100 milliondollar project program to support telemedicine. Ive always been an advocate for telehealth. Last month this committee passed my bill aim to address mortality disparities which include utilizing connective testing analogies. You give me up update on how it is going . We moved to the next phase earlier this summer and the comment cycle has closed. My hope is we would move forward quickly in 2020 with an order that would stand up formally and the pilot program. Thank you. Mr. Chair, my time has expired, i yield back. The chair now recognizes mr. Mcnerney for five minutes for questions. Thank you, chairman i think the commission for this description. Chairman pike, i sent you a letter the summer about to take a fresh look at five. Dot nine and make it available for unlicensed use. I appreciate your proposal and im pleased to see that. You also put a proposal to make the six gigahertz ban available for unlicensed use and i am hoping the commission can move quickly on this and that has been echoed by members of the commission. Chairman, answer yes or no. Will you commit to moving forward in a timely manner to make the six gigahertz ban available for unlicensed use and protect the incumbents . Yes, with a caveat. We will be driven by the Technical Analysis and i agree with a timely action on that basis. Commissioner, the foundation to have a successful 5g strategy, how critical is it that we make use or more spectrum available for unlicensed use and why is six gigahertz ban important for that purpose . Unlicensed disaster would be critical. When we talk 5g we cannot just talk about licensed airways. We have to talk about licenses two. Which is part of my district we had 88 towers go down from power outages. This means people couldnt call 911 or let loved ones know their status and so on. Please answer yes or no again to weaken idowe connect to conducta formal investigation. The bureau has already reached out to the Communications Providers to understand what went wrong looking at updating. Do you commit to doing this within six months. That is a terrific question because we are having these once in a century events every year weve got to start planning and learning from them. We should have an initial report every time at the cell towers we discussed extensively after Hurricane Katrina for the Public Interest organizations. Without objection. The program is critical for so many of my constituents especially during emergencies and wildfires. Its repeated efforts to undermine the program. Thank you for the question. The program is designed for the most vulnerable low income folks and for their communications. The. I do have concerns that we need to do better by the most vulnerable here in dc i visited most recently a homeless shelt shelter. A gentle man now recognizes the Ranking Member committee for five minutes for his opening question. As we learned late yesterday in a press release. Instead of proposing to move forward two weeks ago they reportereport of the bipartisan legislation. In the forward before knowing what locations actually need the funding and the third kind of related to this is the new on forbearance. Is that going to rely on them also . On the basis of the maps that is part of the reason i agreed with the career staff recommendation to suspend the process and ultimately the proposal to terminate the proceeding altogether to move to the fund. Our point of the fund is that we are in the early stages and deployment is scanned in the rural areas it is virtually nonexistent so with respect to the four g. It doesnt map onto the environment. With respect to the budget, its one of the things we are looking at as well an and i would be rolling this out as i proposed to my fellow commissioners in early 2,020th understanding with respect to the budget mapping making sure we have the right to eligible. To get the public and the other thing i would as the we are hopl in the connect america funded in part because of the auction in the area competition we are able to substantially drive down the amount that was required from 5 billion to 1. 5 million. Our hope is we will be able to do the same thing here and i couldnt agree when we were there we met with some of those providers and that is why in the context i think a very balanced approach mindful of that and some of the comments ive had from the chairman isnt to throw the baby out with the bathwater but understanding some of these areas of Common Infrastructure is being used by the competitors in the Public Interest and that is why we took a measured approach on that. I appreciate the hearing on Climate Change and i ask every member of the are trying to accomplish in the proposal and nobody objected. New york state allows the fees to be put in a slush fund and used for their pet projects unrelated to the 911 services. What are your thoughts on the diverting of the fees specifically, what impact does ddathe date version have on the Public Safety operation . It is terrible. Its bad. We should use every resource we have in the commission and working with you on the committee to stop it. Its an outright lie when it says it is going to support 911. If you did that or i did that in a business through the mail system and used it for a different purpose, i think that i would we have about 6,911 call centers and about 100,000 people answering the phones from the worst day of your life everyday. They pick them up and they need about 12 billion to update the next generation which will make them effective and all of us safer. Weve got to start somewhere and stopping the fee diversion is the perfect place. My time is up. We will have some questions again for the country. I want to thank the witnesses for being independent. I have a lot of material to get to. First come for you, commissioner im sure you are aware of the work in this committee on voice that will head to the house hopefully where i believe that it will receive strong bipartisan support again. The proponent of using crowd sourcing for example i agree its important to have multiple points of reference, multiple points of data and im proud that wi am proudthat we have a e process to ensure everyday consumers and state and local tribal governments are able to challenge the map that says they have service and they dont. Additionally im glad that it includes quality of service metrics. Its important to know what sort of Internet Service is available not just whether it is available but what kind of service as well. So working on its own mapping proposal to want to ask advantages or disadvantages you think this proposal, our proposal as compared to the fccs proposal. Thank you for the bipartisan work. The data is so inaccurate we dont do what they are sending the funds to the right place or not. The legislation this committee produced is all about public participation. We are going to take in the crowd source data and information from the community who knows where theres service and where there isnt and we are going to test it again. I think the best broadband map isnt going to be developed by us in washington but its going to be a citizens and or legislation speaks to just that. Thank you for your response. The committee has focused a lot of time on making sure we get the accurate maps and i just want to follow up i guess on what the Ranking Member asked about as well and gives you a chance to respond. Did you think programs like the newly announced fund will make an effect on, what are their thoughts about that . It could, but we have a basic problem. We need the maps before the money and data before deployme deployment. We are pumping out press releases about the funds that we are not expanding where we are going to send a command based on information anthat information a problem. We still have stories to tell. I invite you to offer your insight on the work of the committee and the recently announced fund. I am eager to see we get the latest technology and connectivity out to even the most brutal citizens, bu that i have deep concerns and questions for what was announced yesterday where was the money coming from. Is this the same data that was relied upon that we all know had to be taken down. Its very much related to the announcement from yesterday it is an issue of holding folks accountable where they have the data that is incorrect. One additional thing i want to highlight his there was information yesterday that was redacted from the report issued by the chair man. I am working with the chair man and the staff because i think theres critical Consumer Protection information that is not confidential and so i am extremely hopeful information will be lifted soon so that the American Public can know what is going on. One must question if i may. What do you think needs to be the first focus on the task force to ensure we are tackling the problem. I solved it looks like when we connect towers in every corner of the agricultural field. Heres my concern people produce so much data we will have to upload that to the cloud. Our broadband standards have been asymmetrical and that there are much higher fees that come down at much lower sending it back up. We use broadband for consumption activity. Firms are going to get into the basis of creation activity. We have to figure out how we have more symmetrical speeds. I ask unanimous consent without objection so ordered. The gentleman recognizes the gentleman from the great state of texas for five minutes. I thank the chair for that introduction. Happy holidays the entire fcc. I have to open with a concussi concussion. A few years ago with a sample from the chair man we both committed to the Climate Communications tower in august of 2018 i believe that it was 131 feet tall. I havent forgotten my commitment. The climate tower that is 20 times your tower at the risk of getting the response i will say that i would have to view from the ground up to be safe. The example of the had the same problems us for all americans and for mentioning Houston Texas and Sylvester Turner. My first question for you i know that the commission on the leadership has focused considerable resources on ensuring that the essential spectrum is made available to fuel five g. And keep us competitive internationally. Can you describe the steps youve taken to expedite the use of the critical spectrum resource . I appreciate the question. We were starting from scratch and one of the things weve done as a part of the plan is to move aggressively on the low and mid spectrum. With respect to the mid spectrum in particular the band for the Wireless Service including the tribal window, the ban would be auctioned on june 25 or 2020 and there was an announcement recently in addition to that as a part of the merger they have committed to the assets for the benefit of the American Consumers and although it doesnt go the spectrum in particular, the reforms we have done to encourage these next generation networks, the architecture has been vital as well. So those that criticized us for not acting quickly enough they are missing the fact we are moving quickly but in many cases we faced opposition even from the commission. This question is for commissioner oreilly, you have been adamant about the need to make it as quickly as possible. Can you explain why speed is important with your trip overseas and how a delay can hurt the National Security . I believe that its the most ideal place for the spectrum. Internationally theyve already identified and they are making that available so they are using the same that we would like to make available or what ive argued is we cannot wait and delay the process. The manufacturers are making equipment for those purposes and we will be delayed as a nation and our providers will harm from that if we do not move forward as soon as possible. In terms of Economic Security and Economic Growth because its been international from a particular country china is spreading its equipment to multiple different means. They are using all kinds of tools to expand their network throughout the globe as best as possible before they can get onto the playing field. You talked about the technology. Can you talk about whats being done in your commission to get the qualifications that you need to move forward and how the congress can help you get those people . I know youve talked to the Community Colleges, but what resources have you gotte you god how do we hope you get the helpe resources you need to go forward . The congressman has a bill that would go a long way for the funding from the mortgage training programs. Ive been working directly with those in graniteville South Carolina looking to expand their program as a model. They had a committee looking at these issues in the chair now recognizes for five minutes. Thank you, chairman doyle. I would like to acknowledge maintaining the leadership for the public seed and auction and proposing wireless use a two to 5. 9 gigahertz band as long as it can be done safely. Its eventually closing the Digital Divide in Rural America. The bar staff will get a hold of your office and try to come up with how those numbers were put together. Its getting wider as we implement the entire process. The lack of Broadband Access these life and death in Rural America. Chairman, you mentioned that. Its all americans that travel across the country. All 320 something million of us eventually traveled across an area that has very little ability to have broadband and it impacts the opportunity for those compared to those in urban centers. My district is home to 12 travel nations which is the most of any congressional district. He would be upset with me as the most population, not the most tribes. It is simply unacceptable in todays age. This is compared to 8 of the non tribal households without any access. Thats your report. The act is to complete a proceeding to address the barriers found in the report within 30 months. We are now almost two years since this part of the act was signed into law in over six months since it was released with nine months left to meet its statutory guideline would you explain why they have yet to begin a proceeding to specifically address the barriers from the report and when do you think it will be done . The staff is working on the report but in the meantime we are taking serious meaningful steps to address that issue with a lack of tribal broadband particularly in the universal service program. They use use that to benefit pe. As the chair mans Office Reached out to any of you about what the proceeding will look like before the upcoming statutory guideline . Would be go back then why is that the case . We are always happy to have conversations. To get across the table these are bipartisan issues that find the commercial together. When ive been in a leadership role ive made sure that those that have to work with me are on a continual basis about the processes moving forward. About the proprietary window i appreciate the commissions recent announcement that this priority will now be extended for 180 days to ensure all tribes of the consultation and resources to participate. This is extremely important that they have these resources. We commit to holding more interesting and educational workshops for this proceeding beyond those announced in the next few weeks. Congressman, i will and we are. I see my time is up. Thank you. The chair yields back in the recognizes mr. Kissinger for five minutes. Thank you all for being here. Very much appreciate it. I know weve talked about this but i do have a few questions. You announced thanksgiving break that we will proceed with the megahertz up to see van and there is a lot of debate about how they were going to proceed and that was one that seemed to be universal but the proceedings need to occur quickly and efficiently. I was open to either mechanism and the principle of giving something quickly and the other principle that the substantial revenues raised for things like broadband development. The public option will take longer than a private sale, mr. Chairman. What can they do to help speed this up . Do you need new authorities or people, appropriations for the software, what do we need to be aware of . With respect to the Public Interest benefits that have been identified. A portion are being allocated fofor both broadband and that would require the legislation if we welcomed the committees input on that. There are certainly resources that we have to muster and work out. I believe we do have the authority currently to be able to do the necessary legwork to conduct it quickly which is one of the things we want to prioritized as well but should that change i will let you know in the immediate future. To prohibit china mobile from connecting on the National Security grounds and i appreciate the ongoing proceedings to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to buy dangerous equipment. You all may have seen before escaping break we reported legislation that by and with the chair man offered to facilitate information sharing from the federal government to the private sector. The goal is to inform about the risk that certain equipment can pose to the network so that they dont install it. Commissioner do you believe that smaller or rural carriers have adequate access to the classified information on that work done . I hope they work. Would. I spent some time including the meeting directly with some of the small providers directly from them that engage in more discussion as needed. Do you think we should be doing more and that this legislation would go and help that information flow . Been supportive of the work to make sure we have the networks and that there is Additional Information to the bill that would be very helpful to get us there. You can follow up as well with any additional help is needed. To continue on some of these concerns are there Cyber Security concerns with information and Communications Technology companies allowing them on clear for the tip personnel access to Software Development or application interfaces. In the National Security side g. Networks unlike the predecessor networks will be Software Defined as opposed to hardware driven and is part of the reason is so much greater and especially to consider the windfall to the billions more transportation and healthier agricultural, you name it, we have to be right across all these different factors and that is part of the reason we take it so seriously. Part of the reason why i personally have been speaking to our allies abroad. For the need to collaborate on the framework and for me the challenge is one of the top National Security issues for this country into the leading edge of the challenge. Is very common standard that will be distributed or used for the Software Patches . There is no standard in addition to that its the fact that a lot of these Software Driven Networks you are going to get Software Updates just as they get Software Updates on their phone in realtime while the government have the ability to monitor every single line of source code that is being updated by and im trusted vendor . One of the reasons we need to think of it as opposed to an afterthought. Again, to the commissio comme like to sometimes find everything that defines us in this business. Its one area so thank you for your hard work and they will yield back to second. The gentle lady from california for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman and welcome to the full commission. I guess there is an advantage to being one of the finest members to question in my observation is following. We keep talking about the same things that have not been resolved. I will start with the chair. This whole issue of the letters of inquiry can you hurt my displeasure and the exchange seven months ago. My understanding is they traditionally do not do that. Im asking you a direct question. Will you send the letters of the inquiry toomey . Will you send the letters of the inquiry. Is for these massive wildfires and they undergo the pain of this aftermath, the loss of life, the loss of homes, loss of property, but is also the loss of a telecommunication system. California isnt the only state that has undergone or will undergo these catastrophes. We have tornadoes and hurricanes, flooding. It was raised but we have no backup plan. In california, 874 towers were out. Emergency Services People cannot communicate with one another. I had a letter from seniors that were coupled and said what do we do, we have no way to contact 911 if there is a medical or fire emergency command we cant contact the utility. So what is your answer to them . Have you been to california or visited were met with emergency people . I cant recall the specific date. I cant remember if it was this year or not. Let me know. What is your answer to these people and what is the backup plan flex i would like to know why the omd shuts that down. I dont understand what it has to do with this, but it would be interesting to know. The office of budget management this is part of the reason i stressed the need for Power Companies to share information with teleCommunications Providers and in this case they did not do that and its one of the reasons if you asked about information, they didnt give it to you. Its your responsibility just as it is mine to follow up with people. You have to be stuck to someones shoe on behalf of the American People. We are not just states in america. We are the United States of america. So we need a policy that is claimed to serve everyone. There needs to be a plan. This is about life and death. We are not talking about some small potatoes somewhere. Its disturbing to me that there isnt a plan. You dont remember when youve been in california, you dont remember the last time you spoke to anyone. On the lifeline ive been a broken record. This is a Program President Ronald Reagan put into place. I have spoken to each of you individually and i consider this a moral issue. We are talking about veterans, talking about the elderly, Domestic Violence victims, we are talking about people experiencing homelessness. I dont know what any of these people have gone to any one of the commissioners, but to have a program that has an unfathomable 45 in the last three years thats what its fallen by. Are you glad i got . Is that something you can take out and brag about on the road . I dont think so and somehow i dont know how i can ever get people to understand people are being hurt by this. None of us went into Public Service elected or appointed to help people. But in this 45 in the last three years, people have been hurt. The time is expired. Thank you and i will yield back. Thank you mr. Chair i appreciate it and thank you to all of you here this afternoon. The gentleman will suspend. You are recognized. My district is part of the peninsula, and bring in emergency with high winds and up to one day the president says the north to a limited number west and east south Pinellas County off the coast of the gulf of mexico. They are close to approval of additional routes that will ease the congestion which we feel we voted to permit this month to extend the road from west to east but in 2016 the modernized the why wireless emergency system to yield targets and messages. This will alleviate the congestion from unnecessary evacuations. How will this targeting of emergency alerts . Im pleased to say we are ready to proceed with geotargeting along the lines you suggested. We needed to do for weeks of testing. My understanding is the system will be up and running in a very different future. I hope it happens in early spring. You know why wait for the hurricanes and all five and the natural disasters. Last year i had to pleasure of hosting the Emergency Service center. One of the issues discussed at the time was a desperate need for system upgrades. Thank you very much for coming down to my district. Im sure this is something that you hear about all across the country as many move to the next gen services. What options are they looking to take advantage of Technology Improvements to help Emergency Service centers save lives and how much money would it take to upgrade the country to the next gen 911 service is . Its so important obviously it is a Public Safety issue if you could respond i would appreciate it. Thank you for your leadersh leadership. I enjoy spending time with you in the center. As a general figure, the range between nine to 12 billion to upgrade we need to have accurate uptodate information at the call centers and one step that we took was the vertical Location Information so that is for the very first time and the Public Safety responders know the height to accelerate Response Time thats part of a broad speaking upgrade so thanks for your work on this. Commissioner, youve long advocated for better use of spectrum in the the licensed and unlicensed spaces. The commission now working on repurposing and other commissioners repurposing the band that was unused for 20 years, can you talk about the benefits of bringing up the spectrum that has gone unused for so long and are the incumbents left with enough spectrum to engage in Safety Technologies . That does address. One of the reasons i like the proposal so much as it looks to the things ive been advocating for. It falls in line with things ive been pushing for into the commission is on the same page. She articulated the reasons the benefits come from having the six gigahertz early next year it is a combination of the two that we have already operational. Why channel those megahertz and the capacity. Ive seen upwards of 70 or 80 of the commercial wireless traffic Going Forward and thats what we are talking about. About. Its a benefit to the consumers and the Underlying Network itself and thats not imaginable in terms of how much cost and what we can spend the money on we are talking about trillions over a timeframe. The gentleman from north carolina. Thank you mr. Chairman. Let me also thank you for your testimony today. I say all the time you must have a special calling to Public Service. Thank you all for your service. To regulate my research over the last few days shows that despite a mandate the minority broadcast has never risen above 3. 1 . Womens ownership has never exceeded 6 so mike stand what you call that rate of ownership acceptable . Of course not. Last month the Third Circuit court of appeals ruled for the first time the commission failed to adequately facilitate and promote womens and minority owned media in light of that ruling will you commit to addressing the critically low rate of media ownership . The whole purpose was to get the disadvantaged communities into the broadcast business and that is part of the decision. They go gutted the primary diversity initiative. From 1970 to 1995, they provided a tax incentive to those that sold the majority interest to the minorities in file and place it boosted the number of stations from 40 to 323 and so what you call the program is active . What i can say is we are not waiting. No one can dispute that is an effective program. Let me go, the time goes fast. Earlier this year i introduced a bill that would put the tax certificate back in place and expand it to include women. Could you speak to the impact that it would have on women and minority broadcast ownership . There is no other policy tool we have had in history that has been as effective at diversifying the ownership. I think restoring the tax certificate is a great idea. Many expectant mothers simply do not have access to the medical resources necessary to receive treatment that they ne need. How can we use telemedicine to address the access to care . We should take this 100 milliondollar Pilot Project and address a national crisis. The United States is the only industrialized country with a rising rate of mortality and we know there are tools in the connected care that can help. When we do adopt the program, i would like to see one Healthcare Program because weve got to figure out how we solve this problem. Its a crisis and we need to s sit. Let me conclude. Our 2016 election was targeted by russian cyber hackers that sought to interfere with our election process. As the commission doing anything about it to secure . Thank you for the question and for your leadership on the issue. I look forward to continuing to work with you. We do know that it confirms the foreign actors tried to contact the 2016 the elections i 2016 e0 states and Voter Registration were attempted to be hacked into in illinois, florida, michigan, maryland, rhode island, wisconsin and dc still use Voting Machines that connect to the regular networks that means that they are susceptible to being hacked by what we call them see catchers and so this is something that i was focused on and i think that they have been tasked with focusing on a National Security. I cant think of any higher purpose than protecting. Democracy is at stake. The chair recognizes mr. Johnson for five minutes. To the rest of the commissi commission, thanks for all that you are doing. These issues are complex into the world is moving at lightning speed. In our Telecom Arena i appreciate what youre doing. They would first liki would firu personally for your recent decision. I think that it was the right decision to make following along is there anything we can do to help you execute that option. In the 2016 proposal to allow them to allocate a portion of the funding was for the Rural Broadband deployment is as you know all too well in the district there are many parts that we cant allocate. You dont have to hit me with that hammer too hard. I appreciate we will certainly be looking at that issue as well. What about regulations that might be roadblocks . Theres been a lot of discussion already. The decision doesnt create interference issues with Critical Infrastructure communications. Held at the end sure we can address the spectrum needs without creating interference with income . It is a Technical Analysis that will enable us to figure out the appropriate balance between the incumbent uses into the unlicensed operations. For example, one case where its a power plant in pittsburgh and unlicensed user in los angeles operating indoors at low power i think we could agree there wont be interference there. I think we can agree that there might be a problem there can we get a commitment from you, mr. Chairman to engage in a continuous dialogue with all the stakeholders as you move through the process including the wireless providers and First Responders to make sure that we do not mess up . To make sure that we hear their input as well. One thing that would be helpful, if they could come away from some of the hyperbole to get the analysis talked about, we want to get to the mass instant of preventing any consideration. As you have heard im a big believer when you put the stakeholders around the table and have a vested interest and come away with the right decisions for the right reasons so i would encourage you to continue that engagement. Wthis engagement. We have heard a lot of concerns about the maps for the past two Years Congress has appropriated funding to create an accurate map and you know my frustrations. I shared that with you. To what extent have deep within the broadband mapping efforts . Our staff has been working with them and others from the department of commerce. There is obviously some naivete on my part. I dont know why this is such a difficult problem, but it is continuing to be so. Do they plan to utilize the data once it is made available when you are making funding decisions on how to roll out the broadband . That is one of the things that we are looking at the end we will work with them and you. Before we move on i want to thank you for taking the time to come to my district. As you know, the Digital Opportunity fund holds immense opportunity as do the proceeds from the auction. So we have some opportunities to make some significant progress on the expansion and i appreciate your help and diligence to do that. Anthe gentle mansfields bac. I also want to thank the commissioners for being here today. I want to say first of all given my track record on the calling for a public auction in the recent commitment to the 80 megahertz of spectrum i do believe it is the best path forward to maximize including the Rural Broadband development and now that we have the task of competing proposals to raise allocate, i would urge all of you to establish an option. Im going to sound like a broken record but being from california i have to say the Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework in the commitment to improve Emergency Communications disasters. Most of the comments on improving specifically responded to reports from 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons. This work would help protect property and save lives. However in states like california with wildfires rapidly increasing there is an urgent need for the targeted recommendations to promote the resiliency. Yesterday i sent you a letter representing Sheila Thompson urging the specific recommendations in framework. Will you commit to me to include the consideration framework moving forward . I havent had a chance to review but the framework includes all types of disasters. It doesnt exclude wildfires. There hasnt been a particular emphasis. Regularly now i would like to have unanimous consent to put the letter into the record. Without objection, so ordered. January 3 of this year on coordinating with Power Companies, the coordination with the companies caused widespread confusion and jeopardize Public Safety and have one you. Has the fcc made improvements to the framework based upon the investigation when will it be completed at they are looking at the framework and they are also giving aggressive outreach to the Communications Companies but at the end ive emphasized Public Companies need to cooperate. We dont have jurisdiction over energy companies. We told them to do something and i would welcome the subcommittees action on this because at the end of the day if he were they were a consumer anr district is affected you dont care whether it is the telecom or Power Company that dropped the ball. All you knows you dont have 911. There is a loud voice they can provide to the committee and the fcc putting a special emphasis on this because without meaningful action we will learn a valuable lesson to save lives in the future. It starts earlier and ends later and devastation is unbelievable. It is a process that has escalated. For the secure and trusted network act and a congressman to prohibit the funding from being used to purchase equipment. The bill also help communication providers removed equipment from the network and place it with you secure equipment helping small or Rural Wireless providers is a necessary step to boost National Security and i continue to push for the consideration of the bill. They recently voted to prohibit the funding from being used it did not commit to replacing the equipment. Do you believe there is a need for the federal government to support these to identify and replace existing equipment . Thank you for the question and for your leadership on this. I think its imperative that we focus on those carriers that do have this trustworthy equipment. I see that ive ran out of time already so i will yield back. The chair recognizes mr. Long for five minutes. Thank you all for being here today. I appreciate your work ethic and commitment to freeing up additional spectrum licensed and unlicensed and in particular the midband of spectrum. We are excited about the agenda moving forward on the plan and the use of the 5. 9 spectrum for the use of wifi and moving forward there is more that needs to be considered for that equal amounts of spectrum on the licensed and unlicensed use before i get into some of that the whole committee used to have a good bit and they were out hunting one night in mississippi and have one of their buddies took off his shoes and climbed up with a sharp stick to knock it out and have the dog did it have on the ground. Two into this big fight, they were screaming and at it. One of the buddies o bodies on d had a pistol and the guy hollered and said that i cantt a player i might get you. He said one of us has to have some relief. [laughter] [laughter] to get the views of the executive branch per ago they requested time to revise that recommendation. How long ago was that quex. The new deadline is tomorrow. When did they request. Four weeks ago. I hope they will meet the deadline i could get back to you on that. One of the things we are looking to do is to get reviews to move forward. I hope you can go to them and tell them after four years thats how much time we need to get this wrapped up. Given the recent decision with the cbn are you committed to the public option on auction in 2020 quex. Yes before the end of 2020. Are you committed to ensuring satellite incumbents have those requirements of additional clearing within 18 months within 36 months of the fcc order quex. Thats one of the things we are working on now i would anticipate with the proposal introduced to the commission for consideration early next year thats one of the things we will be focused on its important to get the spectrum allocated quickly. As part of the controversy 30 Years Experience that is the most transparent way to move forward. And to go way above those first estimates i would hope to get this done in a timely fashion because i think its vital and they still think we should change your name. [laughter] we can get things done. I appreciate your efforts trying to get that moved along because thats a big hurdle i am very hopeful you can speed the process along. Just to be clear first the committee has to act to designate you as the auctioneer. I yield back. [laughter] and wasnt sure where you are going with that story. [laughter] its good to have everybody here everybodys reports are terrific we have a new chairman everybody gets along alas the first question. Is he doing okay . Is he doing okay . Talk about the spectrum auction we are all elated the commission supports the chairmans decision to have a public auction that is somewhere mister doyle has credit and my republican colleagues as well because there is real opportunity here with a shared sense of purpose that the democrats have so i just want to say that decision is important but things that are a part of that with the implementation is do we use the processes for dedicated funds there is unity here about wanting to get broadband out to rural newark new york and vermont and its so hard. If you have proceeds in the dedicated funds. Maybe you could speak on him and asked the chairman to. The first we have to learn how to properly incentivize them to return their spectrum there are legitimate questions under title iii of the act we may need your help to make that authority more clear. You had billions of dollars that may come in talk about those billions of dollars to solve a public problem. We have a huge problem those i cant do their homework with this legislation and i hope we do. Chairman. Congressman i could not agree more. And with our rural dividend. With that proposal at the time the fcc has conducted 1 billion worth of options think of that was allocated for Rural Broadband that would be a major change. If a fund is created it with mapping problem and then to be distributing dollars that are problematic. That is a very practical suggestion if we create a fund because if we dont its very difficult to actually deliver for Rural America. The second thing is to have standards to future proof the speed and quality of the broadband that goes out there. Right now it could be 25 three and you dont think that is adequate for Rural America quex. With the rural part we could increase. Heres a question just eliminate that. We know that is dumbing down why dont we just get rid of 253 . There would be excitement in the Rural Communities they are getting broadband and if people are given that opportunity then its better than zero we have to establish the standards and just ask for comments from you but you were in iowa i know what are your thoughts about establishing a High Standard as opposed to a low standard that would perpetually make rule america secondclass citizens quex. I do appreciate you want to give us much capacity to everyone in america but i will tell you the dollars will flow to the easiest places to serve in those that havent been served will continue to be ignored. I think the request that you have to play a role in this is not just the benefit of rural citizens for those entrepreneurs who want to make quex money. We need audacious goals for broadband. Thank you mister chai chair, commissioner pai since the fcc began reviewing in 2017 how much has changed in the communication space . We have already expecting 95 g deployments by us carriers by the end of this year. This comes a clear need for more advanced than we have been talking about. Have you thought about licensing some of those spectrum in the six gigahertz instead of hoping that all up quex. I appreciate the question our focus has been on unlicensed operation but we have been listening to other stakeholders that support that approach and we will move ahead with that in mind. With some of those be emergency communication or utility folks quex. There is a wide variety of stakeholders that involve that constituency. We need to make sure this spectrum can benefit all people in the space and make sure we get that right i come from indiana a huge automotive state i want to commend the commission the notes for the proposed rulemaking it has been underutilized i also cochair the five g caucus with the five g Automotive Association one of the greatest concerns talking constituents about Autonomous Vehicles is everyone remains concerned about safety. Thats the number one issue but that proposal that i have learned what i didnt really know much about and i certainly think the american citizens know little or nothing about to have access to that spectrum band i understand there is five g version that needs to be considered that regardless of how the commission proceeds that safety is paramount so how are you prioritizing because people are still very concerned the auto boot automated emergency moving forward how are we prioritizing road and automobile safety and how can we ensure it will be protected regardless of how its allocated. Your congress a question congresswoman is so important to allocate those megahertz which will allow those safety applications but even beyond that banned this commission under my leadership has demonstrated its commitment to Vehicle Safety i propose we allocate portions five gigahertz spectrum for the automotive safety for what you are talking about. How are we working with the automotive industry. I think the chairman has good done a good job to set up the discussion he has acknowledged the needs of auto safety so my hope Going Forward we could accommodate both. And how are we working with industry to develop these technologies to make sure you are informed sufficiently quex. We have been working on this issue quite a while not only that they have migrated their views and have moved away but one thing that could be helpful and i have not been able to do is whatever portion remains to push the Auto Companies to actually use safety those that dont want to commit thats problem so we have dedicated for safety not advertising a parking spot or like other ideas that are out there. I yield back. Thank you chairman doyle i have serious concerns of the fcc providing little notice to the committee before taking actions like the 9,000,000,000. 5 g fund announced yesterday. That proposal raises many questions that need to be answered including how the money would be spent in addition our members only get answers hours before a hearing so there is bipartisan agreement you need to do better and i expect so as we go forward but i want to ask questions about resiliency whats important in my district we were most impacted by super storm sandy and worried about all thes hurricanes now with Climate Change getting worse. I have repeatedly urged the fcc to improve the Resiliency Communications and networks in the wake of disasters but i feel that my concerns are falling on deaf ears so its time for congress to step in since 2018 the fcc has issued two reports with recommendations how to improve Network Safety as part of an investigation in the comptroller general with recommendations on which want comptroller general so i am assuming youve all had the opportunity to review this but just to be sure if nobody has not reviewed these reports please raise your hand. That means you all have. Do any of you disagree with the recommendations in the reports that they have if implemented could improve the Communication Network . Raise your hand if you disagree. I dont expect anybody to raise their hand. [laughter] thats good i appreciate that we are generally in agreement to use this as a baseline so commissioner you have focused on this issue so beyond that recommendation what more should we be considering quex. We need to update the wireless resiliency framework the gao told us a few years ago they dont how to measure it or enforce it theyve got work to do since that time we have issued for Public Notices we need to stop asking for comment and start fixing it. I certainly agree. The Trump Administration is known for experts. And with tmobile or sprint questions have been raised about the transparency of the expert analysis. And i publicly said i am concerned about the allocations. So raising concerns about the process. The largest merger of Wireless Companies in the nations history. And pay more for the wireless bills Going Forward as a result and heres the problem. Before we had engineering, legal or Economic Analysis the majority of the commission announced they would support it. Then the department of justice reorganize the entire transaction they took a lot of meetings but then they denied the public to come in and comment. Then rewrote the original draft from the expert staff and put on the back of major competition at issues. We should ask for a copy of the original draft because their glaring differences between that will be issued publicly and thats what they should know is what was changed and why. We will certainly follow up on that so commissioner, and with those related to the merger can you elaborate quex. Yes. When the chairman announced of the lifeline violations we should pause the review of the transaction and in particular and then more doing more before we allow the transaction to go forward. That in fact that are now more like the investigation and that confirmed there would be more time of what went forward. One of the things that would highlight for you is calling with enforcement action there are two phases. The first is a clawback. So whatever proper in perceived all the money should come back. The second is a penalty phase where there are improprieties. I expect significant action on both fronts. Thank you mister chairman. Want to start by thanking you all for your work to help us and illegal robo calls we passed the house yesterday it is a big milestone. Also thank you for next weeks anticipated action around 988 mister chairman you highlighted that your opening comments for a National Suicide hotline. Montana has the highest suicide rate in the country with 164,000 that have some form of Mental Health condition 600,000 montanans out of a population over a million, 60 percent live in an area where there is a shortage of Mental Health with a Mental Health care they were reworked to expand Telehealth Services to expand to Critical Care this access to Mental Health and why this 988 is so important so thank you for your anticipated action. Commissioner i want to thank you for your coming to montana and to see firsthand the challenges that you face and you mentioned while you were there you have been over well to 30 states over the country the cell phone is the worst anywhere in the country so i appreciate you feeling the pain with us. Also improving our maps which is a path forward to fix the problem and mapping legislation moving through congress a lot of emphasis is to put a workable challenge process to correct some of these so could you just talk about commissioner why a challenge process is so important to develop sound maps making good decisions. Thank you for your leadership the drive from missoula up to great falls one of the most beautiful i have done but zero bars the entire way. So i was talking to my sec the colleague the whole time. [laughter] it has to be right no matter what community you are in you are seeing the investments needed to give you conductivity Mental Health services youre working on the initiative that allows people to teleport to work thats a great economic boost whether lower cost of living that makes a big difference there as well. What a challenge or validation process improve that quex. We have to have a mechanism in place. And then to build out without funding. Thank you for listening to my concerns and i applied your announcement moving forward with the public auction as you move forward to clear other spectrum on five g this has been raised to other members to make sure incumbents are at the table with the electric utilities and those railroads are using some of the spectrum. So Ranking Member walden raised an issue earlier with the recent fcc npr m proposals definition of urban which is at a population of 2500 so those standards we operate as an agricultural state the farm bill piece of legislation that affects all Agricultural Producers in the definition is there a way we could think these two. Im considering with a low bar of 2500 population that this would exclude many communities can we just make it 50000 in sync that with the farm bill quex. Coming from what i thought was ruling kansas so i do think there is a priority for all federal agencies to have a consistent definition. I yield back. I appreciate very much to the people of our great country with tremendous responsibilities on your shoulders i want to start off applauding you as americans continue to depend more and more on technology the decisions you make have an incredible impact to shape our lives. Several colleagues sent a letter of the teethree spectrum with the five g technology was glad to receive your response a couple weeks ago and now the commission is proceeding with the public auction to give the people the transparency and accountability they deserve it is a crucial process to help maintain americas standing is a Global Leader in technology i applaud the commissions continued efforts of the unlicensed spectrum to make more room for increasing wifi needs we can continue to close the homework gap and stream favorite entertainment. Now going to a different topic over a year ago the fcc unanimously approved a hearing designation order in the sinclair tribune merger. In that document their substantial immaterial questions of fact whether sinclair affirmatively omitted material facts with the intent to consummate this transaction without fully complying with the broadcast ownership rules. Earlier this year the fcc Administrative Law judge stated in her ruling that honesty with the commission is a foundational requirement for a commission license and referred to section one. 17 of fcc rules when she wrote mandates fcc licensees deal truthfully with the agency not only by refraining from misrepresenting information but also by not omitting Material Information that is necessary to prevent any material factual statement made from being incorrect or misleading. Then five months ago it was reported in the press that media bureau had an investigation into sinclair i know my colleagues and i would be happy to know more about this investigation but i want to focus on what the Administrative Law judge said that honesty before the agency is foundational to hold the broadcast license. This is important as renewals are set starting next year and the American Public should be aware to have all the information about broadcasters we have given their public ability to. So my first question, t19 do you believe that lying to the agency the fcc is a serious issue quex. Yes. Yes or no do you agree with the Administrative Law judge that honesty is foundational to hold a license . Yes. Thank you do you believe an entity that has lied to the agency should be held accountable if they have lied . Yes within law and regulation and precedent. If they have lied to the agency be eligible to hold a license . If they have lied in the pastor recently. Material to holding of the license . Yes. I just want to be clear. Commissioner do you agree with those questions and answer answers . Did the chairman say they should or should not be able to hold a license . Thank you for the clarification. For example if they have an application that for some reason they have materially found that they lied to the fcc and hold other licenses and then are up for renewal should that be a material fact to determine if they have the integrity given the responsibility to hold those licenses as well quex. I will reiterate the Administrative Law judge says that honesty good dishonesty bad. Bad meaning it is a trust to hold the license to be granted a license so therefore if they were bad actors and actually lied to the organization that bestows a license perhaps they should not be given that opportunity again. Congressmen i think that is a serious value that we cherish that the committee values as well. I yield back. The chair recognizes mister warez so i thank you for your service and for being here today. Commissioner pai as you and i have discussed. To see in the recent npr m with respect that you are saving part of that spectrum. I do have a share of concerns from the Transportation Industry of the uncertainty of the future and significant Investment Research put into this technology so far. The npr m has a spectrum do we have any analysis to show it will continue Adequate Research for this standard quex. Back to the japanese and others have allocated part of it involves making sure we have enough where most of the automakers have shifted their focus thats one reason i wanted to make sure we have an open conversation about the 10 megahertz portion so the case is based on the merits not a particular political appeal. I understand both the fcc and nhtsa was in a three phase process with access devices. Now that we have added to the mix how do you see that process evolving . Remake this is part of the reason why this approach is the right one for automotive safety under previous auto motion framework that testing would be required over use cases by separating the two with automotive safety on one hand and then a separate part of that we can avoid the problems expensive testing requires you have to do extensive testing to know that our hope is this removes the uncertainty removing those technologies to be developed to put into use for American Consumers. This is a public resource devoted to automotive safety and that my colleagues would agree the steps we are poised to take next week truly would be the biggest benefit for automotive safety consumers have seen in history. I appreciate your feedback and how thoughtful you have been to putting this out for the public i look forward to seeing the comments in this regard. Commissioner you supported comments in the past about reviews to more efficiently consider applications i plan to reintroduce legislation to codify the fcc Current Practice to use 180 day shot clock for the commission to consider the merger application this common sense provision would give more certainty to the industry and consumers can you speak about having a more efficient review process quex. Whatever decision we should come to should be done in a timely manner the time that we spend as those transmit transactions go thats money spent on lawyers and bankers and not in terms of deployment and networks and services and thats a problem we can speed up the process thats one thing that you have an open ended timeframe the chairman does a wonderful job to speeded up compared to the past Anything Congress do is very helpful. Are there any other lessons the fcc learned that we should be aware of . Is that considered legislation to codify that shot clock 180 days quex. Thats in other situations not just larger transactions i have a number of different idea ideas. We will work with you on tha that. I yield back the balance of my time. The chair recognizes ms. Clark for five minutes. Thank you to the Ranking Member and all commissioners for their presentations before us today. I would like to start with the idea every citizen in our nation regardless of income or race or National Origin has to be concerned in the next couple of weeks and that is the 2020 census. For the first time in the enumeration of our nation we will be doing this online and i want to start with you commissioner because during your district to brooklyn on the podcast we visited the topic a few times but for the first time broadband desert has taken on another dynamic or dimension with the whole basic rights true and fundamental to our democracy is part of the representation. That is because for the very first time we will be conducting this primarily online. But we know that millions of people are at risk because they lack access to the internet and could be hard to count even without. So do you see a risk to this approach and what can we be doing to make sure everybody is counted quex. Thank you for the question there is enormous risk we all those sitting at this table we have a Digital Divide with broadband deficit in urban and Rural America. Now we have a constitutional duty and administration has decided Digital First they will tell everyone to respond online with 125,000 people i will tell you right now i am worried we cannot count people you are on the wrong side of the Digital Divide urban and Rural America and what it will have constitutional consequences i think this commission has to health the department of commerce to make sure we get it right we only get the shot once every ten years and we have to get it right. I thank you for that and i hope we are focused on this because indeed we get one shot and it happens once every ten years. Commissioner i am concerned the fcc is not complying with existing law specifically it has not followed the statutory mandate to collect equal opportunity Employment Data for cable operators. Even though they recently sought comment on the enforcement it has made no moves to implement. Can you describe this decision and what steps this longstanding failure to comply quex. Thank you for the question. From behind the camera to the front of the camera to who makes the decision of what local news really looks like i believe diversity is imperative that we solve this issue. We have a statutory duty to collect this information and we have fallen down on that duty. I have requested that we specifically satisfy that and there are constitutional questions i thought it should be part of the comment. Im frustrated those that have constitutional issues by asking constitutional questions. So now im eager the Comment Period has ended we can move forward quickly to make sure we satisfy her statutory obligations. Absolutely as cochair i understand the importance as being held the goldilocks of frequencies so that has questions for each commissioner. With regards to the teethree spectrum is that critical for the us leadership with five g quex. Yes. Is that critical for the us leadership with five g quex. Yes. It seems if its not made available the us will fall further behind china or five g deployment. We are not behind china. I said if not made available soon will be fall behind china. We could, yes. Yes. I said if its not done soon could be fall further behind. China will not beat us to five g. I will disagree we are falling behind we are with the fg world that spectrum is one of the ways to fix it. Yes and we need to move as quickly as possible. I appreciate your answer i yield back. The chair would request unanimous consent and now the chair recognizes for five minutes. Also thank you to the commissioner sorry i could not be here at the beginning of this really important hearing i was in another subcommittee on Climate Change pushing a 100 percent clean economy and this is very much tied to what you talk about here and work that you do. Getting permission to start a caucus that is one of the issues we have to come to terms on so your work is pivotal. Thank you for your service and also to see how incredibly important it is to understand the decisions that you made and the strategy as it involves america and the economy then he brought up the issue of Broadband Access and i am concerned that some of the actions you have taken that i am also concerned we are not as far as we need to be. Specifically i want to share an issue thats personal for me. In delaware the coverage maps suggest the entire stage of delaware has at least one provider that provides 25 megabits per second but from my own personal experience driving up and down my state in the city or on the farm we have patches where there is not access so this is a priority and i appreciate the willingness to adopt the approach to resolve some of these issues come it seems not as precise particularly when you measure through census tracts in a small state like delaware that has a great impact so i want to ask a question about the rejection of the proposal with the fabric approach that is more granular and also bipartisan support. Could you share why the fcc would have more realistic coverage quex. I appreciate the question with the concerns that you raised with delaware driving from wilmington i noticed the bar start to drop. And in the urban areas as well thats why we are focused to make sure we have more accurate data. With the question that you have raised i am proud the agency spoke with that bipartisan voice is the new Digital Opportunity and collection are we included crowdsourcing to understand where they live and where accesses and more importantly where it is not. And to have that data driven decisions there are a lot of things but at the end of the day where is broadband to get as granular as we can to understand the challenges that are out there. I also want to turn to the commissioner to get your interpretation i know the advisory is over but. I work on these issues all the time. We have to get the most granular data possible so if we can improve that with a broadband location and thats where we need to go next so it included both and just as important those driving up and down the roads to delaware tell us when they get bars and when they dont get service we have to have premium crowdsourcing and knowledge to refine this to the next level. I agree as well. I think that was a tremendous problem. So i have also been somebody that said the problems that are a good place to start in those levels i have called for and so we need to make sure we get as detailed as possible. And to the other commissioners quex. I will hear from you thank you for your work and for your leadership semi thanks to the gentle lady if nobody else to go into the record letter sent to me dated december 3rd from commissioner pai a letter from the Motor Equipment Manufacturer Association and the ultra wideband alliance and the Safety Advocates and global automakers in the Public Transit utility organizations and a statement from the National Safety council without objection so ordered. Thank you the witnesses for their participation in todays hearing. I remind all members pursuant to Committee Rules we have ten Business Days to submit additional questions for the record and i ask each witness to any questions you may receive and i wish all the members a happy Holiday Season its good to see you back and everyone in the audience. The committee is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]