Transcripts For CSPAN3 FCC Oversight Hearing 20171025

The subcommittee on communications and technology will now come to order. And the chair recognizes herself for five minutes for an Opening Statement. And i do want to welcome each and every one of you. Obviously a hearing of interest as we have a full room in front of us. And it is our first hearing in 2017 with a fully formed federal Communications Commission as often seems to be the case, the senate takes their dear ever loving time to get things done, but im pleased to see that the commission is back up to speed and ill tell you i am pleased that we have five members of this commission and they have different points of view to bring to the discussion on all things telecom related. I think that is healthy for the telecommunications and technology industry. Were here today to conduct oversight of the agency which is this subcommittees primary role. It is very important that we fulfill these obligations because we have given the fcc a Critical Mission and critical task to fulfill. From the commissions Disaster Response efforts to its work supporting the deployment of rural broad band to its efforts to streamline and modernize the Regulatory Environment impacting some of americas greatest creators and innovators, you are all doing important work and we appreciate what you do. One of the fccs many jobs is to regulate broadcasters who accept and fulfill unique Public Interest obligations due to their use of valuable public spectrum. While we were in the final stages of planning for this routine oversight hearing, some of my colleagues asked that the committee hold an entire hearing about comments by the president on twitter regarding certain broadcasters work. So i fully expect them to question the trump tweets and chairman pai, since we have a very full slate of issues, my hope is that you will address that concern so that we can focus on the work and responsibilities of the commission. The commission has conducted entirely appropriate oversight of broadcast licenses. There is no indication it has any interest in regulating political content, unlike some in our chamber who have urged the fcc to adopt a new fairness doctrine mandating that broadcasters provide equal time to the opposition if they allow anyone to express any type of political opinion on air. The outrage over the president s twitt twitter musing stands in contrast to the silence as twitter cuts off the voices of anyone who posts something they just dont like for whatever reason. All this on a platform so powerful and far reaching that you could argue that it is the modern day public square. And some on twitter have even called to suspend the president s account and after my recent experience i will say i wouldnt put it past some people. The latest twitter scandal is an attempt to distract from the commission and the American People from the fccs real work which is delivering on a mission to unleash American Innovation. So chairman pai, no matter what questions are said, i hope that were going to stick to keeping our eye on the ball and making certain that we address things like media ownership rules, the Life Line Program, the imperatives of expanding rural broad band and restoring a free and open internet. That is something that we want to see done by the end of this year. And at this time i yield one minute to the vice chairman of this subcommittee mr. Lance. Thank you very much, chair and welcome to chairman pai and the full complement of commissioners. What a goodlooking group. Thank you for appearing before us today. Since our last oversight hearing in july the commission has continued its work on issues such as Disaster Relief and recovery and the communities affected by the recent hurricanes, commercial spectrum availability, Fraud Prevention and closing the Digital Divide. Also moving forward in the process to roll back the misguided title to reclassification of isps from the Previous Administration. We have recently taken a bipartisan step forward in reauthorizing the fcc for the ff for the First Time Since 1990. I also thank commissioner o riley for joining me in the district i serve in august for a 5g industry round table. I commend his leadership for infrastructure policies that will be important in our efforts to win the race to 5g. Thank you all for being here and i look forward to your testimony. Gentlemen yields back. Mr. Doyle, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, madame chair for holding this hearing and thank you to all the witnesses for appearing before us today. Let me just say that i really enjoy our time here together as im sure all of you do and i would encourage the chairman to continue to hold these get togethers far more often. Commission, welcome back. Your work on the homework gap has been missed. Commissioner carr, congratulations on your confirmation. I hope that as you establish your agenda that you remember that the guiding principle of the fcc is to act in the publics interest. Its a standard that i will hold you to as well. Chairman pai, many people around the country, including myself, and many of colleagues are deeply alarmed by your response to the president trumps threats against the media and specifically his tweet threatening nbc. In 2014 you wrote in the wall street journal that the government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories. You took six days to respond to the president s tweet and when you did, you did not directly address the president s threat at all or its chilling effects on the media. While the president and the administration can dispute the veracity of any story, even ones that are true, they cannot attack the free institutions that enable our democracy. As senator flake said yesterday, it is time for our complicity and our accommodation of the unacceptable to end. Besides this issue, the commissions agenda under your leadership has already had a profoundly negative effect on our country. From increasing costs on Small Businesses, driving up the cost of calls to family members in prison and claiming that wireless broad band is competitive even when people in Rural America know its not, it seems that in every fork of the road you have chosen the path that leads to higher consumer costs, fewer choices, and less innovation. And if it sounds as if the worst is yet to come, news reports suggest that you will unveil plans tomorrow to vastly alter the media landscape in this country clearing the way for more media consolidation including the sinclair tr tha local news was gathered and reported locally. What good would a studio and reporters in new york have done for broadcast stations in houston or florida after the hurricanes . What good is local news if it isnt local . Other news reports suggest you will announce an order to repeal the fccs open Internet Order around thanksgiving. Madame chairman, i sincerely hope that if this is true that we have a chance to talk to the commission in advance of a vote on that order. The idea that such a significant order that would affect so much of our economy would be voted on without oversight is unconscionable and would be a dereliction of this committees duties. If the chairman is intent to act, i believe that his action should be done under the scrutiny of congress and in the light of the public. That concludes what i want to say and im going to yield the remaining part of my time. I thank the gentleman for yielding his remaining time to me. I want to society myself with our Ranking Members comments, particularly to what the president said that was a direct assault on the First Amendment and with all due respect to you, mr. Chairman, youre delayed and rather tepid response to that. I want to place verbally in the record the First Amendment of the constitution of our country. It was written without objection. Thank you. December 15th, 1791. It is as new and as important today as the day that it was adopted. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Or a bridging the freedom of speech or of the press. They were very clear. They were very clear. Or the right of the people piece ibly to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. I hope you will choose to enlarge on the Public Statement you put out and i will yield back the remainder of my time. Gentleman yields back. At this time i recognize the chairman of the full energy and Commerce Committee mr. Walden who has been in the chair all day long with the hearing downstairs. Recognized for five minutes. Thank you. I want to welcome commissioner carr, welcome aboard. Were glad to have you here. Welcome back commissioner rosen. Its good to see you on the commission and we look forward to continuing our work with you and the other members, chairman pai thank you for being here and for your leadership. I couldnt agree with more with chairman blackburn that this commission has some very important work to do. The United States has weathered a large share of Natural Disasters including wildfires that have devastated hundreds of thousands of acres in my home state and we know the tragedies all across the west. These weather events have shown the importance of maintaining the most reliable Communication Systems possible and we certainly owe the work many of us are engaged in on first net going clear back to 2012 and we need to make sure that works as planned. I look forward to hearing updates on the agencys contributions, the federal relief efforts under way in these areas as well as those impacted by hurricanes irma, harvey and maria. Some of the affected areas are almost back up to speed, which is great thanks to a lot of hard work on both industry and government. We know were facing enormous challenges elsewhere in restoring essential services in placing like puerto rico and the Virgin Islands as well as others here on the main land. We appreciate the commissions efforts to streamline permitting, advance funding and provide much needed assistance in these situations. We also appreciate the commissions work to keep us informed through a briefing on fcc hurricane response efforts we requested and that the Chairmans Team quickly provided. Thank you for doing that. As 2017 draws to a close, we find ourselves waiting on a number of key items to emerge from the commission. In no way does this committee expect our oversight to delay the commissions important work. Rather hearings like this are vital to keeping open lines of communication and exposing commissioners and Committee Members alike to different perspectives, yielding better understanding and better decision making. We expect the commissions work to go on regardless just as it did under the Previous Administration. Subcommittee continues its work having just finished a markup on an fcc reauthorizization bill for the first time in many years. Thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their work on this effort. Last month we held hearing on the challenges and opportunities presented by the repacking process that the commission has embarked upon. I commend the commissions continuing efforts to release funding, work with every broadcaster to ensure their needs are being met as this transition evolves. Your input has been and will continue to be extremely important to this committee as we look at options to solve the remaining issues. We know there are some out there. Some of my colleagues may wish to use this opportunity as a form to rehash once again the arguments for dumping cutting edge broad band Internet Service into the steal musty bucket that is title 2. In any case, anyone if anyone was wondering, my position hasnt changed on that. I dont sense others have. This commission should not be dis which upended stacks of commission precedent, disregard le reams of legislative history to achieve the results that were demanded by president barack obama. Its up to the commission to set the regulatory conditions. I hope to see a new bar set in this regard before the end of the year. Ultimately congress is the appropriate forum to settle the debate. I think you hear a little of that passion here on both sides. Ive been continuing my efforts to negotiate a compromise. Although my staff continues to engage the parties in discussions toward that end, my colleagues in the minority have unfortunately seemed largely uninterested in this point. Id love to see that change. The door remains open. Were willing to codify for providing certainty to all participants in the internet ecosystem. I dont think we need title 2 to do that. We have the same end goal. Preserving the internet as a free, open, dynamic environment while also doing everything we can to extend its benefits to every american. We should be able to Work Together to clear this issue off our plates. With that again i thank the commission for being here today. Were glad to see you fully constituted and confirmed and as you can imagine, we have a lot of issues to hear from you on and to have good discourse back and forth. Thanks again and with that i yield back. Gentleman yields back. Anyone seeking the remainder of the chairmans time . No one else. The gentleman yields back. At this time youre recognized. Thank you, madame chairman and Ranking Member doyle for holding this hearing today. I appreciate that youre maintaining the subcommittee of oversight of the fcc. I know some people here today would prefer you wouldnt. Congressional oversight is important because the fcc is on a path to take up a number of controversial issues in the next few months. Nonetheless its curious this hearing is scheduled for today in particular just one day before chairman pai is expected to make public at least one proposal that enriches a Single Company above others and that would clear out any last obstacles to the purchase of Tribune Media company. They would be buying the second largest. The chairman has claimed it is simply coincidence that has actions are timed to benefit sinclare. Now chairman pai has refused to respond to my questions about allegations about his relationship with sinclaire and this does not help put anyones concerns to rest. These moves are another example of how this fcc values Large Companies over small ones and always puts companies before consumers. The most glaring example of this of course is chairman pais commitment to eviscerate Net Neutrality protections. It protects consumers, Small Businesses and free speech and i hope the fcc is spending this time reviewing the millions of comments that have been filed including from the democratic members of this committee. I also hope the fcc considers the thousands of consumer complaints that have been made public since the Comment Period closed. These common straight that consumer problems with broad band providers much farther reaching than the fcc proposed rule making lets on. Together these items have the potential to remake the way americans communicate. And in taking on these issues the fcc must find a way to insulate itself from the political pressure from the president. Chairman pai has claimed that he has restored independence to the fcc yet he refuses repeatedly to put any distance between himself and president trump. Whether its neutrality, or even protecting a free press. That evasiveness does not inspire confidence. Ive said many times and i think ive told some of the Commission Members that i remember earlier this year when sean spicer was at a press conference and he said that the president would have the fcc repeal Net Neutrality before the fcc even addressed the issue. So again, it just seems that everything is whatever the president wants and theres really no independence at all on Net Neutrality or the other issues. The fcc has a long tradition of bipartisan ship, but unfortunately thats simply not the case today. Hard working American Consumers and future congresses are sure to take a dim view of the current partisan politics at the fcc and its time to restore that bipartisan tradition. I thank the chairman and the commissioners for all being here today and i have id like to yield a minute each to mr. Mcner the words Public Interest appear over 100 times in the Communications Act but by taking steps to limit access to information and content the commission has gone against what i think is the publics interests. This is evidenced by the commissions current efforts to dismantle Net Neutrality protections and by steps the commission has taken to undercut localism to eliminate the main studio rule. These and other actions signaling favorable treatment for sinclaire. Then there was the chairmans initial silence regarding the president s threat to revoke broadcast licenses on the basis of viewpoints followed by the chairman making a statement but one that was too late and insufficient. Im disappointed in these actions on the effect they will have. With that i yield. Thank you very much. Thank you for yielding. In order to expand broad band di employment its important we accelerate or work. Additional spectrum is necessary to expan coverage across rule america and capacity across all of america. We must also focus unlocking spectrum that will allow new and Innovative Technologies to grow. The internet of things and connect tiff devices. All this to rely on access to spectrum and invisible infrastructure of the 21st century. Access to the spectrum will depend on the fcc conducting options that will allow additional low, mid and high event spectrum to be delivered to commercial users. That is why congressman guthrie and i introduced the spectrum option deposits act yesterday. Without this fix future options may be put on hold indefinitely. I look forward to working together to enact this into law. With that i yield back. I see no other members requesting time so this concludes our Opening Statements. I would like to remind members that pursuant to the Committee Rules, all members Opening Statements will be made a part of the record. We want to thank our witnesses for taking the time to be here today. And for preparing for the hearing submitting your testimony. We do appreciate this. Todays witnesses will have the opportunity to give Opening Statements followed by the questions that are going to come from our members. Our Witness Panel for todays hearing, the honorable brenda carr, chairman pai, we appreciate that you all are here for this and is the tradition of this subcommittee we will go in the order of seniority. So chairman pai, you will be first followed by commissioner c clyburn. So chairman pai, you are recognized for five minutes for an Opening Statement. Thank you. Chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle, thank you for holding this hearing today. I appreciate this opportunity to update you on the fccs work to advance the Public Interest. That work has been substantial. In my rwritten statement i outlined progress in four key areas, bridging the Digital Divide, modernizing our regulations and combatting unwanted robo calls. Additionally i commended the Sub Committee for his work on reauthorizing the fcc. Of particular importance is the provision just mentioned that would allow the deposits placed by bidders in spectrum options to be sent to the treasury. Without this measure the fcc wont be ail to launch a large spectrum option for the foreseeable future. But this morning id like to address an area of concern for all members and for me. The First Amendment. I have said again and again and again that the First Amendment must be ti heaat the heart of o work. That is why i oppose the study, an ill conceived initiative which would have involved sending government funded agents into news rooms to second guess editorial judgment. Thats why just last month i spoke at the museum about the importance of the First Amendment. My record on these issues is clear. These issues are not new. President kennedy targeted the Washington Post and nbc direct lie telling one of my predecessors that a particular story was outrageous and to, quote, do something about it. More recently some have said that the fcc should reject a transaction involving the transfer of fcc broadcast licenses because of editorial judgments. And six members of this very committee, including the current Ranking Members of the committee and subcommittee once demanded that the fcc investigate a broadcaster based solely on the content of a documentary that they didnt like and that hadnt even aired. Let me be clear. I stand on the side of the First Amendment. I firmly believe that journalists should heed to their viewers, their listeners, and their readers, not the dictates of officials in washington, d. C. Dont just trust my words. If you believe the federal government has no business intervening in the news, then we must stop the federal government from intervening in the news business. That is why this afternoon i shared with my fellow commissioners an order that will inform our media ownership rules and help pull the government out of the newsroom. We will vote on this order at our november 16th meeting. The marketplace today is nothing like it was in 1975. Newspapers are shutting down. Many radio and tv stations are struggling, especially in smaller and rural markets. Online competition for the collection and distribution of news is even greater than it ever was. And just two Internet Companies claim 100 of recent Online Advertising growth. In deep, their digital add revenue alone this year will be greater than the market cap of the entire broadcasting industry. And yet the fccs rules still presume that the market is defined entirely by pulp and rabbit ears. As one newspaper has put it, making the argument that the current rules are outdated is easy. That radical right wing rag was the New York Times in 2003. If this order is adopted the fcc will recognize reality and match our rules to the modern marketplace. First the order will once and for all eliminate the newspaper broadcast cross ownership rule. As president clinton first fcc chairman has explained fcc rule is per verse. Second, the item will eliminate the Radio Division cross ownership rule which is unnecessary in todays marketplace given the commissions separate local radio and local Television Ownership rules. Third, it will revise the local Television Ownership rule to eliminate the eight voices test and incorporate a case by case review of the top four prohibition. This better reflects the local markets. Finding the jsa has served the Public Interest by allowing broadcasters to better serve their local markets. Fifth, it will retain the disclosure requirement for shared Services Agreements involving commercial television stations. And sixth, it will finally, finally establish an Incubator Program to encourage greater diversity in and new entry into the media business. And seek comment on what the details of that program should be. And unlike under the Prior Administration, i have ordered that the text of this decision be made publicly available tomorrow, three weeks before we vote on it. That, too, is news that is fit to print. Chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle, members of the committee, thank you once again for holding this hearing and i look forward to answering your questions. We thank the chairman. Commissioner, youre recognized for five minutes. Chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle and members of the subcommittee, good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to once again appear before you today. We are nine months into a new administration making it appropriate, i believe, to reflect on the tremendous change this has taken place when it comes to our outlook on consumers, competition. Beyond the washington ackronyms yesterday of the will belt way jargon are a series of actions i fear that are jeopardizing the fccs role as a referee on the field protecting consumers and Small Business interests. I ask you not to take my word about this. In my hand are 80 mostly handwritten letters ive seen received in the recent months. They express concern ranging from open internet and proposed mergers to inmate calling and a lack of broad band in their communities. Amid the many policy changes, what may have gone unnoticed are the Enforcement Actions that we have failed to take against the nations largest regulateees where they have violated the public trust and the commission rules. In march, for example, millions of consumers were unable to call 911 for five hours. Similar outages in the past few years resulted in the commission collectively fining companies more than 30 million. These past fines were a recognition that we depend on 911 being available during times of greatest need. How did the current fcc handle this years outage . One of the largest fines ever, no penalty and no report that addressed the question of whether the commissions rules were violated. Now, i am all for taking enforcement action whenever the public trust has been violated. But what is clear is that the majoritys focus is on targeting individuals and Small Businesses where we are least likely to collect any fines. Turning to policy. It is a source of great disappointment that as we approach the holiday season, 2. 7 million children continue to wait for this agency to make good on its word to bring about real reform when it comes to the inmate calling regime. In april the fcc majority welcomed industry consolidation month by reinstating that obsolete uhf discount. The result, opening the door for single broadcast Station Group to reach more than 70 of the television households. In that same month, we paved the way for huge rate hikes on business data services, formally known as special access, that will not only negatively impact Small Businesses, but rule hospitals, school, libraries, and Police Departments as well. Instead of looking out for millions of little guys, the commissions majority once again chose to align with the interest of a handful of mill multi billion dollar providers. We entered on a path of lowering bar for high speed broad band. As i travel this country, the refrain i hear is that service is too expensive and speeds are too low. We should be aiming to lead the world in having the fastest most robust broad band, not heading in the opposite direction by green lighting broad band service at excruciatingly slow snail like speeds. Now last month we took another worrisome turn with the action dop adoption of ask those in america who are struggling with 2 g and 3 g service. What they want is Wireless Connect tiff. What they have is lackluster noncompetitive service. Simply put, our reports findings do not match the experiences on the ground and in the communities across this great nation. And if i am to believe the reports that i am hearing and read in just a matter of days, the they are man will circulate a series of items that include rolling back the best elements of our media ownership rules. If true, the already consolidated broadcast media market will become even more so offering little to no discernible benefits for consumers. Our actions most often the ones that fail to make the headlines have real everyday consequences. While i keep and will keep doing everything in my power to make sure that we do not dial back any further when it comes to Consumer Protections, just reasonable and fair phone rates for all of our citizens, media Ownership Opportunities and digital inclusion, i remain fearful in part because the rhetoric is not in line with the actions. I have submitted a longer statement for the record. But once again, allow me to thank the subcommittee for providing me the opportunity to testify today. I look forward, i believe, to answering any questions you may have. Commissioner clyburn, you always look forward to the questions. And we are delighted youre here. Commissioner oreilly, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. Its a pleasure to be before the subcommittee again. Before i discuss certain policy and other matters, i would like to address the recent tweets by the president of the United States, raising matters within the purview of the fcc. Let me be clear. I do not speak for the president and i have never met him. However, i think its fair to say that the new president and his administration have received what can be most kindly called unbalanced coverage from various media sources. But you dont have to take my word for it or corresponding studies showing the same. Former president carter stated over the weekend, i think the media have been harder on trump than any other president , certainly, that ive known about. With that said, i do not believe that the commissions licensing decisions should be influenced or decided by politics. Similarly, like my objections to the cozy relationship between the past administration and the commission, i continue to support the fcc as an independent agency. Moreover, i strongly believe in the constitution of the United States, which includes the First Amendment, and have sworn to support and defend it as part of my oath of office. But this is somewhat immaterial, because the beauty of the constitution is that its the highest law of the land and the rights that it affirms and provides supersede my belief or any action on the commission. It serves to pregnant us all, even the unwitting bystander. Turning to substantive matters, a top priority of mine is to ensure that the electromagnetic spectrum is being put to the most efficient use possible. My overall goal of this work is to position the United States and our wireless carriers for overall success in the coming years. We know that internationally, several nations seek to corner the market on nextgeneration wireless technologies, commonly known as 5g. To reap the economic benefits and dictate the worlds wireless future. I intend to ensure that the United States ingenuity is not unfairly hampered by others request for this position. Moreover, as the demands more mobility and broadband offerings continue, the commission has the arduous task of reclaiming, reallocating, clearing and in some cases facilitating spectrumsharing. A prime location for such efforts is the mid bands, including the 3 dot 5, 3. 1 to 3. 5 gigahertz bands. In terms of unlicensed spectrum, the time has come to determine whether the dsrc remains the best use of the 5. 9 gigahertz ban. If it no longer makes sense, the commission could combine with the rest of the 5 gigahertz ban and potentially the 6 gigahertz ban to promote continued growth. Once spectrum is made available, additional options will be needed to sign licenses. But as chairman pry testified, the commission faces difficulty in securing a Financial Institution to meet the statutory requirements to hold our up front auction payments. Without a willing partner or a change in law, the commission believes that its unable to announce a schedule for future spectrum auctions, much less hold an auction itself. The subcommittee has included a technical fix within its larger reauthorization bill. It is possible this larger legislation may take additional time. Accordingly, i want to thank representatives guthrie and matsui for introducing the act, a standalone bill for this purpose and express my support for moving this rightful shot approach as soon as possible. In terms of process reform, i believe that the commission is more open and transparent now than it has been since ive started following its activities. However, i continue to believe that additional changes to the commissions procedures, both formal and informal are necessary and prudent. On that note, the commissions perpetual struggle over the excessive use of delegated authority continues. To rectify this, i have put forth what i consider to be a balanced plan to accommodate the competing interests of permitting commissioners to vote and resolving matters expeditiously. I would be pleased to work with the subcommittee on this and any other process reform ideas. I think the members of the subcommittee for holding this hearing and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. So far he is winning the prize for most time yielded back. Mr. Carr, youre recognized. Thank you. Chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle, distinguished members of the Sub Committee. Its a privilege to appear before you today. This is a particular honor for me, because this is my first opportunity to testify since i was sworn in as a commissioner in august. For the eight months before that, i served as the general counsel of the fcc after joining the agency originally as a staffer back in 2012. In my five years at the commission, ive enjoyed working with you and your staffs on policies that promote the Public Interest. I want to commend you in particular for your efforts to enact Bipartisan Legislation such as carries law, the improving rural call quality and reliability ability and most recently the markup of the fcc reauthorization bill. Having served in various roles in both the majority and the minority at the fcc, these experiences have instilled in me an appreciation for the importance of bipartisan consensus and working towards common ground. I commit to carrying that forward in my time on the commission. In my testimony i want to focus on the ways the fcc can continue to incentivize broadband deployment. This is particularly important as we make the transition to 5g, a shift that will require a massive investment in both wired and Wireless Infrastructure. But if we get the right policies in place, this transition could mean 275 billion in network investment, 3 million new jobs and half a trillion added to the gdp. As i see it, theres at least three keys to getting there. Spectrum, infrastructure and ensuring we have the skilled work force in place to deploy these next jen networks. First we need more spectrum into the market. Im pleased the fcc is pressing forward on this front. We have a proceeding under way thats looking at broad swaths of spectrum between 3 and 24 gigahertz and the chairman has announced we will vote later this year on opening up additional bands above 24 gigahertz. These are really great steps towards maintaining the United States leadership in the global race to 5g. Second, we must modernize the federal, state and local regimes that currently govern broadband infrastructure deployment. 5g is going to require a 10 to 100fold increase in the number of cell sites in this country. The current regime is simply not tailored to support this type of massive new deployment. It costs too much, it takes too long. So we need to find ways to drive the regulatory, the unnecessary regulatory costs out of the system. We need to speed the time line for obtaining regulatory approvals. Doing so will be particularly important for Rural America. One recent study shows that Regulatory Reform can shift the Business Case for entire communities. Streamlining alone could make it economical for providers to deploy 5g to nearly 15 million more homes than under the existing and more burdensome regime. The lions share of those would be in less densely populated parts of the country. Third, we need the skilled work force necessary to get this transition across the finish line. Last month, i participated in a round table hosted by the Wireless Infrastructure association outside of baltimore. A broad range of stakeholders from Wireless Companies to independent infrastructure providers all talked about the shortage of skilled workers that can deploy the small cells, distribute systems and other infrastructure necessary for 5g. Theres no direct regulatory role for the fcc here. I think we need to focus additional attention on this issue and potential solutions, including the role that apprenticeship and other jobtraining programs can play. And to that end, ill be participating at an event next month at the department of labor on Workforce Development. One last point. While technology continues to evolve, one constant is the fccs obligation to promote Public Safety. This has been highlighted the most devastating of ways over the past two months with the hurricanes that have overwhelmed communities across the country and now currently with the wildfires that we see. The fcc has been working hard since well before the first hurricane made landfall. And chairman pie has kept the agency focused on the immediate task of supporting restoration efforts, including by forming a Hurricane Recovery Task force that is coordinating the agencys work. Right now, the fcc is focused on the emergency situations in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands, while continuing to assess restoration efforts across the country. Ill see some of those firsthand on friday when i visit houston to hold a round table with broadcasters, meet broadband providers and visit a 911 call center. Ill be taking stock at the progress thats been made and the ways the fcc can continue to support those efforts. So chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle, members of the subcommittee, thank you again for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, commissioner carr. You did well in your first appearance. Commissioner rosen wordsel, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Good ma good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. This is my first appearance before you since returning to the fcc. I had a little vacation, courtesy of your friends in the United States senate. Of course, a little distance provides some perspective, and in my time off, one thing became abundantly clear. The future belongs to the connected. No matter who you are or where you live in this country, you need access to modern communications to have a fair shot at 21st century success. But the fact of the matter is, that today too Many Americans lack access to broadband. Lets put a number on it. Right now, 34 million americans lack access to highspeed service. That number includes 23 million americans living in rural areas. Thats just not acceptable. We need to do better. But, of course, statistics alone dont tell the whole story. To get a picture of just what it means to be consigned to the wrong side of the Digital Divide, consider kids and homework. Today 7 in 10 teachers assign homework that requires Internet Access. But data from the fcc shows that as many as one in three households do not subscribe to broadband. Where those numbers overlap is what i call the homework gap. And according to the Senate Joint Economic committee, the homework gap is real, and it affects 12 million children all across the country. Ive heard from students in texas who do their homework at fast food restaurants with fries just to get a free wifi signal, and ive heard from students in pennsylvania who make elaborate plans every day to get to the homes of friends and relatives just to be able to get online. Ive also heard from High School Football players in rural new mexico who linger in the School Parking lot late at night in the pitchblack dark, because it is the only place that they can get a reliable connection. These kids have grit. But it shouldnt be that hard. Because today no child can be left offline, developing Digital Skills is essential for education and for full participation in the modern economy. So i hope that adds a human dimension to what it means to not have access to broadband. Now, let me tell you what we can do about it. If we want to get serious about addressing our broadband problems, we need to know where those problems are most pronounced. We need better mapping. Nearly nine years ago in the american recovery and reinvestment act, congress had a good idea. It created a National Broadband map. Identifying where deployment has and has not occurred. But if you check that map online now, you will last see that it was updated three years ago. And i dont have to tell you, in the internet age, three years is an eternity. You cannot manage what you do not measure. So i think its time for a National Broadband map that offers an honest picture of both wired and wireless broadband across the country. And, of course, we can build this map with all sorts of data sets here in washington. But i think it would be great if we had a clear picture on the ground. I am a big believer in the wisdom of crowds, so i think we should put it to the public. If any of your constituents have not been able to get service or live in an area that lacks it, help us make that map. And write us at broadbandfail fcc. Gov. I set up this account to take in the public stories and ideas and i will share everything that comes in with the chairman and my colleagues. Because i think its time to turn every one of those broadband fails into something better. Broadband success. Finally, i want to point out that with broadband, speed matters. The fcc has a statutory duty to annually assess the state of broadband deployment. Today our National Standard is 25 mega bits. But the agency has sought common on scaling this back to 10 mega bits. Thats crazy. We wont solve our broadband problems by lowering our standards. We need to correct this course immediately and start setting bigger goals if we want to do bigger things. Let me close by thanking you for having me at this hearing today. I will look forward to answering any questions you may have. We thank everyone for the testimony, and this concludes our testimony portion. And were going into the q a portion. And i will recognize myself for five minutes. Chairman pie, im going come to you first. I want to stay with that freedom of speech theme. During the last administration, the commission had proposed a multimarket study of critical information needs. And you had made the comment that you thought it thrust the federal government into the news rooms across the country. And chairman upton, chairman walden and many members on this subcommittee, including myself, sent chairman wheeler a letter, calling the study what we thought would be unconstitutional and urging him to put a stop to the attempt to engage the fcc as the news police. Fortunately, chairman wheeler did heed our call. And i want to know if you can he put a stop to it, but can you tell us more about that project, how close was it to actually happening . How much money got spent on that project . Thank you for the question, chairman blackburn, and thank you for your advocacy several years ago. The critical information needs study was a study that was conceived in the prior fcc. It spent approximately 900,000, as best i can discern it, and the project involved sending governmentfundedery searchers into news rooms to ask questions about why they were or were not covering eight different categories of news that the government thought were important, asking questions to news directors and the like about perceived bias, and asking a whole host of other intrusive questions. It seemed to me that this was not compatible with the agencys obligations you sa obligations under the First Amendment so i wrote an oped about it and im grateful chairman wheeler ultimately scrapped that study but not before, as i said, a great deal of money had been expended and a rubicon of some sort had been crossed. Okay. Now, when chairman wheeler pulled the plug on, the fcc said some of the questions may not have been appropriate. And that the commission would be modifying the draft study. So what is the current status on this . That study will not proceed, and period. Okay. I just want to ask for each of you on the commission, is there anybody on this Current Commission that would support such a study . Well, madam chairman, one of the things that i take issue with is how that was couched. I was a part of that study, which was a study of started out being a study of studies, looking at what the commission gathered in terms of information about the entire media ecosystem. And as a result of us not having information, we have been kicked, you know, back several times into court about not having justification, not having information, not having data when it comes to certain policies. The court has spoken. We dont have the information needed. We are making decisions by putting a finger up in the wind and seeing where the political winds are flowing and going in terms of in terms of information, in terms of our decisionmaking. And thats why we have a uhf discount that is totally has no justification. And that is because we have no information that we are gathering. Were just making decisions based on political so you would support the fcc being in the newsroom. I will support the fcc not being in the newsroom, because i i am a First Amendment prophet. I had a newspaper for 14 years, and dare not anybody come into my newsroom and tell me what to print. That is not what im saying. All right. Let me ask you all this. In 2009, anita dunn, the White House Communications director, said of fox news, were going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent. We dont need to pretend this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave. This overall attitude culminated in the exclusion of fox news from access in numerous large and small ways. As Deputy Press Secretary josh earnest wrote in an email to a treasury official, and im quoting, weve demonstrated our willingness and ability to exclude fox news from significant interviews. Did any of this raise First Amendment concerns with any of you . Yes or no . Commissioner carr, start with you and go right down the line. I think it underscores the need for the commission to just stay focused on every action that the agency takes being consistent. Okay. Were going to learn to do yes or no. Commissioner clyburn . Im hesitant about asking. Im trying to grasp what are you saying. All i know is i am very consistent on First Amendment principles. Okay. So exclusion from asking questions or being included. Would that bother you . Exclusion excluding a news outlet. Would that bother you . Excluding a news outlet that is not how i conduct myself. Okay. All right. Chairman pie . I agree with commissioner carr. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Follows instructions well. All right. Chairman rosenworcel. Tension between administration. Yes or no . Got to learn to do it. Can you turn on your mic . Its as old as the republic. All right. Nothing strikes me about what youve just described as being particularly new or unique. Okay. Thats unfortunate. All right. Mr. Doyle, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much. Commissioner oreilly, in the spirit of chairman dingell, i have a number of questions that i want to ask you with just requiring yes or no answers. And i would appreciate you doing that as rapidly as possible. Yes. Commissioner [ laughter ] thank you. You got it. You used to work on this committee. And you helped draft legislation that prevented one entity from owning broadcast stations that reach more than 39 of the national population, correct . Thats a yes or no. Yes. In response to a question for the record from me, did you state that you believe only congress can change the cap via the passage of legislation . Yes. Thank you. At that time that you worked on this legislation, did you understand that a uhf station signal, the ones above channel 13, could not travel as far as vhf signals . Yes. Were you aware at that time that the fcc did not count the entire reach of uhf stations against the 39 National Ownership cap . Yes. And in a twist of fate, since the dtv in 2009, digital uhf stations can now reach a larger audience than vhf stations, right . Yes. The uhf discount now allows a single entity to own stations that reach more than 39 of the national population, correct . Yes. Even though theres no technical reason for this discount any more, right . Yes. So the uhf discount just allows companies to reach close to 80 of the National Audience, right . Yes. Do you believe that congress intended to create a loophole in the law . I thats no. Thank you. Did you state did you state in a response to me that even though you think only congress can change the national cap, this entire issue may need to be litigated through the judicial process to determine which position is accurate . Yes. Did you also say that you suspect your position will ultimately prevail at the end of the day . Yes, always. [ laughter ] does that mean you believe the court will find that only congress can adjust the 39 national cap . Both parts, yes. National cap and the uhf discount. But did you also state that you will support whatever action is necessary to see that the issue gets its day in court . Yes. So are you saying that youre willing to vote to raise the cap, even though you think Congress Prohibited the fcc from taking that action . Im saying that i need to see what the item is. I dont want to its a yes or no question. Well yes. Thank you. If the 39 cap is statutory, as you and i both believe, will you oppose any attempts by companies to contravene congressional intent . I believe they comply with the law. Specifically, if the sinclair tribune merger reached more than 39 of the National Audience that would contravene congressional intent, correct . No. Why not . [ inaudible ] okay, thank you. Ill let you ill let you get by on that one. So if thats the case, though if it did contravene the 39 , would you oppose the merger . I dont talk about any pending merger before the commission. If the sinclair merger goes through and the courts determine that you were right, that Congress Prohibited companies from exceeding the cap, should the fcc undo the merger . I dont talk about any pending mergers before the commission. Let me just say, i think this is a dangerous path, because your response to my questions for the record and some of your answers here today suggest that you may take steps to evade the law by approving a merger, even though you and the majority of the commission agree that it would violate congressional intent. And i hope that youll reconsider that. Let me ask commissioner rosenworser if she has anything she wants to add to the line of questioning i have regarding that merger. Thank you. I believe that 39 is the figure that congress chose to put in the law, and that this commission needs to abide by it. Thank you. Madam chair, i want to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record five documents. One is the chairmans 2014 wall street journal oped, his response, a letter also that he sent regarding a letter that a number of members sent regarding the president s threats against the media. A letter from consumers union, and the statement for the record that commissioner oreilly had sent back to me. So ordered. Thank you very much. I see my time has just about expired so ill yield back. Yes. It has. And now chairman walden, youre recognized. Well, thank you, madam chair. Yes or no, commissioner oreilly. Do you wish Communications Issues were as simple as yes or no . [ laughter ] yes. Thank you. Now, moving on. Commissioner rosenworcel, im glad you raised the ara issue. I was on the committee at the time when the stimulus bill came through and i fought like the dickens to get the maps done before the money went out the door and i failed in that effort. And so the money went out the door and they drew the maps. What im trying to figure out, why are the maps three years old . Does the fcc not have a responsibility to keep those up to date . Thank you for the question. I agree with you. I think we should be keeping them up to date. I think the fact that we spend billions of dollars on universal service fund every single year without having a full sense of where service is and is not is a problem. I fully agree. Its my understanding that the funds that were used to support that map at the department of commerce cease to be available when the american recovery and reinvestment act came to an end. And i think that the fcc has been collecting data through its own 477 process. But it is not and how valuable is that 477 . Compatible. There you go. With the data. Thank you. From the department of commerce. I you know, i dont know, wherever youre sitting on this issue, it just seems to me with better data were going to make better decisions. Thank you. And thats the point i actually agree with that and hope you all can figure out what the best reporting improvement mechanism is to get to those data points. So we shouldnt be overbuilding or wasting the rate payers money. Mr. Chairman . Thats why several months ago i asked the house and Senate Appropriations committees for preprogramming of funds to enable us to discharge that important function and im glad to report that each committee agreed with that recommendation, and we are that task is now under way and certainly welcome commissioner rosenworcels support for it. I just want to point out, that sounds terrific, but its my understanding that is only for wired broadband and i think an adequate map has to include wired and wireless. Certainly if the committees give us additional reprogramming funds, we would love to pursue it. We cannot act in the absence of congressional authorization from our proprietors, as this committee well knows. Maybe we can get everybody on the same page on this one. We stand ready to work with you on it. Chairman pie, we have spent a lot of time together over the years before this committee. Yes. And one of my concerns has been that the fcc did not always operate in an open and transparent way. I argued for making some of the proposed orders public. And so it actually circulated so commissioners could read it, the public could read it. Have you done anything to improve that process down there . I believe i have, chairman walden. I announced a Pilot Project and the second week i was in office that for some of the upcoming meetings which would be publishing three weeks in advance the actual text on the internet. Had that been done before . It had never been done, and not only was it to potentially unlawful but unwise. I think the success of the pilot for the program has disproved each of the claims of fear and just yesterday i announced that two days ago, rather, this would be a permanent project that we would be doing this on a permanent basis for every meeting that the fcc will hold into the future, so long as i have the privilege of leading the agency. And youve also made have you made changes on there was issue about delegated authority and commissioners wanting to be able to take it off delegated authority. Have you made any changes on that one . Absolutely. One of the things that commissioner oreilly and i noticed in the minority is if one of us or both of us requested that an item that was reportedly going to be done on delegated authority, if we requested that item be considered by the full commission, my predecessor would typically ignore that. And so i said if there are two commissioners who want to handle something on the full commission level, we will do that. And thats what we have done. Good. Main studio rule. I think im the only one on the panel that actually had to comply with that as an fcc licensee for more than two decades. Had it obviously, you believe it outlived its purpose. I believe it outlived its purpose. It made no sense. We very seldom if ever had anybody come into the main studio for the purpose of looking at the public file. Thats now online, i believe, right . Absolutely right. And so im trying to get to this issue of why some people think it was like the holy grail of local communication. Because i dont see it that way. I didnt see it that way. We acquired three other stations and another market. It would have been nice to be able to consolidate an overhead and put the money into more news gathering and programming and all of that. People still knew where we lived and we knew where we lived. And so i commend you for getting rid of that rule. I think theres a whole bunch of other antiquated rules that are legacy that make no sense in todays internet communication world that other providers and competitors in the market have no obligation to comply with. I dont see twitter with a local Community Rule in every community they serve or any of these others. I realize theyre not licensed. But obviously theres a lot of debate going on now about how all these communication mechanisms work in todays environment. My time is gone. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, commissioners, for all of the good work you do. We look forward to having you back up here on a regular basis. Gentleman yields back. Mr. Mcnerney, youre recognized for five minutes. I thank you for the hearing and the commissioners for your work. Its not an easy job. And its interesting to see the different viewpoints you all have. Mr. Chairman, i recently had a chance to visit huddle are, which is a coworker space in my district where startups go together to bring innovative ideas and working hard to get their businesses off the ground. But theyre very worried about the impact that doing away with neutrality protections will do to their businesses. Would you if Net Neutrality protections are weakened, as you propose, can you commit to me that Small Businesses and jobs will not be hurt in my district . Please answer with yes or no. I didnt know that particular company, but obviously we support a free and open internet that allows Small Businesses like that to thrive. Commissioner clyburn, do you think that that will hurt Small Businesses . I think if we shift gears that it would. That they would not have the certainty that they need. And i think that what doesnt get enough attention is the impact on universal service. And we can talk about that later. But the chairman is not speaking, you know, clearly about what the impact on universal service would be. If we shift from title 2. Thank you. Commissioner worsenworsel, there have been a series of reports on the sinclair tribune merger. Im concerned about the impact this merger would have. The fcc has a Critical Role to play in the merger of the process. From your perspective, how do you think the commission has handled the review of this merger and related proceedings . Thank you for the question. Frankly, im concerned. I think any broadcaster reaching more than 70 of the United States households would be unprecedented. Im also concerned that if you look at the series of media policy decisions that has been made by this commission, they all seem to serve sinclair broadcastings business plans. From reinstating the uhf discount to changing the 39 rule that was enacted by congress, to possibly foisting on all of our households a new broadcast standard for which they own many, many patents. I think it has reached a point where all of our media policy decisions seem to be custombuilt for this one company. And i think its something that merits investigation. Thank you. Thats a pretty strong statement. Mr. Pie, should the fcc be doing more to ensure local officials have resources to know how local resources know how to use the wia, the wireless merge alerts . Absolutely, congressman. Thats part of the reason why i supported the proposal last year, to work cooperatively with local officials and stakeholders to see if we can strengthen that system. So we can count on your support in terms of producing resources and education. Absolutely. Our Public Safety bureau and i personally am committed to making sure that that system is robust as it can be. Thank you. Mr. Pie, last september, the fcc adopted a further notice of proposed rulemaking that addresses increasing the wia geo targeting. The final round of comments was due on january 9th. When does the Commission Plan to move on that . We dont have a particular time frame, congressman. I will note two things, however. First, the reason we have that geo targeting proposal is because my office last year urged the full commission to include it. And thats part of the reason i was pleased to support it. The second thing is that we are still working very cooperatively with local officials, with stakeholders and others to figure out the right way forward. So while i cant give you a specific time frame, i do want you to know this is under active consideration, and were going to do the best we can to make sure the system, as i said, is robust. Well, would you commit to giving the committee a Quarterly Report on the progress of that . I would be more than happy to do so. Thank you. Chairman pie, during our last fcc oversight hearing, i asked you if you would commit to turning over to this committee any reports, requests, memoranda and server logs related to the alleged attacks on the electronic systems. You said that you had hoped to consult with i. T. Staff and attorneys to see if there are any applicable, technical or legal prohibitions against sharing information with this committee. You then committed to sharing the requested information with the committee, and to the extent that you could do so. So far, no one from your staff has followed up with my office regarding this matter. And we still have not received a single document in response to the request. Did you do you recall consulting with the i. T. Staff about this issue . I do remember meeting about this issue after the hearing. If you dont mind, i will take a look at it. My understanding is we had gotten in touch perhaps not with your office, with the committee. Ill doublecheck to make sure you get the information you need. Ill follow up and make sure we get that information. Okay. Well, im going yield back. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Lance, youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairman blackburn. Good afternoon to members of the commission and regarding the First Amendment, let me say that i think you, chairman pie, and all members of the commission, are devoted to the First Amendment as, of course, we are in congress. Im proud that new jersey was the first state to ratify the bill of rights in 1791. Regarding president kennedy, you mentioned president kennedy, chairman pie, and the Washington Post. Before you were born, and i would imagine before any member of the commission was born, and when i was a little boy, john kennedy cancelled his subscription to the Herald Tribune, the great republican newspaper in new york, and my late father, who was involved in Public Policy in new jersey, sent him a subscription to the Herald Tribune and we have in our family files a very sarcastic and curt letter from pr sallinger saying we should stay out of the subscription business of the white house. And so from my perspective, all president s on occasion criticize various news agencies. I dont find it necessarily attractive. My reading of American History is that this is done by various president s. And i have great confidence in you, chairman pie, and in members of the commission in this regard. Thank you, congressman. To commissioner carr and commissioner rosenworcel, congratulations on your confirmation. Commissioner rosenworcel, you recently applauded the airwaves act for identifying more spectrum that can be made available for wireless broad band. How would the airwaves act arm the fcc with tools to keep pace with consumers significant demand for bandwidth and for the race to 5g . Thank you for the question and the delightful family story. I hope i havent bored you. You know, the best part of the airwaves act is something incredibly simple. Its full of deadlines. It chooses certain spectrum pans and then it tells the agency that it has to auction them on a very clear calendar. I think that calendar is useful for all aspects of the wireless ecosystem, and i think its vitally important. Yeah. Thank you very much. Chairman pie, last month, i believe without warning, google blocked amazons new echo showed devices from showing any youtube videos. As of november 2016, youtube was by far the leading internet portal in this country with 79 market share. Netflix was ranked second with 8 . The same study found that users age 25 to 34 years spent an average of 178 minutes each week watching online video. So access to youtube is a dealbreaker for video devices like the echo show. From your perspective, chairman pie, should the fcc be involved in any way in this matter . Congressman, our internet regulations do not apply to edge providers or to conduct of the kind you are describing. So as a matter of law, they simply dont at this point. Thank you. And i think that this is a serious matter, and i dont know exactly the venue we should pursue, but is there any other member of the commission who would like to comment on this . Thank you. Madam chairman, i will yield back a minute and a half. We are rolling you might get the prize. I hope so. Please, everyone else, may i have the prize . Okay. [ laughter ] now were into a competition. Ive got goo goos in the office. Well see who wins. Mr. Ruiz. Thank you, chairman blackburn. And yes, i vote to give him the prize. This hearing is timely for a number of reasons, but i would like to focus on the ongoing recovery effort in puerto rico and Virgin Islands. By way of background, i have training in humanitarian Disaster Relief from the harvard humanitarian initiative. Im an emergency medicine physician, and i was on the ground in haiti as the medical director for the largest internally displaced camp in all of portauprince after the earthquake in 2010. So ive seen firsthand the challenges that arrive in a humanitarian crisis and the importance of Communication Systems and coordination amongst agencies, local governments and ngos in the field. Two weeks ago, i flew down to puerto rico to see the conditions for myself, and to do a Needs Assessment based on my training and experience. And i found two things that i would like for you to carry back and figure out how we can Work Together to improve. One is a lack of clarity of leadership as to which agency is really running the show and taking the leadership on the ground. And two, a lack of coordination amongst agencies, ngos, local governments, out in the field. Not necessarily in san juan. And so my first question is for chairman pi. Has the fcc been in the room during these conversations in leadership. What is your footprint in puerto rico, and what is the and what is your efforts in coordinating with the other aijtss on the ground . Thank you for the question, congressman, and thank you for your attention to this issue, including personal attention in the island itself. Ive spent a lot of time over the last several weeks involved in puerto rico and the Recovery Efforts. Ive regularly consulted with fema, puerto rican officials, Wireless Companies regularly means what . Are you invited to weekly, daily briefings . So we get daily briefings on some of the situation do you have people on the ground full time . Yes, sir. Do they go to those meetings in san juan . My understanding is they do do they go down into the periphery and the municipalities, as well . I know fcc staff ive spoken with have described to me how difficult it was in some cases to go from place to place. Very difficult. Because in some places, the roads werent even cleared. So thats good to hear, that youre you personally are involved in getting calls for sure. Absolutely. And in this case, we have some Lessons Learned that could save lives. I have also made some calls with telecommunication carriers that have run into a myriad of barriers, including and please take notes here. One is a lack of security. Available to keep their engineers and equipment safe so they can make the repairs necessary to restore service. Two, inconsistent coordination with Power Providers that could have freed up critical generators for use elsewhere on the island. And three, failures in the back hall infrastructure that have prevented towers from coming online, even when they are powered and repaired. And four, logistical delays that kept temporary satellite trucks which were utilized, for example, in texas and florida, to provide temporary Wireless Service literally waiting on the boat for days. So while a disaster of these proportions is hopefully a rare occurrence, Hurricane Katrina and sandy have shown us that hope is not a luxury that we can rely on. Two weeks ago, i submitted a proposal to have the fcc create a list of best practices for Telecommunications Infrastructure and preparedness in hurricane and disasterprone areas. I hope we can Work Together on this proposal to find a common sense solution that fosters improved coordination and more efficient response efforts in the future. So chairman pie and to the other commissioners, will you work with me on this important issue . Ill go down the line. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. Wonderful. I appreciate your willingness to work on this critical issue. Finally, commissioner rosenworcel. Thats it. You have been outspoken on the need for fcc action in response to hurricanes harvey, maria. What do you think the fcc can do to help with Recovery Efforts as well as prepare for future disasters . Thank you for your question and your work on this subject. I think we just need to take a playbook from what we did with Hurricane Katrina and hurricane sandy. We held hearings. We held hearings and talked to people on the ground in locations that are different than washington, d. C. We came up with ideas. We put them in reports and then we changed our rules to make sure that we are better prepared the next time. While i appreciate that we have a task force, i am confident that all good ideas do not reside in our building on 12th street. And so i think we should be getting out, holding hearings, issuing reports and changing our rules to be better prepared in the future. Thank you. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. M mr. Sh mr. Shimcuss. I appreciate you all being here. Opioids, nda, and then here. I apologize for missing some of the Opening Statements. Its been a busy day. And i just caught the last end of the comments from you, commissioner rosenworcel. And chairman pie was out to my district, and i appreciate that, visiting on an issue that many of you know that ive been working on. 911 going back to when we made it an official cellular number. The interesting thing about the trip was that it was a multiple counties, rural counties, working together to move forward. And then we had a round table. And the round table, from my point, its the people who talked about vesting in the program. They said good and bad. People who hadnt yet joined talked about why, but why theyre thinking about it. So i know youve made and this is to the chairman. I know youve made a lot of trips to Rural America. Id like to know what some of your takeaways are, other than just the next generation 911, but other issues that have been raised in your travels. Thank you for the question, congressman, for the hospitality you and your folks showed in harrisburg. The key takeaway i have from the trips ive taken, over 4,000 road miles in small towns across the country is the Digital Divide is real, and that is leaves Human Capital on the shelf, particularly in rural towns that dont have Internet Access. And thats why im deeply committed to doing everything i can and hopefully the fcc doing everything it can to bridge that divide. We have seen the playoff in places like harrisburg where 15 rural counties, predominantly rural income are created to band together and create a 911 system that enables everybody to be safer than they were before. We have seen the potential in education where Rural Communities that have highspeed Internet Access are able to give their kids distancelearning opportunities and better Educational Opportunities overall. We have seen the change in telemedicine. I personally visited a town in southwestern virginia able to cut the sepsis rate by 34 by using advanced technologies like Remote Monitoring. And we have seen the power and precision agriculture. Ive been in feedlots in allen, kansas, and farms in maryland and that tell me the notion of a tractor is long gone. Right now technology is the key driver for agricultural growth. So to me t just reaffirms the mission of this agency so long as, again, i have the privilege of leading it, that the Digital Divide has to be our top priority. So let me follow up on the universal service fund issues that have been addressed. A lot of house members have talked about how its insufficient, letters have gone back and forth. My colleague, congressman cramer, and i know congressman peterson from minnesota, has also taken an interest in this. What do you have in the forefront of your plans to kind of address the funding issue on the universal service fund . Its a difficult question, congressman. Obviously, some of the Bigger Picture initiatives that we have been able to get across the finish line, like the Mobility Fund phase two have been more successful in terms of getting off the ground. In terms of the budget issue for the rate of return carriers youre talking about, unfortunately, we are in a pickle. Last year, the commission made a decision over my dissent, would i add, that i forecasted the time would leave us with a shortfall. And here we are and the shortfall is here. So one of the things i have suggested to my staff is that we should think about getting a notice of proposed rule making out by the end of year to be able to tee up before the end of the next budget cycle, which i understand ends at the end of july june 2018. To address this issue in a timely way so rate of return carriers and more importantly, rural consumers have the certainty they need to participate in the digital age. And with my 54 seconds left, does anybody else want to i dont want to leave out the other commissioners. Commissioner clyburn . What youre not hearing is a call for contribution reform. And thats the elephant in the room that no party, pun intended thats fine. You know, that nobody is talking about. And that we dont have a rational conversation about that. Were going to stay in a pickle. I appreciate that, commissioner. Two parts. One, i believe there is an opportunity to use some of our reserves for rate of return to balance out both the legacy and the model side to provide were not going to provide all the money theyre requesting but i think there is some opportunity to increase the budgets. They have nothing to do with the reforms we adopted last year which mostly guard rails prevent bad behavior. And two in terms of contribution forms, since i happen to be the chair of the joint board on universal service, we are trying to move forward on that, but there is a great difference of opinion on some of those things. So weve had to sideline that for the time being. Well, my time has expired. I think there is still a great difference of opinion. A lot of members of congress do. So i appreciate the challenges, and i appreciate you being here. I yield back. Mr. Loebsack, five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. And i do agree with my friend that weve got to deal with the funding issue. The question is going to be how were going to do it. First, commissioner rosenworcel, great to see you back. Appreciate that. I havent seen you since you were actually in newton, iowa, way back in 2016. And people there were very happy to hear you talk about the homework gap issue and just generally speaking these Rural Broadband issues. I saw that at a recent field hearing you did highlight the need for better data collection, and now youve got this crowdsourcing proposal. After you mentioned that, i went to your twitter account and checked it out to see what was going on there. Because i do want you to talk about that a little bit more. But before i do that, i am grateful that the subcommittee took up my Rural Wireless access act and we did move it forward, thank you, madam chair. Weve got to get that out of full committee. Its great to talk about making sure that we have better data. I remember chairman pai, you mentioned going from southwest iowa, northwest minnesota or maybe the other way. And you had a lot of problems with cell service. Im fully aware of this problem, as are all of my constituents. But my bill, hopefully were going to get out of full committee, get on the floor and get this thing enacted at some point hopefully sooner rather than later to make sure you folks have Statutory Authority as much as anything to do the things that you, you know, are talking about today. But can you elaborate a little bit on your crowdsource proposal . Sure. Listen, for a long time, the way that the fcc collected data about broadband, as we found, if there is one subscriber in a census block, we presumed that it was available throughout the block. I think we all know that that is not a fair assumption any more. And were leaving too many households behind. We also have been collecting data and shape files from wireless carriers, and sometimes they get it right. But sometimes, as you probably know, you can drive through places and find that you have no bars and no ability to make a call. We are going to have to work hard to have more precision in our maps to target our policy efforts and i think we should be asking the public for help. I think they know better than anyone else where they live, where they get service and they dont. And i feel like its time to start iran corporating Public Comment into our maps if we want to make them effective and accurate. I appreciate that. Democratizing the process. And thats very important. I think we can all agree with that. Thank you. For all the witnesses at the recent repack hearing we held, American Towers witness said in his testimony there was a shortage of qualified tower crews. There are some of us who have some ideas how we can address that issue. Do you agree with that assessment . And do we have enough crews to get the job done in 39 months, if not what will happen to broadcasters who cant complete the transition in that time . Any of you folks who would like to address that issue. Yeah. Go ahead. Well, ill simply say we tried to structure the phases such that we would be able to accommoda accommodate variations in terms of weather and availability of crews and the like. If we get information that there is a bottleneck like that, that might stand in the way of the 39month deadline being able to be met, we will certainly work with congress and stakeholders to take the appropriate action. Anyone else . I raised this issue a number of times with different Industry Groups to see where we were and i was concerned there was a shortage of crews and we havent seen an increase in the number of crews. Some of those sponsored by the Wireless Companies would like to take advantage of the licenses on an early basis. It has been relatively positive. But i think the chairman is exactly right. We have to get through some of the phases to see where we are. Any of the other commissioners want to speak on that issue . Its a Workforce Development issue, too. We have to get the people trained so they can do that, and ive talked to my friend, mr. Shimcuss about that, too. Weve got to move forward on that. Well were on the subject of universal service fund and commissioner pai, you know ive written to you about moving the resources to the u. S. Treasury. And some of the concerns i have about that, making sure that the funds actually are used as theyre supposed to be used. Would you like to address that issue . Because i think thats a legitimate issue. If we move the funding, you know, to the u. S. Treasury instead of from the banks, the bank, i think thats going to be a really difficult issue that weve got to resolve. Go ahead. Thank you, congressman. And i appreciate your concern. The issue, as i understand it, from a financial perspective, is that well, twofold. Number one, from a legal perspective, it is safer for federal funds of this kind to be stored with the United States government as opposed to a private account. Secondly, given some of the issues that arise when these funds are kept in the private bank account. For example, if there are somebody who owes money to the irs and that person is also at the same time getting money from the fcc, the federal government is limited in its ability to have an offset, so to speak. Keeping the money in that treasury account allows the essentially the federal taxpayer to be whole. That were not sending money out the door at the end of the day Congress Might not want. And so we have been exploring with treasury and with others, the way to move forward on this. But obviously were happy to take any input on ways to accommodate multiple interests. Commissioner rosenworcel. You look like you want to Say Something. I appreciate what my colleague said. Weve gotten conflicting advice. But i just want to make this point. We get about 55 million in Interest Income every year from the accounts as they are held today. 55 million can go far for Rural Broadband, for connecting schools and students. We are choosing to forego those dollars. I dont think that makes sense. If i may, congressman. If, god forbid, something were to happen to those funds when they were in a private bank account and all of the billions of dollars of universal Service Funds somehow went away, we would be accountable to congress. And you would be asking me, as leader of this agency, why did you jeopardize taxpayer funds by keeping them in the private bank account when thousands if not millions of americans are depending on those funds. Thats a tradeoff ive got to make. Thats why we need to put this out for comment. Thank you so much. It is a difficult issue. Weve got to deal with it. Thank you, madam chair. Youre welcome. And mr. Latta. Five minutes. Thank you very much, madam chairwoman, for todays hearing. Thanks very much to the commissioners for being with us today. As always, its great to see you all. And just following up on my friend from illinois, i really appreciate mr. Chairman and commissioner oreilly for you coming out to my district, because i think, you know, you take an interest in this one case when the chairwoman was out with the very small rural telecoms that you met with. And it wasnt where there were a round table. They were on a square table. But there were quite a few people there that day that you addressed, and they appreciated. And commissioner oreilly for coming out and talking to the you know, our smaller broadcasters in the area. I appreciated that. So its good that you listened to the folks back home. Chairman pai, my question is with you. Like you, i believe that modernizing regulations is critical to spur innovation. For instance, i would like to see the fcc streamline procedures for small entities to seek regulatory relief. The current waiver regime has a onesizefitsall construction. It disproportionately burdensome on small entities and when needed diverts resources from Infrastructure Investment to regulatory compliance. Do you believe there is a need for more efficient and expedited process that allows small entities to secretly from these unnecessary regulations . I do think consistent with my views we should minimize the regulatory burdens on small providers. That is an approach that has merit. Thank you. Commissioner oreilly, what are your thoughts . I agree. I think it has incredible merit. Thank you. Commissioner oreilly, in your statement on the commissions adoption of the mid band spectrum, noi, you noted that the six gigahertz band is adjacent to the unlicensed 5 gigahertz band. Would you elaborate on the potential benefits if the 6 gigahertz band is made available on an unlicensed basis . So we have to deal with incumbency issues within 6 gigahertz, but i think that will be a tremendous benefit. Wider channels provide opportunity for great speeds, latency reductions and Consumer Experience will go through the roof. We have a shortage of wifi spectrum or unlicensed spectrum Going Forward and we need to address that. Theres estimates by 2025 we need somewhere between 500 megahertz and one gig ahurts of additional unlicensed spectrum. 6 gigahertz makes a great platform for that solution. So when youre talking about especially how badly congested that 2. 4 to 5 gigahertz bands are already available to the unlicensed community, so the congestion is how bad would you say . So i dont have an exact measurement. When i talk to folks in the industry, they barely use 2. 4. 5 gigahertz is popular, but thats becoming extremely more popular. So were running out. Thats why i spend a great deal of time on 5. 9 and my colleague and i have worked hard on 5. 9. But 6 gigahertz being right next door askis a great platform. Thank you. Voiceactivated virtual assistants like siri, alexa and google are becoming a gateway to the internet. Some day soon, they may even become consumers preferred interface with the internet, leaving the age of the desktop Google Search behind. You get yelp results in siri open table and tunein radio from alexa. These interactions are occurring through private partnerships among these companies to have their apps interact. However it creates a situation whereby definition the consumers access to other internet content is limited or completely blocked. Its the question of whose answers siris question when you asked siri something. Can the fcc do anything about this . Congressman under our current internet regulations we cannot. Those do not provide to edge providers. And commissioner klei burn and rosen, do you think this is a concern for open internet . Again, our jurisdiction is very limited. I think theres an impact in influence but in terms of our ability, its very limited to negligible. Commissioner rowsin, i would agree with both my colleagues that our jurisdiction does not extend to that. Thank you very much. I yield back the balance of my time. The gentlemen yields back but hes not in the running. Ms. Eshoo youre recognized. Thank you. Welcome you, mr. Chairman and all of the commissioners, commissioner carr congratulations to you. Commissioner cliburn. Its always an honor to have you here at the committee. Commissioner oreilly, terrific to have keep the irishman together. And to commissioner rose rosenwsarsal. It is really terrific to have you back and all represents a win for the American People, hopefully. Mr. Chairman, i been debating something inside of myself so im just going to make a statement. I dont want to go on and on about it, but i need to Say Something. To bring together president kennedy with donald trump, i dont think is palatable and im just going to leave it there. You know, mr. Chairman, that ive raised deep concerns about r. T. Our Intelligence Community is determined with high confidence, that is the highest level of agreement between all of the agencies that they interfered in our democracy. The Intelligence Community described them as the kremlins quote, Principal International propaganda outlet. I wrote to you on may 8th urging you to consider applying broadcast transparency requirements to state sponsored Media Outlets like r. T. So the American People would know whether foreign governments are behind the content theyre reviewing. I found your response to be ambiguous and most, frankly, i dont think you answered my questions. And its curious that i get a response to my letters at about 6 30 in the evening the night before of the day of were going to have a hearing with you. I think that this is a very serious issue. The Intelligence Community and all of the members of the house participated in that briefing. It was a classified briefing. There was also an unclassified report that was put out and that unclassified report was replete with r. T. Now i dont know what i need to do to either impress upon you that this is a serious issue and that you take it seriously, so i want to ask you, would you will you commit to us that youll apply or consider applying broadcast transparency requirements to state sponsored Media Outlets like r. T. . And if not, why not . Congresswoman, thank you for the question. Youre welcome. As i understand the law there is no jurisdictional hook at this point, no transfer of a license for example, that allows the fcc to assert jurisdiction. What about those that have a license and carry them . Do you have doesnt the fcc any say so in that . Or is this as the Intelligence Community said that they are a Principal International propaganda outlet, so they just going to operate in the United States no matter what . Congresswoman, again, under the Communications Act in the constitution the First Amendment we do not have currently a jurisdictional hook for taking doing an investigation of that kind. If youre privy to clafd or unclassified information that suggests there might be another agency that has a direct do we have the ability to First Amendment applies to free speech in our country. It doesnt mean that that the kremlin can distribute propaganda in our country through our airways. I dont know if youre looking hard enough. Maybe commissioner carr were still the General Council he could advise you better but im not going to give this up. I want to move to Something Else and that is this issue on media consolidation. Three years ago, mr. Chairman, the Commission Voted unanimously to prohibit two stations in a market from jointly negotiating retransmission consent and you were part of that unanimous vote. Now, by eliminating the dual openly role which your reports indicate youre preparing to do next month, you would permit two of the top four stations in a market to merge. So how do you explain this . Those reports are inaccurate. As i outlined in my Opening Statement when we publish an unprecedented fashion the actual text of this document were doing a case by case review so sinclair this will apply to sinclair . It applies to any broadcaster that seeks to enter into an agreement that otherwise would be in violation of the top four prohibition. So pardon me . 73 of a dominance of a market where did that fit . Some would argue we just the time is expired. Well, he can answer the question. Some would argue that we simply get rid of the top four prohibition. My recommendation to our staff was to draft it we would be a case by case review. We would not get rid of it. And that presents a compelling case that that combination be in the Public Interest, then well take a look but the prohibition applies. I wish i had more time. Mr. Guthrie five minutes. Thank you everyone for being here and commissioner carr welcome. We look forward to working with you guys. First, chairman pai and commissioner oreilly thanks for letting us know about the auction. I know the chairman has in the authorization bill specifically fix the issue so we could move forward hopefully moving forward. I had a question in 2013 and i was one of the households affected by this there was a carriage dispute between cbs and Time Warner Cable. And things were blocked so i couldnt get any of cbs or showtime or any of that on tv. If you went to the website because Time Warner Cable was our Service Provider. You couldnt go to watch showtime. Some members of congress did bring this up, chairwoman was acting chairwoman at the time and said she didnt believe the agency had the jurisdiction to intervene in this situation. Do you think if it happened now, do you think the fcc would have an opportunity to intervene in a similar case . The legal authorities have not changed to the extent that the fcc gets a complaint in which the a party is acting in bad faith, then we would be able to adjudicate it. We couldnt take further action. Currently the title 2 open internet is still in effect. To be clear i shouldve added as well. Our internet regulations would not apply to that content to the extent youre talking about the blocking of online distribution it only applies to the Service Provider not the content provider . Thats correct, sir. So i brought your name up, to comment on that, being an advocate for the title 2 and i dont think commissioner rosenwsarsal as well, should it be expanding where it doesnt effect Service Provider but you should also have jurisdiction on the content side as well . Good for ungood for the other. Im not in a position to comment at that time. I just know whats in front of me and what the rules of the road are at that time. Same answer. To be clear that behavior was problematic, from a consumer perspective, that stinks, right . I was a consumer. But i would point out that what were talking about when we talk about Telecommunications Service and telecommunications under title two is about the provision of service by a provider of broadband and the jurisdiction does not extend to the content provider. That was my point. I have some questions on spectrum. Im cochair with congresswoman matsui on the spectrum congress. Last summer regarding a pending license modification petition for the l. Band. Satellite network. Whats your ideal timeline for getting information from the other agencies youre working with . Do you think the end of the year is reasonable . Do you need more time . We dont have a specific time frame in mind at this point. What i can say its a matter that is under active consideration and that we are collaborating with other agencies and private stakeholders to see if we can reach a resolution. Thanks. For all the commission, given the efforts of the spectrum caucus i strongly support a deep dive by the committee on wireless issue and for auctions, could you each give me what you think is the top spectrum issue that we should be focusing on this up coming calendar year for moving forward . What is the top issue for the committee all of you can answer . Obviously we have the hurdle right now in terms of our authority to conduct the auction in terms of the money. So the top focus that i have over the next year is going to be infrastructure employment on the wireless side. I think we have a lot of progress that we can make there to help maintain our leadership. And for me as insurer to insure that a multiple no matter what size and if they have the ability to participate, so it would be a contours the size of the bidding areas. Thats a good answer. Thank you. The tried and true traditional of pandering to my questioner. We cant have anything of any significance without that fix. Its a bottle neck for the agency. My colleagues infrastructure and freeing more spectrum. All right i agree with my colleagues but i also want to quickly read you a list, 470 to 512 meg hertz, six gig ahertz, 27, 39, 24, 32, 42, 47, 57, 80 and 95 gig ahertz are all under consideration at the commission right now. What we need instead of that blitz of spectrum is a calendar that makes clear we have some bands that we are going to auction earlier than others so that the wireless ecosystem and Financial Markets can organize around it. Thats helpful. Thank you very much. The gentleman yields back, mr. Palone for five minutes. Thank you, madam chairman. My questions are to chairman pai and i want to discuss your reaction to the president s attacks on the press and i have a number of questions so if you could keep your answers to yes or no id appreciate it. Mr. Chairman, are you aware that the president said and i quote, network news has become so partisan distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and if appropriate revoked . Im sorry. Are you aware of that quote . Yes, yes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, are you aware that the president said and again i quote, it is frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write and that the the New York Times, nbc news, abc, krbz and cnn are the enemy of the American People that he said that, are you aware . Yes. Now do you think that these types of statements are appropriate for the president of the United States to make . Congressman im going to speak to my own views in my own words and my views are that i stand with the First Amendment. Im not going to characterize the views of anybody else. But mr. Chairman, you did say on another occasion and i quote that the American People are being misled about president obamas plan to regulate the internet, right . You said that. Because that was a direct compromise of the agencys independence on a particular pending issue where the agency was already heading into a different direction. But if youre not shy about speaking out against president obama, why would you would you condemn would you condemn a tax on the press if they had come from president obama . Congressman, i always focus on the facts and law. That is our job in terms of licensing i just think its a double standard here. Before coming to the fcc you worked for then senator Jeff Sessions, correct . Yes, sir. Are you aware that when asked if he would, quote, jail reporters for doing their job he said he cant make a blanket commitment to that. Im not aware of that. When you spoke at the merkadius center last year week, the fcc doesnt have the authority to revoke the license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast. Yes, i do. Do you understand why reporters might be concerned when the attorney general and the chairman of the fcc leave open the threat of punishment and even jail time . Congressman, i wasnt familiar with Jeff Sessions statements and im not familiar with the perception of journalists. This fcc stands on the side of the First Amendment and that includes the ability of journalists to gather news as they see fit. The problem is the people raising this issue are concerned that your silence or over lawyered responses contribute to a culture of intimidation that can chill free speech and so thats why im trying to clear the air because im concerned about the impact of, you know, either silence or overly lawyered response. At the mer cata center you said that you would not act based on a particular newscast. Would you revoke a license based on multiple newscast . No. Okay. Now i have here a working paper i dont know if its in the record, madam chairman, i might have to ask you if we can enter it into the record. So order. I have a working paper produced by the mer cata center, the center suggests the fcc is able to threaten free speech through other mechanisms like license transfers. Do you commit that your commission will not threaten broadcasters license transfers based on the content of the reporting . Absolutely. Okay. Do you commit that your commission will not launch investigations into Companies Based on the content of the reporting . Could you repeat that . Do you commit that your commission will not launch investigations into Companies Based on the content of the reporting . Yes. Okay. Do you commit that your commission will not take any acts of retribution against Companies Based on the content of the reporting . Yes. Okay, and let me i appreciate, you know, working that out because i think thats important, so finally, chairman pai, when you first took office you committed to me that you would be responsive to Congress Even if a request came from democratic members, now ive heard complaints from my colleagues that your responses to a number of their letters have also been nonsubstantively and evasive. Youve avoided multiple times of allegations involving your relationship with sinclair broadcasting. Let me just ask let me just say well look into your continued evasiveness on some of these important issues including sinclair and i just you know, i just want you to know that im not haem and im not going to tolerate, you know, the agency not responding to us because i dont really feel they have with regard to sinclair and some of the other issues. Thats my opinion. Thank you, madam chair. The gentleman yields back. Before i begin my questioning, chairman pai i know you inherited a backlog of commission related to the Consumer Protection act. This is an area of real concern to many individuals across various industries. I look forward to your response and future action to this topic. Ill move on here. Commissioner oreilly, during the last oversight hearing had a discussion with chairman pai regarding interference complaint and pirate radio operations. I know that this is an important area. I know you care about it very much to resolve it. Can you share the differences between repercussion pirate radio operators face as compared to robocallers. Ill give you an example of a couple different items enforcement action. On terms of pie rating we just did one of the nla was 144,000 for pie rate radioing and cramming behavior it was 3. 9 million. 3. 9, 82,144,000 the difference between the three is amazing. Wow. Okay. Related to this topic again for you, commissioner. Do you or any of the commissioners here on the panel know of any instances where pilot radio operators interfere with military use frequencies. Pirate radio is not the issue. They have violated the sanctity we have enforcement action of someone in new york that was violating the new york Public Safety system and they were fined or they had an enforcement action against them. They were theyre still in prison at the time but well see if we get that money. Anyone else . Okay. Ill go on to the next question. Chairman pai, i regularly advocate for seniors and again improve quality of life for seniors. I think you know that. 5 g technology promises great benefits for our growing elderly population. What can the fcc do to advance tele Health Technologies like remote patient monitoring to allow seniors to remain independent and age in place . Thats a great question and its a growing need as our population ages. I dont want to steal her thunder but commissioner cliburn has been the leader on this. I want to throw it in her lap. Thank you so very much, mr. Chairman. One of the things that were proud of is the chairman has endorsed and the connect to Health Task Force and one of the things it is doing is looking at that intersection of broadband and technology of help. It has developed a broadband mapping tool that looks like on a county by county basis in the United States and looking at where broadband is available, where Health Care Providers are or are not and is informing communities as to how best to approach a different business models, different initiatives that might that might be needed in a particular area and so were really as quiet as it is, even though people in the ecosystem know about it, we are front and center on providing a means for people to be informed so they can make better critical decisions and this will help us also on our Health Care Connect fund which we need to talk about enhancing that because in order to make all of these things more ubiquitous, allowing people to age in place and address their needs, connectivity is key, affordability is key and im looking forward to working with you as we progress. I too everyone on board with this . Anyone want to make a comment. The last point maybe that we have to balance all those things with all our budget overall. Were talking about expanding services, we have to figure out how to pay for all of that and get to the conversation on contribution. Absolutely. Ill simply add that i think the importance of remote monitor in particular cannot be overstated. If youre an older person that has difficulty coming into a hospital or youve just had surgery and returned home, the worse thing that can happen to you is to get an infection that would require you to come back. Ive steen for myself how Hospital System is using Remote Monitoring in response to question. I think among older individuals and thats something if you can intervene quickly thanks to this technology, everyone is better off. Youre not spending money on an inhospitable regimen of treatment. Its something im excited about and im glad shes been a pioneer on this issue. Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you very much. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Ms. Dingle, five minutes. Thank you madam chair. I have no voice. Too much talking. Its great to have all of you here. The dingles name had a long connection with the fcc, sometimes good, sometimes not but i want to first start on the important topic of privacy and how it relates to 3. 0. Im really worried about privacy and i think you all need to be too. This new broadcast standard allows for interactive tv e personalized ad placements and for granular collection of data about whose watching what. Chairman pai, if someones looking to take advantage of this personalized content, theyd like to give up information about themselves, would they not . So sorry, would they if someone wants to use it, theyre going to have to tell the provider what personal information about themselves . The individual consumers . Yes the consumer. Well, depends on the particular these are services. Theyre personalized content, thats the so as were looking at this ats 3 is going to be more personalized content. Yeah. How is the fcc considering privacy concerns as the commissions looking at the this new standard . Great question. Right now were looking at just the technical standard should we able proceed with this new next generation tv standard and if so what should the technical parameters be. I would imagine that as those privacy concerns and others like that have come to the forethat the agency is looking at that too. I think its really important. My staff wouldnt let me ask some of the other questions i wanted to ask today but i dont think people realize that when well have televisions watching us that theres reverse as people are using all of these great new gadgets how much information is being collected about them and who has responsibility for letting them know that kind of data is being collected . Right. I think the first instance the federal trade commission has generally been the cop but so much of this is with the fcc. I think you all have a responsibility to really look at some of this and do you think that this new data thats generated will be kept inhouse or do you think its sold to third party . The standard hasnt even been adopted. Should this be part of looking at a standard. As the sources materialize well be monitoring all those concerns. Okay. The last time you were here in july, you agreed to followup with this committee on the steps you were taking to mitigate attacks what updates can you share with us. Weve provided a detailed response to the kmeel and be happy to provide that to you with some of the particulars in that regard, but what i can say is that our it staff is always vigilant to make sure we have the protocols in place to make sure that our i. T. Systems are up and running. Appreciate the chance to work with this committee to get the funding to make sure that continues to be the case. Let me go to ill leave you off the hook and ask commissioner rosenwsarsal do you think the Public Interest standards requires that you look at the Effective Commission actions on Small Businesses and consumers. Absolutely. Small businesses create twothirds of the new jobs in the economy, the commission should always be thinking about the impact on Small Business and i think the Public Interest standard incorporates that. Thank you. A lot of us have already asked this question so im just going to make an observation and see if you all agree or disagree with me. Mergers of the scale of the sinclair tribune are not always popular but i cant ever remember when everybody was so opposed to the idea. Can any of you think of a merger that has meant this type of united opposition . No. Commissioner cliburn . I can say within my last eight plus years, this is the most energized that ive seen diverse parties. And anybody else that wants to Say Something . I use the word energized but i would say i have seen it before and thats the reason we have a 39 cap. It was result of a transaction that caused a lot of up brass between the relationship between the network and affiliate and thats the reason the congress stepped in at the time and addressed it so in terms of the excitement or energize, ive seen the energy level far beyond what it is today in that the Broad Spectrum of people opposing is unusual. Ill yield back my nine seconds madam chair. Mr. Johnson for five minutes. Thank you. And thank the commissioners for being here today. Ive listened, ive heard some buzz words that caught my attention full chairman walden talked about the complexity of the Telecom Environment and how difficult your job is and i agree with that. Commissioner cliburn talked about how the technology is necessary to create opportunities for americans, particularly in Rural America, and it took me back a little bit and ive been thinking about this for the last several months. How important your job is. If you look at the 100 years of American History from 1868 to roughly 1970, we started out in 1868 at the most divided point that our nation has ever been in at the end of a brutal and bloody civil war. We healed our internal wounds to go into and fight off tier ra any in europe in two world wars mobilizing from scratch both times practically. Did the same thing in korea and at the same time in that 100 year period from 1868 to 1970 we saw one of the most explosive innovative periods in human history. The light bulb, and all of it borne right here, the light bulb, the combustion engine, the automobile, the mass production of automobiles, the Assembly Line process, the industrialization of western cultures, the airplane, powered flights, space travel, landing a man on the moon, or gan transplants, telecommunications and computing technology, nuclear power, that i think could arguably the case could be made that that was one of the most innovative periods in human history. I talk about that a lot to people that i represent back in ohio because then i follow it with a question, what have we done since 1970 . You know what answer i get most often, the internet. Telecom. And why is that the case . I believe thats the case because its the one area that the federal government couldnt figure out how to regulate. If you go back to the 70s thats when the epa came into being, thats when the department of energy came into being, thats when the department of education came into being. All of a sudden back in the 70s, washington kind of thought that the American People had it wrong for all that time. Instead of telling the American People what we should be innovating on and what we should be focused on to create opportunities for the American People, washington started talking about how to innovate, where to innovate, when to innovate, why to innovate and in many cases picking the winners and losers and determining who should be able to innovate. So i throw that out there just as a thought provoker to you folks. Your job is so vitally important. We cant throw water on the camp fire of American Innovation and engine knewty and i would i submit if we really want to create opportunities, if we would if we would just look at our own nations history and realize that if washington would just get out of the way in many regards that the American People are more than capable of creating their own opportunities through innovation and engine knewty and i think thats important thing to for you folks to remember. And i see the attitude of the commission today and i think thats what youre trying to do so i applaud that. Let me ask you one quick question and its a yes or no question, so itll be easy, especially for commissioner oreilly. Hes good at the this. In 2013 it was reported that the Justice Department had spied extensively on fox News Reporter james rosen in 2010 collecting his phone records two days worth of his personal emails and tracking his movements to and from the state department. So in the 32 seconds that i have remaining, each of you starting with mr. Carr, commissioner carr, did this raise First Amendment concerns for you at that time . Yes or no . I think what ive said is that it reinforced follow mr. Oreilly. The importance of the commission as everyone has said being committed to the First Amendment and everything we do at this agency. Okay. Thats an interesting question. I will say it raised personal and privacy and other concerns. Okay. I agree with commissioner carr. Yes. You are good. Thats a disturbing tale, yes. Thank you. Madam chair, i yield backache. The gentleman yields back. Ms. Matsui for five minutes. Thank you very much madam chair. First of all, welcome. Im glad to see all of you here and i want to welcome back commissioner carr and rosenwsarsal. As cochair with my good friend were very focused on the opportunity unleashed new spectrum that would help us get to 5 g. Weve introduced legislation that provides financial incentives to federal agencies to reallocate unufld or under utilized spectrum holdings. Commissioner oreilly, will you commit to working with us to try to strike an appropriate balance for the 3. 5 gig hertz band that would be the foundation for 5 g deployment. Im not in charge. Well work as an agency to dispose of our item that we adopted yesterday so ill work with the committee in any capacity and take his views into account in terms of my vote but in terms of your point incentives for federal agencies to clear bands, its not just incentives, its also going to need the carrot and the stick so we need more of the stick. Those two pieces have to go hand in glove. Id be happy to work with you in putting some of the stick in your legislation. Would you like to add a comment or two . I believe carrots Work Together than stick and when it comes to spectrum policy what we need to do is make federal users internalize the cost of their holdings. They need to be able to report at some level what the value perform what they have today is and then we need to figure out how to give them incentives so they see gain and not just loss from reallocation. Okay, i can see a carrot and stick here working very well together. So thank you. Today Everyone Needs a broadband connection. We all know that in every part of the country. I have over 20,000 constituents utilizing Life Line Program to obtain access to broadband. This is a real program thats helping lowincome families Access Communications are essential in a digital economy. The National Life line eligibility verifier will be a significant steps towards this goal but will not be fully up and running until 2019. Now in august i wrote to the commission to request steps that the fcc is taking to implement the verifier. Chairman pai i received your response last night. Could you give me an update on getting the National Verifier fully up and run and commit to providing me and the committee with regular updates in the future. Ill take the second piece first. The Quarterly Reports will be forthcoming and our staff have talked about that Going Forward. In terms of the first point which is the update, we are on track. Ive been advised to by in december of 2017 for whats called a soft launch of the National Verifier with a full launch in 2018. The first states that will be considered for the National Verifier is colorado, mississippi, montana, new mexico, utah and wyoming and in 2018 you sack will roll out an additional 19 states and working with other stakeholders. To make sure that that verifier works and serves consumers need and so wed be happy to work with you on this issue and thank you for flagging it for our attention. Appreciate that. Commissioner cliburn can you talk about what is needed at the fcc to ensure the Life Line Program remains an option for low income households to access to communications or broadband moving forward . We need to have the mechanism to encourage providers to get involved and get to provide more opportunity. If you know back in february, we stopped nine providers that did nothing wrong from gaining access into offering opportunities and some of them had to even discontinue service. So we need to give the states the power and the ability they need to include to have lifeline providers, particularly for broadband and we need to get out of the way. The fcc is not getting out of the way in allowing these reforms that have been the contours that have been laid out to happen. So were in the way of lifeline becoming a phenomenal program. Okay. At this point, thank you very much and i will yield back something of this time. Awesome. Not in the running for the prize, but getting close. Mr. Flores, five minutes. Thank you madam chair and i want to welcome commissioner carr and rosenwsarsal to the commission. Its great to have you here for your first testimony today. We all know that reliance on mobile networks is growing at a break neck pace. My question is this, what more does the fcc and Congress Need to be doing to ensure that we keep up with consumer and business demands for mobile . Ill start with you commissioner carr. Thanks for the question. The short answers if you can. My principal focus is infrastructure deployment. We have to streamline the rules. The current regime we have relatively few small cell employments. Well need to get to millions of cell sites. We need to focus on the areas where we have 2 and 3g service. Thats why i was pushing so much for the mowability fund phase two and we need to talk about affordability which is why im pushing for lifeline program. Agree with my colleagues. I would add spectrum as a critical input from 600 meg ag hertz all the way up to i couldnt write that fast. Commissioner oreilly. Three things. Infrastructure which means preempti preemption, two its spectrum and three it means deciding what to do on those hardest to reach individuals we dont have a plan for today. Okay. Commissioner rosenwsarsal. Ill give you one thing, which is we should set a time for auctioning the 28 gig hertz band make it our first millie meter waves. Thats the First Priority is that auction is that correct . I believe so, yes. Thank you. I want to go back to the First Amendment conversations weve had today. Yes or no answers would be appropriate for this one. In 2013 the Justice Department revealed that they had been secretly combing through the work and home of cell phone workers of 100 associate press reporters in what appeared to be a fishing expedition as well as an effort to frighten off whistleblowers. Did this action raise First Amendment for you . This is what drives home the importance of us committing to the First Amendment and always acting consistently. Thats a yes . Commissioner cliburn . Not sure how to answer that. Yes or no. Im sorry. Chairman pai. Yes. Okay. Yes. That sounds troubling. All right. I appreciate the work yall have been doing for a. M. Vitalization. Lets continue along that line for a minute and whats the status of your effort to revitalize a. M. Radio. Thanks for question. The translator window has been a success. Great many folks have applied for an fm translator. Well have several hundred of those that will be processed and Going Forward were thinking about some of the Bigger Picture issues that are of interest to broadcasters and were trying to sort through the record and see if we can find a consensus on those issues. You answered my second question as well. What can this committee do to be helpful to encourage a revitalization of a. M. Radio. Well take all the support from whatever quarter we can tell you. Ive never been shy about the issue of a. M. Revitalization. You dont need to encourage me. Its important to talk about the importance that a. M. Broadcasters do in their Community Every day and i know you visited some of these stations. To me theyre not just call signs. These are folks who really are keeping the lights on and keeping their communities informed. My community is kwkx so i assume the entire commissions on board with that. Everybody shook their head yes. Across the board. That was one area where we had good cohesiveness. For all of you i understand that other countries are moving rapidly to make midband spectrum available for 5 g services particularly china, japan and south korea are all making spectrum available to win the global race to 5 g. My question is this, for each of you, two questions, one is in the United States are we risking falling behind those other countries if we dont catch up in making midband spectrum available for 5 g . I think were in good shape right now but as your point said we got to keep the pedal down and keep moving forward and we have a number of proceedings right now that the chairmans teed up that will let us do that. Im confident about where we stand right now. I agree and our Spectrum Management policies have to be all of the above to make sure we get the optimal use with the optimal players. Chairman pai . Yes. Its part of the equation, we have to address the midbands. 3. 5, 3. 1. We have to take action. Im not the only one with a list. Thats right. I think we are at risk of falling behind and i think we need something simple. We need a calendar for which bands are moving at what time. Okay. Id like to work with you on that some more if we can. Thank you, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Ms. Clark five minutes. Thank you very much madam chair and i thank our Ranking Member doyle and i change our commissioners chairman pai and commissioner carr, welcome. Commissioner rosenwsarsal. Perfect. Welcome back. Of course, its good to see you commissioner cliburn. I wanted to just talk about how important todays hearing is, theres so many pressing matters and changes happening under the fccs authority on a daily basis it seems and i can say that its been quite instructively and interesting just listening to todays proceedings and your answers regarding these issues and the significance in facilitating announced changes. I want to talk about a couple of things that are currently on my mind and as cochair of the multicultural media caucus with colleagues were extremely interested in the recent media ownership changes. As youve indicated, chairman, pai, the commission is poised to take an item to modify the local tv ownership rule at the next commission meeting. This important rule provides for diversity of voices and ownership at the local level by limiting ownership of more than one tv station to the largest markets. Hypothetically, commissioner pai, is the commission were to modify the local tv ownership rule next month by adopting a case by case approach, who do you think should have the burden of proof . Those seeking more consolidation or more those seeking to maintain diversity of ownership . As always is the case if a prohibition remains and a party is seeking a relaxation of that prohibition on a case by case the petitioner would bear the burden of proof. So let me ask commissioner cliburn and rosenwsarsal. Do you have any substantive or process concerns with the potential modification of local tv ownership rules . One of the things that we were demonized for was trying to look at the media ecosystem. I dont think we had the tools and the data needed to make these wholesale changes looking at 67 there are 67 broadcast stations, clearly our policies must be out of sync because that is not diversity or inclusion in any stretch of the way. Thank you for the question. Listen, media ownership matters. What we see on the screen says so much about who we are as individuals, as communities and as a nation and right now when you look at the Ownership Structure it does not reflect the full diversity perform this country. I am worried that with more consolidation thats not going to get better, its going to get worse. Okay. Can i just comment certainly. Those situation we have today is under our current rules and those rules have been in place for so long they havent worked. We ought to try something new. Heres the question, youre saying that it hasnt changed. Were not certain whether what youre proposing will make it even worser . Really hard to get much worser. You think so . I know that is not the case. The numbers are so low. 12, the numbers are really low and right. And a lot of reasons why theyre going to go even lower. What youre saying is your new proposal is going to transform that . What im asking you is your new proposal is going to transform that . Is that what youre saying . Are you saying here today that this new proposal is going to transform that . Yes or no . Its not my proposal im just asking. But in general im hopeful that it provides youre hopeful, okay. The Current Situation isnt working. Commissioner pai. The answer is yes. You think it will . Absolutely. Part of the reason we dont have more diversity because the prior majority rejected my proposal. Part of the reason is because the prior lapse so we havent had input from stakeholders. I reinstituted that committee several months ago and specifically tasked one of the working groups for promoting more diversity in the broadcast business. The Prior Administration outlawed jsas. Ive met with so are you saying that this is going to be a Pilot Project or is this going to be a wholesale change . Were seeking comment on the cope of the are you saying this is going to be pay wholesale change or a Pilot Program . The Incubator Program . Yes. If we get the public input we need this is going to be a real program. Okay. Let me move on to my next question because i only have 18 seconds left and id like to ask we talk about that further. Ive been working with congresswoman plastic werent to the u. S. Virgin islands and specifically is the fcc engaged to assist puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands regained the telecom capabilities in the wake of last months Hurricane Season and what must we learn from these hurricanes and their impact on existing Communications Infrastructure . Yes, congresswoman is the answer to your question. Ive personally called the congresswomans office and offered our assistance as well. I make sure that ive talked to some of the stakeholders just as i have in puerto rico, who might have been infrastructure affected in the u. S. Virgin island. Conveyed to fema and others to the extent their power issues in the u. S. Virgin islands we would love for the those Communications Power requirements to be elevated in terms of getting all that infrastructure on to the island and obviously their hospitals and schools and other things competing for attention. Communications networks are critical too so were working on it. As the chairman would also tell you that we forwarded a universal Service Green lit universal Service Money so people can build have hard dollars to rebuild their tell Communication Systems. We just doing something similar for erate for schools and libraries to be help those in need. Madam chair, i yield back and thank you. You are welcome. Mr. Walters, five minutes. Thank you madam chair. Id like to thank the witnesses for being here today and welcome the two newest fcc commissioners. 5 g deployment is important to my district where the majority of the residences have multiple wireless devices. Further investment in 5 g deployment has the potential to create over 2,300 jobs in my district. A recently released survey found that 5 g will improve Business Operations and competitiveliness which further demonstrates the need to deploy this technology. Since joining the subcommittee at the zbing of the year, earlier this month the governor of california vetoed a bill that wouldve established uniform standards across the state for the installation of 5 g equipment. The bill would have limited the ability of loelg governments to block antenna placement it would have also kept installation rates on Public Properties such as traffic lights but californias isnt the only state where citing is an issue. Chairman pai, can the fcc take immediate action to work with states in localalities to streamline the policy and can you briefly discuss what the commission can do. The answer is yes and we teed up earlier this year in our Wireless Infrastructure proceeding the number of different tools we could use to help streamline that approval process and im hopeful we can move on that relatively soon. Commissioner carr, congratulations on your confirmation. Thank you. Your testimony mentioned that importance of 5 g and the need for infrastructure to deploy this technology. Are you concerned that local zoning requirements throughout the country not just in california are impeding the deployment of the infrastructure necessary for 5 g services . I am concerned. I was disappointed to see the veto of that small cell bill. Were going to see a massive new deployment of small cells. The current regime is not tailored to support that type of deployment. If were to get 5 g across the finish line this could be the real bottle neck. Im actually we have a number of steps teed up at the commission and looking forward to working with my colleagues to get them across the finish line. Thank you. This third question i have and you just touched a bit on it, chairman pai, Wireless Networks in puerto rico were devastated by hurricane maria. Network in east texas and florida were impacted by hurricanes irma and harvey and the fires in my home state have damaged Wireless Infrastructure in california. And i commend you for pedding the availability of u. S. Funds to carriers in puerto rico to accelerate rebuilding of these critical networks. Will the fcc contemplate similar efforts impacted the Natural Disaster . Were open to hearing that case and taking action if appropriate. All right. Thank you i yield back the balance of my time. And the winner is, all right. Way to go meme. Mr. Welch youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much. Welcome to the full commission. Its really tremendous to see you at full strength. Congratulations on your confirmation. Its very good to have you back. Thank you. It wasnt a swift process but it had an end result. Mr. Chairman, congratulations to you as well. Thank you. Net neutrality weve talked about and we know the debate here in my view was that the actions of the Previous Commission made a lot of sense but my understanding is that your commission is going is opening that up. Youve got youve heard millions of comments and the question i have is if the apprehension among the industry is largely been that there may be a new commission at some point that is over bearing but they wont necessarily agree to put in statute, theyre assurances that they give privately and publicly that they wont do anything to interfere with Net Neutrality so theres a scepticism on their part about the durability of the Current Practice which worked well, but isnt it fair for consumers to have some scepticism that when ceos change in these companies, when shareholders start demanding a bigger return that there wont be the pressure to do things that advantage the company at the expense of the folks who need solid Net Neutrality, chairman pai . I appreciate the question. Obviously we are now engaged in the question of what is the Regulatory Framework best calibrated heres my question, why not have it be embodied in statute . Theyre saying theyre saying to us as i assume theyre saying to you, they want to maintain neutrality but thats whose in those executive offices now. There will be other people there later. So do you consider that to be a valid concern on the part of those of us who want to make certain that we preserve Net Neutrality . All i can say is what i said in the wake of the 2014 d. C. Circuit decision which is the proper course is for congress to ultimately decide what the rules of the road is going to be. I dont have a lot of time, so commissioner oreilly. Embowleded in the statute. Thats the law and you have an opportunity to craft the law and then decide what we should go forward. I think thats what members of this committee were contemplating. We havent seen the statute, the majority has to act on that. Rosenwsarsal . I oufrl internet economy is the envy of the world. Its built on a foundation of openness. I think our current rules support that openness. They have been sustained in courts and they are wildly popular. Im at a loss that we would decide to take them away. Thank you. A lot of us are from Rural America, republicans and democrats up here, in fact, mr. Lat and i started Rural Broadband caucus. The reason concern we have is not only deployment, its the speed and theres been some Movement Towards reducing what is considered to be the adequate speed. That would be very damaging to us in Rural America. Commissioner cliburn do you want to comment on that . I think any talk about slowing things down to do something sub253 is problematic. Its problematic for keeping and insuring that Rural America catches up. You havent caught up and that is problematic so thats why this talk of loosening these standards of lowering speeds is just very problematic to me and that is not the direction we need to go. Commissioner rosenwsarsal, you were in burlington, vermont. I was. Appreciate your visit. Burlingtons not where we have the issue. Thats an urban area. A lot of vermont is a lot much like Rural America. Its slow. In Rural Vermont is on its heels economically. We have to have this tool to have any shot at getting back in the game. Your view on the slowing or lowering the standards. I think lowering the standard is crazy. I believe you have to set audacious goals if you want to do big things and deciding that we can get 100 meg abit speed is worth the effort including Rural America. Chairman pai, youve got a real history of Rural America. Im hoping that youre not going to be in favor of changing the definition for Rural America . A few different points, congressman. The actual proposal is to maintain the 253 standard. Theres no proposal other than that. Secondly, im a little puzzled by the criticism, when the priority majority had the pen and were able to do something in december 2014 they decided to allocate billions of dollars of funding for 10 megabyte per second. According to them now thats not broadband. Last year when we revitalized the lifeline program, i specifically suggested that we increase the speeds to 25 meg ahertz to second, if the fcc is brad brand the prior majority rejected that suggestion. I think its a Little Hollow now to just be my times up. I wont argue with you about that but youre in the chair now. Thats why our proposed this to maintain the 253 standard. Does that give us assurance that theres not going to be any suggestion to lower that standard. We have congress charged us with taking a look at what is connectivity and as a part of that we have to seek comment on what is the impact of mobile broadband. Are there some applications that they require 10 meg ahertz per second or some other standard . Thats what were trying to do but the lead proposal is to maintain that standard. Thank you. Gentleman yields back. Mr. Olson, five minutes. I thank the chair and welcome to our witnesses, a special welcome commissioner rosenwsarsal. I spent a few weeks with my dad and in icu, its not a pleasant time to have a loved one or parent in the hospital. Thank you so much for coming. Were praying for you. Thank you. My first question and comments are for mr. Pai, chairman pai. Thank you so much for coming down to houston to see the devastation of Hurricane Harvey first hand. You saw it with your own eyes. I mean hit us twice, came back, 50 inches of rain in parts of the district and parts of the county. We can do much better. I would just like to ask you what do you see with respect to forms of Communication Networks throughout the region during Hurricane Harvey . What are the steps the fcc is taking to support the restoration and Recovery Efforts back home. Appreciate the quell and your leadership on this issue. I know youve been active in trying to inform your constituents about where they could get help. Few Different Things. Number one the fcc is working very proactively to make sure that we assist state and local partners in texas and i personally visited. Offered my assistance. Few Different Things that we could do Going Forward. First, i was quite taking by a point that i learned at the Harris County 911 center that were relatively reliable compared to say florida and puerto rico was because 33 trillion gallons of water were you dumped on houston was because of the fiber based. Despite the fact that there was a huge amount of weight faced on those networks. The second thing is that we all need to Work Together. Were all in it together. I heard time after time that state and local partners and the industry relied on our disaster information recovery reporting service which is very helpful and they also found it useful to have a point of contact at the fcc that necessity knew thank you how about whats called as you know is the wildest initiative to better prepare response for times of emergency. Do you think this framework helps restore coverage faster. Theres no question. I think i heard first hand from wireless providers when i was in texas about how useful that had been the other piece i shouldve mentioned as i understand the Governors Office provided some of these Wireless Companies with information as to where the flooding was and some of the companies were able to overlay that information on where they saw their Cell Networks up or down and they were able to target in some places we see that theres huge flooding here but people on the network we need to get help there. That overlay is a benefit Going Forward that well be able to take advantage of in other jurisdictions. Anything we can learn from harvey. He was down there. He saw first hand. I would just want to mention the network, the Wireless Network resiliency the industry coming together after hurricane sandy. Its my hope that we will learn come practicably from this onein. Im out of time here. Commission carr i believe youre going to texas, houston to see for yourself . On friday ill be in houston meeting with broadcasters to see what the fcc can continue to do to support the Recovery Efforts. One thing i have to warn you about, can you say yall . Ill work on it. And can you say beat l. A. . Yep. Will played. Commissioner pai, i know youre a baseball fan. As i alluded to, l. A. Dodgers are playing my Houston Astros in the world series, yesterday we had a rough day. Didnt quite do as well as i wanted but that morning all over capitol hill signs popped up about that game especially this sign popped up on the door of the majority leader from california and having jurisdiction over communications i want to make sure that is not some federal offense youre looking at. Either neither confirm nor deny my involvement in those operations and one thing too, commissioner pai, whats your prediction, astros in five or six or seven games. Congressman, i want to reiterate i stand in favor of the First Amendment and your right to plaster. And the gentlemans time has expired. I like the word plaster. Ms. Brooks, five minutes. Thank you. And thank you and congratulations to all of those who have recently gotten confirmed. Just recently i joined with my colleague across the aisle to form a 5 g caucus and we had our first briefing with Congressional Staff yesterday led by ctia and im learning more and more of how 5 g, this is not something that i think is commonly understood among the citizens of our country and i would be a slide was put up during the presentation that talked about the global race being on for 5 g and quite frankly because we have often been the leaders in innovation and in technology in the world i was a bit surprised to see it appears that china and europe and others may be further along in 5 g deployment than in the United States. And im curious whether or not now obviously some of those countries particularly china for instance, dont have the division in governments between federal, state and local jurisdictions the way that our great democracy does, but how are we taking that into account and what should our rule be in congress and what can the fcc and our rule in congress do to better partner with our state and local governments because i think were struggling quite frankly particularly in state legislators either educating or understanding what this race is about and what were how were i think falling behind . Chairman pai, would you like to start as to what we could be doing differently and better because i think we all from what i could tell from your responses today were in agreement here that we all need to do a lot more and a lot better but what does it mean for us, a, to fall behind and what should we be doing and im pleased indianapolis that i represent the northern part of is a 5 g test site, but i think were way behind these other countries. Chairman pai . Happy to answer. And before i start thanks for the hospitality you showed me in noblesville. I think theres a significant opportunity cost that attaches to american inersha on this issue. If we dont lead, theres plenty of others that are more than happy to take that lead and one of the things ive learned in this role is they are quite eager to capitalize on what they see is a lesson of the 4g revolution. America was forward thinking in terms of spectrum and infrastructure. We had 4 of the worlds population and 50 of the worlds 4g lte subscriptions. Europe and china among others have noticed they dont want that to happen with 5 g. Theyre trying to be very graesive and infrastructure as well. I think its important for the fcc but not just the fcc to work very krooefl about this issue. We really need to have a serious conversation about what is the appropriate Regulatory Framework for 5 g. Is it this try fewer indicated or quad fur indicated regulates . I recognize the equities are difficulty. If National Competitiveness in the Wireless World is our priority, then we have to make some very difficult decisions. I appreciate the need for a calendar, the need for the discussions with state legislators but what whats the fcc doing and im sorry that i mightve missed part of that relative to educating state legislators and local communities because in our state which did pass some legislation this last session it was a fight between local jurisdictions and state legislator and so what can we and the fcc be doing to maybe educate in large part or have these really tough discussions . I dont know if commissioner carr theres a number of steps that the fcc is taking and can continue to take on this. We have an Advisory Committee where we have representatives from local government on that that we can help have these discussions. But to your broader point this is critically important. We heard the u. S. Led the world in 4g. The regulatory structures we have right now are going to be the bottle neck that hold us back but im confident that right now at the commission we have the momentum to move forward to try to streamline some of those and its going to make a real difference. We can shift entire communities from being uneconomical for the private sector to becoming economical simply by streamlining the deployment rules. Briefly can someone say why its important that we win this . Anyone . Risk capitals fickle. It will go to any country in the world where it thinks that innovation will find a home and that investment will yield a return and that doesnt necessarily have to be the United States in the 21st century. I think about our policies are flexible, that we include the needs of all communities, the voices of all communities that we will win this race. Thank you. I yield back. The lady yields back. Mr. Doyle. Madam chair can i ask unanimous consent to waive mr. Tonko on to the committee today . So ordered. Thank you. Thank you for conducting what i think is a very important hearing and welcome to all of our commissioners and thank you for your service in what are very Critical Issues for the growth of our economy. Commissioner rosenwsarsal, i recently introduced the access broadband act to creatively an office of Internet Connectivity and growth within the telecommunications and information administration. Under this Bipartisan Legislation that office would coordinate broadband deployment programs across our governments amongst other things to make sure were all working together, pulling in the same direction and your time at the fcc, do you believe that our agencies could do better coordinating with the various programs that serve broadband interests . Thank you for the question. Yes. More coordinatation is always going to make scarce dollars go further thats particularly true with the fcc and the folks who are just up the road from us at the Agriculture Department which runs grant and loan programs. The more coordination the better. Any other comments from any our commissioners. And also when were green lighting those devices we need to work closely with other agencies. When we talk about tele health. Theres so many synergies that can be realized if we leverage those relationships we have inside of government. Anyone else . My bill would also task this office with tracking just how many consumers each of these programs serve. So that we have a better sense of how many people are being connected because of these programs and where the consumers live. So chairman pai, today does the fcc know definitively how Many Americans is t helps to serve through the connect america fund . We have an estimate but its not as definitive as the metric that i think your legislation contemplates. Is there any way you can commit to providing my office or this subcommittee the committee in general with that information before the end of the year . That information being the number . Right. More than happy to provide any information that we have that bears on that question. Thank you. Commissioner rosenwsarsal, if put in the right context do you believe the information would be valuable for policy makers, not just as it relates to the connect america fund but for all of the governments broadband programs. Absolutely. We cant manage what we dont measure. If we get better broadband data that can inform all of our communication policy it can inform things Like Health Care policy too so i think its imperative. Thank you. I have found that sometimes people without high Speed Broadband at their homes may not understand all the benefits that that broadband can bring. So education becomes important. Thats why the access broadband act includes educational components to help people learn what broadband can do for them and the difference it can make in a community and what it means toward a stronger bid of economic recovery. So commissioner cliburn, do you believe that there is value in the educational component of what were attempting to do here . If you talk about the educational component in terms of us, you know broadband awareness and what it provides. The commissioner talked about you cant measure whatever you said is true. But sign seller, you know, people dont you dont have the exposure, you dont know whats possible. You dont know whats possible for you to better age in place if you have connectivity if youre not aware of the options and opportunities so theres so many things from an educational standpoint. We mentioned health in terms of keeping in touch and knowing whats going on in government in realtime. Those are the types of things that can better empower individuals only with connectivity, only with awareness and i think all of us have a role to play in assuring that the public is informed so they can be better enabled to live their lives more fully. Thank you very much. And finally i know that there was some exchange with our colleague from vermont but the commission is considering lowering its definition of broadband or could to be honest, it is hard to make sense of this proposal when i receive calls from my constituent day in and day out asking for faster broadband speeds. They dont want the fcc to lower the definition of broadband. They want a faster Internet Access. So while we did hear some of that exchange, are there other comments you would want to make about that definition of broadband . Two different points. First as i said the proposal is to maintain the 25 3 standard. The second point i will add is that if you look at some of the decisions we have made in terms of our universal service fund weve been always trying to push the envelope and thats why in the very first vote that happened as i became chairman after i became chairman was to deliver 173 million to unserved parts to upstate new york so they can have the connectivity that folks in big cities take for granted. Anyone else . The gentleman yields back. Mr. Engle for five minutes. Thank you madam chair. I want to start with funding for the repack. The fcc has reduced its total cost estimate for the repacking process downward approximately 2. 1 billion to 1. 86 billion. Many have told me that they think the amount is likely higher, so chairman pai, do you think that congress should provide additional funding for the repacking process . Thanks for the question and that number could fluctuate up or down. Its not set in stone at this point. What i said to the other committees on the senate side was that to the extent that we dont have any ability to be 1. 7 fund the that otherwise broadcasters would have to pay out of their own pockets in order to fill. Let me also ask you this, mr. Chairman. If congress provides additional funding, do you believe that low power tv stations and tv translators should also be eligible for naunding . Thats decision for congress to make. Congress decided not to give those entities rights in terms of reimbursements. If Congress Changes that determination then certainly the fcc would be duty bound and happy administer it. Oufl personal have a position on that. I personally think ive been talking about a lot of these people and theyre in a tough situation. I can tell you ive been pushing for them since september 28th of 2012 when we issued the notice of proposed rule making on this issue. Whatever consideration the fcc can give them and congress too would be a welcome. Because theres another group that weve heard from fm Radio Station impacted but not included. Weve heard those concerns too that under the act but to the extent they are piggybacking on infrastructure that is owned by the television broadcaster, i think congress could step in and provide some relief. Thank you. Let me ask commissioner cliburn how important is it to ensure that there is money for Consumer Education in this transition . Its just so obvious. In terms of looking at what impact, if any. Hopefully negligible that would happen in this as we move toward relocating and making our ecosystem more efficient. The public needs to be aware that the low power the stations and those those who are not protected but impacted they need to be informed and we need to continue to do what we can to protect them to make sure they dont have to do relocation twice. All of these things are very important, you know, for us to be at the forefront of insuring that the transition is smooth as possible. I dont think anybody would really disagree. Let me talk a bit about cybersecurity and commissioner rosenwsarsal im going to ask you a question. Weve seen from high profile data breaches in Companies Like equifax to yahoo to login names and passwords so do you think that the fcc has the Necessary Authority to address cybersecurity . Thank you for the question. I do. I believe the very first Communications Act references are obligation to make sure that we make available communications for the purposes of National Defense and for the protection of safety of life and property. I believe that encompasses what is modern which is cybersecurity. I recognize that our cyber agressers will always move faster than any regulation. Can we bring people together so we can come up with good best practices and implement them widely to make sure our networks are more secure. Did the Congressional Review Act reskinneding the fccs broadband privacy rules have any effect on the fccs Cybersecurity Authority . Thats a good question. The primary problem right now with cybersecurity is my colleagues dont agree with me and in addition theres the fact that our Communication Security reliability and intraoperatability council used to be task with coming together and identifying good practices for cybersecurity that is not part of their agenda. Finally, how did the cra impact the security of consumers private information . I think were going to only time will tell but i am worried about that as well. Thank you. Let the record reflect that i cosigned. Thank you. Gentleman yields back. For everyones awareness theyre going to call votes in about 15 minutes. Ms. Mcmorris rodgers is seeking to be ucd to the purpose of asking a question. Without objection, so ordered. Thank you, chairman black burn for giving me the opportunity for joining me today. The internet is vital to an individuals economic unfortunately many in Eastern Washington live with a Digital Divide that is limiting employment, educational, health and economic opportunities. Insuring that hard working families in Eastern Washington have reliable access to Broadband Technology is the top priority of mine and we must use every tool in the toolbox to provide greater opportunity. Thats why im excited in the opportunity to build out from the broadcast incentive. Many individuals and families in the most rural parts of my district struggle to get a signal for cell phone let alone connect to the internet. Im encouraged by the commitment the private sector has made and the practical effect it will have in Eastern Washington. Deployment of infrastructure and technology as a result of the option will support millions of jobs and jrlt billions in Economic Opportunity in Rural America. And increased broadband will help the u. S. Continue its leadership in technology and innovation by providing an on ramp for 5 g network deployments. Thats why i led a letter with congresswoman eshue in a Bipartisan Group of 54 of our colleagues urging the fcc to support the time line resulting from the auction. This issue is too important insuring that the repack remains on schedule will mean that many in Eastern Washington will gain reliable broad be band access in a matter of months not years. I want to thank the fcc for putting a renewed emphasis on closing the Digital Divide and im encouraged by the engagement of the commission in looking for new innovative ways to deliver broadband to the 35 million americans without access. I believe we have a great opportunity working together in a bipartisan manner to provide every american the opportunity they deserve regardless of where they live. I look forward to you making that a reality. At this time id like to submit to the committee this letter that congresswoman eshoo and i led. So ordered. Before i go id also like to ask you chairman pai, on title two, until the last fcc chairman acted late in the Previous Administration to up end really decades of bipartisan work in fostering brad band infrastructure, providers of this service were provided to a light regulatory touch. As you made the rounds throughout the country, are you concerned about achieving the level of broadband next necessary to deploy broadband deeper if the u. S. Does not go back to the light regulatory touch model and can you tell us whats on the horizon to remove this uncertain for investment for folks that just want fast and reliable Internet Service. Thank you for the question. The way you captured both the per ill and promise of bringing connectivity to folks in Eastern Washington. We are as mentioned earlier engaged in open proceeding to figure out what is the best regulatory frame ork that is calibrated to both promote the freely and open internet and preserve as much as Infrastructure Investment as possible especially in parts of the country that dont have it and so weve taken a fair amount of Public Comments at this point and were studying the record and trying to figure out the appropriate way forward and what i can tell you we want to make sure that we have first and foremost closing the Digital Divide. Far too Many Americans as you pointed out who are on the wrong side of that divide. There are individuals that dont have the opportunities that others have. Those are communities that are going to wither on the vine. Its a country that is weaker as a result of leaving Human Capital on the shelf and that is why the first day i was in office i said this would be a top priority and its going to remain soso long as i draw a paycheck at the fcc. Thank you. Ill yield back. There being no further members wishing to ask questions of the panel, you all have been generous with your time for the overpass three hours and i thank you all for being here today. As we conclude i ask unanimous content so enter the following letters into the record the five documents offered by mr. Doyle, paper offered by mr. Palone, the letter from the lp tv coalition and the repack letter without objection so ordered. Pursuant to Committee Rules i remind members that they have ten Business Days to commit additional questions for the record and i ask that witnesses submit their responses within ten Business Days. Upon recipient of the question, seeing no further business before the subcommittee today without objection the subcommittee is adjourned. Announcer this week on q a. Shoving and joftling. Theres target was Charles Murray and i was a little bit behind him and it intensified. It looked like he was going to fall to the ground and he was a 74 year old man. I did what you would do i grabbed him by the arm. Both to make sure he didnt fall but also i was afraid of it was a large i dont know how many. I was fearful of being separated from them and being left behind. When i did that thats when it all turned on me. Somebody pulled my hair, someone body slammed me from the other direction. Allison stenger discusses the violent protest on the campus last march following the discussion Charles Murray. Sunday night at 8 eastern on cspans q a. D. C. Circuit court of appeal judge will be speaking at the Heritage Foundation today about the role the Judiciary Branch plays. Live coverage begins at 5 30 p. M. Eastern. And House Speaker paul ryan headlines the radio and tv Correspondence Association dinner tonight. Live coverage begins at 7 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Both Items Available online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Coming up next a forum on the future of health care with senators corey booker and ben sass. They spoke yesterday at the milk and health summit. I want to sit on the right side. So i think most of you know over the 20 plus years weve been putting on these events we try to get you to know the other people at your table by giving you a quiz. I have the expert here sitting on my left and so this gives you we only give you one minute but with so many experts on Public Health and other issues here it shouldnt be a problem. So our first question tonight is very simply, can we pull that up . Okay. Obesity is known risk factor for high pressure. How many miles of added blood vessels does the heart have to pump through for each pound of excess weight . So this is miles for just one extra pound. Does it have to go three, four, five, six or seven . My guess is seven. So if you have 100 extra pounds its 700 miles . Okay. Time is up. Only one vote per table. One vote per table. Shhhhh. So dr. Francis is manning his own table tonight and is not a lifeline for any. Thank you for joining us francis. How many think its three extra miles per pound . If you weigh 20 pounds you think its more than 600 miles. How about b . Four, four extra miles . No ones voting for that. You cannot win for your table if you dont vote i want to just let you know. C, five extra miles. Okay we have a few. Maybe seven. Six extra miles. Okay. Multiple votes at one table. Okay. And e, seven extra miles. Im with the seven, people. The correct answer is thaufs just a warmup. Okay. You think you had a busy day today. Lets hear what senator booker had to do today. Tell us about your day. My days been all over the place from Public Schools in new jersey all the way down to voting on the floor of the senate but the big thing we did today is after months and months and months of working with Environmental Justice advocates not Climate Change folks but focus that on the immediate urgent issues of environmental injustice we unveiled a pretty major piece of legislation to try to combat with conditions that most americans that are privileged dont think exist. Give us a few examples. I left new jersey where i know a lot about the environmental and traveled through the country. Ive been everywhere from North Carolina and the hog farm areas to alabama to even st. Parish county in louisiana and these are places that have things. I couldnt believe it but you have environmental conditions that are so extreme where disproportionately where poor people live and disproportionately of color where you have types of corporate they call the area is cancer alley because of all the companies there and the quality of air is many dozens of times worse beyond what the epa says is an advantage and i did this because i became an environmental activist not because of my concerns about Climate Change, not because of worries about polar ice caps. I was just living in the inner city. Im the only senator that lives in an urban core. I live in an overwhelming majority black and latino community, the Median Income in mill census track is 14,000 and just starting to work there as a young man coming out of law school i was astonished that i came there to work on issues of housing and Public Safety but i just never understood i think until i was living in some high rise Public Housing projects how urgent the Environmental Crisis are especially for poor communities and just think about this. When i was mayor of newark, i had already dealt with epidemic levels of asthma and lead poison. Most people think flint is an anomaly. There are over 3,000 communities in america where the children have twice the blood levels of flint, michigan and my community was one of those communities. It was exorbitant. You have all these public assets one might think from waste treatment areas to incinerators that burn trash all in this area thats just driven up as most urban areas do. Multiple times. But then it started getting worse for me. I decided to deal with food deserts which we were just talking about by declaring i was going to make newark, new jersey the biggest farming in all of new jersey. We started planting in the soil. You cant grow things in the soil here in the city because of the poisons in the soil and so by the time i finished as mayor just looking at my environment, i saw my kids couldnt breathe the air. It was toxic. Couldnt plant in the soil because it was toxic and the water was toxic. Everything from children having to drink out of bottled waters because of the lead or even the Passaic River which poor people could go crabbing or fishing now it is literally a Super Fund Site and these Super Fund Sites which every state has disproportionately in poor communities and communities of color, we know what its doing to our children. I amplify wilive with two supers around me. Higher rates of birth defects and autism. Here you have children growing up in communities where the environmental alienation is so high their rates of cancers, respiratory diseases, lead in their blood is so tragic but we dont do anything about it as a country so i wanted to go around and try to show folks whether you live in rural areas there is a common pain effecting tens of millions of americans but were not doing anything about it. Super fund is the host annoying frustrating thing to me. Ronald reagan and Mitch Mcconnell voted on a method to fund the cleanup of Super Fund Sites but we fail to reauthorize it. My generation and whats happening to Super Fund Sites is increasing in our country and continuing to hurt and damage the lives of our children. So today i unveiled a piece of legislation that will go at a lot of these core issues that are unimaginable and indicative in many ways of the conversion of capitalism that we have well break away from this program. You can watch it of course any time you like at our website. Get you out live to the Heritage Foundation now just a moment away from an event celebrating the legacy of jurs joseph story who is the youngest associate justice ever to serve on the u. S. Supreme court. He was appointed by madison in 1812. Live coverage now of this event from the Heritage Foundation. We will be beginning momentarily. Jessica does have note cards for those that have come from the Legal Strategy Forum for the question and answer session. If you like some wed be glad to get them to you. Remind everyone please check that our mobile devices have been silenced or turned off as a courtesy as he prepare to begin. We should begin in about two or three minutes. Mr. Meese will introduce our special guest and john malcolm of our legal center will moderate the q a following