Transcripts For CSPAN3 FCC Chair Ajit Pai And Fellow Commissioners Testify Before House... 20240713

Good morning. Welcome to the subcommittee on communication and technologies. I am glad to welcome our witnesses back before the subcommittee. I know it has been seven months since we had you before us and i know we all missed the warm welcoming atmosphere of our hearing room. Despite that passage of time many issues that were of concern to us then still remain unresolved today. For example, i asked about the investigation into phone carrier selling the realtime location of nearly every american. Mr. Chairman, you told me even after more than one year had passed we still cannot tell whether this practice has stopped and could not say whether the impacted individuals have been notified and could not tell us that members of congress and lawenforcement had their locations sold or tracked and in june of this year you told senator blumenthal that you were wrapping up this investigation and with that recommendation shortly. That was six months ago. We still dont have them. Chairman sloan and i wrote to the chairman in november asking for an update and we got a response yesterday saying he now expects an answer of the endorsement bureau by the end of january. The chairman says he will share those results with us as soon as practical. We will be interested to learn when that will be, mr. Chairman. Looking at your announcement yesterday about your new planet with mobility it still seems you have finally realized that the data you collected is garbage and that you need to go back and do this all over again. Everyone has been telling you that for years and instead of acting decisively, folks in Rural America will have to wait even longer to get broadband as you finally collect the data you need to. At our last hearing seven months ago and the hearing nine months before that members brought up the same concerns and here we are with you just yesterday announcing you are kicking off another lengthy rulemaking process to try again to fix the process. Stamping your new plan 5g does not change the fact that communities were these were desperately needed have been waiting years and will have to wait even longer because of a bungled process. That to add insult to injury, you arent even taking action against the carriers that submitted the faulty or fraudulent data in the first place. What is the incentive in the future to provide accurate data if they know they will get a pass two where is the justice for the people in the communities who have suffered because of this . Mr. Chairman, i would remind you you are charged with protecting and serving the American People, not the telecom industry. Shifting gears, on a more holiday spirited note, i am pleased about chairman pies recent comments about the tea ban. This is used by First Responders and reports have shown the value of selling this ban will not even come close to covering their relocation costs. Where i live it would cost upwards of 250 million for Public Safety to relocate that spectrum. I think once and for all we need to repeal this mandate and it makes no sense to me or many on this committee to go forward with it. Regarding seat ban i am pleased that you have finally come around to see the benefits of a public auction. For all of the discussions for need for speed in this debate you have been moving at a glacial pace and questions at the commissions Legal Authority remain in terms of lawsuits still hang out bully over the commission. I, along with subcommittee, have introduced the c ban act and similar legislation has been introduced in the senate. I believe Congress Must passed legislation and resolve the Commission Authority to ensure a fair and transparent option and capture option revenue so that it may be used to pay for the deployment of Rural Broadband nextgeneration 911 and closing the Digital Divide. We all know if we want to address these challenges the federal government needs to buy funding for the c ban auction represents our last best chance to do that in the foreseeable future and i stand ready to work with my colleagues on the committee and in the senate to address this issue promptly and swiftly. We need Real Solutions to address these problems and real protections for the American People and accountability from our federal regulators and industries that they oversee. I want to think the witnesses for being here today and i look forward to your testimony and with that, it is my pleasure to recognize my good friend the Ranking Member on the subcommittee for good medications and technology for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman thank you to the commission for being with us today. Great to see you all. I appreciate that you are also willing to be to travel across country to see how the revelations are affecting companies and consumers. This past year commissioners both came to my district to speak on role broadband and learn about telehealth and decision and agriculture to see how it serves a local up service. A few years before he came to a town of less than 700 people to meet with a packed room to discuss rural call completion. This was happening outside of the dc puts our work and perspective and i appreciate the work you do and the people with us today. At the hearing in may the chairman i expressed a need for Real Solutions that address illegal robo calls and yesterday we passed bipartisan bicameral legislation out of the chamber with strong Consumer Protections to combat robo calls. This problem will only be solved with a multipronged approach and i want to thank the chairman and the rest of commissioners for their work thus far in pushing industry to curb fraudulent robo calls. I also want to thank the commission for injecting urgency into the 5. 9 gigahertz ban and long organized the value of the spectrum for Vehicle Safety and wireless innovation and we proposed to start the discussion to modernize the ban. The ongoing certainty for Safety Technologies to hamper the expansion of wide buy services with focus should put an end to that certainty and automobile safety and lack license use to help consumer demand for wifi services. I look forward to hearing more about how we can ensure both interest and advance our protecting the income and wifi is appurtenant to our economy and our overall good indications landscape which is why im interested to see that the sec is looking for the six wristband for [inaudible] we must be aware that the gigahertz ban i fully encourage them to have their robust Technical Analysis and every ban can have appropriate protection while harmful interference. [inaudible] the commission has made many advances in reducing revelatory red tape and wireless broadband and for and more work remains. In july a letter with nine of my colleagues on the subcommittee encouraging the fcc to clarify its rules regarding the statutory cap on fees. Some franchise authorities have stretched to include those that may deter broadband infrastructure and part of the solution can be found by improving the underlined maps and im pleased this committee reported favorably hr 4229 broadband data at act on the house floor which i work with my friend the gentleman from iowa but the maps are only the beginning to closing the Digital Divide. Last year he and i included our position agriculture activity act in the farm bill. This provision will spur broadband deployments on rural, agricultural to help farmers better utilize and get connected quicker. I was pleased to see they recently announced the creation of a task force as mandated by our legislation to offer advice and recordations on how to best achieve this important goal. I look forward to continuing to work with the industry and the commission to further direct the connectivity issues. On the mobile broadband site there is more work to be done with china and others for 5g leadership. It is vital we continue to look for opportunities to expand the reach of 5g across the entire country especially in rural communities. I hope to hear more about the plan stay for the two prioritize the developing in Rural America. I also Welcome Ideas they may have on how congress can better promote broadband deployment and competition and underserved areas. Again, i thank you all for being here to testify and i yield back but id also ask unanimous consent for the four letters to be cemented. Without objection. So ordered. Thank you. I yield back. The chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you. Congress mandated the federal can medications commission do it in the Public Interest and that means its actions, policies should put consumers first but unfortunately this fcc under chairman of pi turns its back to consumers in favor of big corporate interests. Time and time again the commission has ignored the voice of the people and has taken a different path laid out by billiondollar companies. The prime example is the fcc action turning control of the internet over to large corporations by eliminating strong Net Neutrality safeguards that protect at a free and open internet. That was just the beginning. As part of an effort to expedite the rollout of 5g service the fcc stripped away vital protections to help safeguard important religious and cultural travel sites but luckily the court struck down that effort and did not end there but the fcc similarly attempted to strip away protections the promote diversity in the ownership of Media Companies and again the court struck down the fccs action. Just when you think the commission cannot slip further down the fcc intentionally undermine the rule of that court are improving more consolidation afterthefact. More and more challenges just like this are coming and catering to corporate interests the fcc has repeatedly stretched the law to the point of breaking. This has resulted in delays and unsuccessful initiatives that benefit no one. Beyond that the commission has stalled when it comes to holding those megacorporations accountable for violating the slim safeguards that remain. We are, still waiting for conclusion of the fccs investigation into the widespread realtime location data by wireless carriers. That investigation started over a year ago and is unacceptable. Effective deterrence require swift and Decisive Action in the fcc has demonstrated neither. In other instances it is this commission has intentionally going after vulnerable americans. The commission is proposing to cut off support to connect schools and libraries, rural health care, broadband deployment and support for low income americans by capping the universal service fund. This is shameful and preys on americans the need our help. If that is not bad enough, the lack of actions have put American People in danger where they experience hurricanes and wildfires that the commission has all talk and no action in the wake of these disasters. I have asked the fcc to take steps to improve the Wireless Network resilient cooperative framework but nothing happens. Finally the ongoing Government Accountability Office Investigation into the fccs electronic comment filing system is producing disturbing results. I cant speak more specifically to its findings because the report is currently marked for limited or official use but i ask determine pi to dedicate the resources are needed to quickly address the issues that gal has found. I think the fcc should get back on track and put consumers first read that i yield the balance of my time to the [inaudible] thank you. I want to thank the commissioner for making themselves available to be in front of the committee and the staff. We note this country continues to face the deep persistent Digital Divide. Unfortunately i do not believe commissioner pai under this leadership has done enough to bridge that divide and a concern that just occurred yesterday despite bipartisan agreement that the United States of america must fix our nations broadband map we know the mapping system that the fcc has to accurately capture where there is connectivity and not is broken. It is not accurately collecting that information and then to find out that wireless carriers submitted false information, false mapping information, inaccurate information that means wireless carriers submitted misleading coverage information to the fcc and im concerned its been swept under the rug. When consumers go by their mobile phones they have of beautiful brochure put in front of them and it shows coverage areas where they live in those coverage areas are supposed to show where there is connectivity and many people especially in rural areas by their mobile phones based on those maps. Because they need to make a phone call to save someones life and that elderly parent that needs conductivity but theres no other family around so why in the world would they not be held accountable especially when there is bipartisan agreement from this congress and democrats and the publicans need to fix this problem. I hope we hear more about that and how we can be connected and then on top of that chairman pai was announced that the fcc would rush or repackaged usf funding based on this data but the dollars are precious and we need to make sure we put those dollars where they matter most and we get connectivity especially Rural America. Thank you for the time i go back. Gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes mr. Walden Ranking Member of the full committee for five minutes. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for your service to america. I know we have disagreements on some policy issues but we do appreciate the meetings we have had and the discussions weve had in the service you are providing. You all heard me all along the talk about the need for broadband in Rural America and mr. Chairman pai joined me in oregon and we still lack access to Broadband Internet service and millions of americans who live in Rural America faced the same sort of internet and the universal service fund is an important [inaudible] policymakers rr prime is a goal to ensure the federal resources are allocated responsibly. In that vein we have two have accurate broadband maps identified those places and we express that in different terms with different emotion. I started way back when the obama stimulus was going to this committee and money was going out the door before the maps determining where underserved areas were and i did not have an amendment to fix that but it went down unfortunately. Here we are an administration or so later and anyway this committee recently passed to bipartisan mapping bills aimed at improving Data Collection and mapping efforts of the fcc. There are committees that do have concern for us and we learned from the press release yesterday the fcc establishing a new 9 billiondollar fund with a billion specifically for precision agriculture trade it sounds good but i support filled out for 5g in rural areas but i have no details on this plan. I do have questions. Im also unclear as to whether the 9 billion came from and still waiting for maps to accurately be updated and as you all know we are the committee of oversight for the federal committee Occasions Committee and we take our jobs seriously and i know you know that. You take yours seriously but we expect to have more notice and medication on some of these big announcements and that would be helpful and alleviate the questions that will come today. Since we need to be Crystal Clear about our intentions for the fcc action for this committee id also like to note the importance of ensuring federal programs outside the energy and Commerce Committee remains consistent with the committees goal of promoting private investment in broadband infrastructure to plemons and sometimes various programs trying to achieve the same goal are not always in sync, as you all know. Last congress we appropriated more than 600 billion toward broadband and funding programs and that money and makes its way out the door i welcome an update from the commissioner here today now the fcc is consulting with other agencies as required by legislation last year. Switching gears i like to turn spectrum issues that recently raise quite a bit of attention and the fcc announced they would pursue a public auction of spectrum and is the law stands now any proceeds for the fcc auction would go to the treasury for deficit reduction rather than toward bipartisan priorities like facility the National Transition 911 and i think its prudent to legislate and look to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us on this issue in the coming weeks. As we have these discussions we must work with the current licensees, potential bidders and others so this auction was quickly and we preserve the u. S. Wireless leadership. Id said the solutions to challenges and chairman pai will knows that one of these issues ive been focused on is challenges facing our Public Safety officials and talc medications and we continue moving into a Digital World and this includes the finance solution to the t ban auction and at the same time is also imperative we put a stop to 911 feet in diversion so state stop using fees paid by consumers to support and onemonth services as slush funds for unrelated programs. At the last fcc oversight hearing and other times over the last of the years i floated proposals as the delay or repeal these auction process and welcome thoughts on how to reconcile these related issues paid im not been taken up on that offer but i must say i find it interesting that just last week the chairman pai called on congress to repeal the mandate which was not coordinated nor discussed with me or my staff despite our efforts to find a solution for it with the deadline fast approaching i like to take this opportunity to repeat my call to affected parties to work with us and my colleagues to find a consensus solution on this issue. I realize its a need to address but there are other issues and i like to implement the 911 Commission Findings that are set up into the auction in 2012. I know these issues pretty well and we have got to take care of our First Responders and we will but there are other issues associated with this set of issues that we also need to address and work together. Mr. Chairman, with that i will yield you back six seconds. Thank you. The chair thanks the gentleman. We like to remind members that pursuant to Committee Rules all members written Opening Statements shall be made part of the record. It gives me great pleasure to introduce our witnesses were to name hearing. Honorable ajit pai of the federal Committee Case and commission welcome. Honorable michael oreilly, welcome. Honorable brendan carr. Honorable jessica [inaudible], welcome and last but certainly not least the honorable jeffrey stark. Welcome to all of you we thank you for joining us today and we look forward to your testimony and i will be recognizing each witness for five minutes but before we do that we will explain the lighting system in front of you. There is a series of lights that will initially be green at the start of your Opening Statement and will turn yellow when you have one minute left. Please wrap up your testimony at that time when the light turns red. Your time has expired. Chairman pai, we now recognize you for five minutes. Thank you. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member, numbers of the subcommittee thank you for holding this hearing and i appreciate the opportunity to apprise you of the fccs work to a dance of the Public Interest. I like to focus my statements on two important issues that will pick up at our meeting next week. The first unfortunately his home with millions of americans. And involves my proposal to establish 988 of the three digit number dedicated to Suicide Prevention and Mental Health assistance. Under my proposal anyone who called 988 would be routed to the established national Suicide Prevention lifeline where they could be assisted by trained counselors. This proposal has a tragic backdrop. Suicide rates in the United States are at their highest level since world war ii. 2017 more than 47000 americans died by suicide, 33 increase since 1999. More than 1. 4 million adults attempted suicide and atrisk populations are disproportionately affected part. For instance, everything with a 20 veterans died by suicide. More than half a million lgbtq youth will attempt suicide this year alone. I believe 988 could help. It has an echo of 911, unnumbered we all know and the awareness of this resource should make a real difference when those in crisis the date lifeline. I believe we can get 988 up and running more quickly than other three digit numbers. More calls will mean more demands or centers which in turn will require more resources and that is why its important that this effort has bipartisan congressional support. The particular i like to thank irishman Chris Stewart for leading on this issue in the house. My proposal has support outside congress including from the department of Veterans Affairs and health and Human Services National Council for Behavioral Health and the trevor project. They agree a simple number 988 could make the difference between life and death. Working together im confident we can and will dave lives. The second issue i like to discuss is my proposal to reform the gigahertz ban. Heres the background. In 1999 fcc allocated 75 megahertz spectrum in this man for technology called dedicated short range medications or ds rc. Was intended to ubiquitous automated medication but has not borne fruit. After two decades they have evolved slowly at best and not widely deployed in the spectrum and public resource has rained largely unused. This is unacceptable and that is why i am proposing an alternative approach to allow consumers to benefit from improved automotive Safety Technologies and more unlicensed innovation. With respect to unlicensed innovation and promoting to prevent unauthorized in the lower 45 megahertz proportion of the nine gigahertz ban and this would be a big benefit for American Consumers. Wifi is growing popularity and launching in 1999 the same year the fcc allocated the ban for ds rc wifi has become a staple of everyday life. This has raised a challenge but we need more unlicensed spectrum. Allowing the operation and lower 45 megahertz portion of the gigahertz ban would help be that challenge. With respect to automotive safety the effort for this ban would be allocated for cellular vehicles or cb acts which is a new Cellular Based Technology which would allow direct creations between vehicles and everything from other vehicles, labels to pedestrians. Its also expected to support new applications as we transition to 5g. It is backed by automakers ford, audi, b w, dimer and tesla. And we are closing the door on ds rc. Japan has a single 10 megahertz channel for ds rc that is actively used for collision avoidance. Im proposing we Seek Public Input on whether to allocate the remaining 10 megahertz of spectrum in the upper part of it or ds rc or cb acts. Advocates of each technology could make their cases. I appreciate the bipartisan support for reforms for the gigahertz ban and in particular Ranking Member Committee Vice chair clark and representatives. There is diverse thirdparty support including tech freedom, Public Knowledge and government waste 5g Automotive Association ordered and the Internet Service providers association. These three digit numbers for Suicide Prevention and the five gigahertz bands are two examples of how the commission is availing the Public Interest and strong bipartisan support and many others such as our actions last month to protect the security of our network to improve the First Responders to quickly locate wireless 911 calls. Id be happy to answer any questions you may have or any other issues. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee thank you for holding this hearing. We look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. The chair in a wreck arise commissioner for five minutes. Good morning big members of the subcommittee. I thank you for the opportunity to join the subcommittee as it conducts further oversight on the commission. With the indulgence i like to raise three topics for consideration. First, i will begin with the communication conference in 2019 wrc 19 in egypt which i just attended two weeks ago. I like to say despite meeting some of the spectrum policy goals wrc 19 raise fundamental concerns to call into question the value of this International Spectrum conference. Several countries particular russia, france and china clearly sent delegations to egypt with directors to port the red states and other forward leading countries. From my viewpoint this is done apart for larger geo political purposes and protect the industries from usbased competition. International spectrum harmonization isnt readily valuable, especially in the 5g universe. It must not, the expense of the u. S. Interest and our likeminded allies. We are not without options for certain member nations to continue to disrupt progress for the next generation wireless world. U. S. Could explore the formation of a g7 like organization or loose coalition of leading wireless nations as an alternative to itu. When it comes to spectrum policy more generally wic profits reaffirms my belief that for the u. S. To lead and 5g Wireless Services we must avoid any delay in finalizing allocations especially mid ban. I would argue that we must pursue ahead of other social objectives and to do otherwise and give other countries a head start and the ability to dictate the progress of our future. I believe the premier opportunities reside not given that the chairman has announced the c ban auction for 2020 we must do all we can within legal constraints and respecting current licensees to complete this option. For the three. Dot 13. Dot five gigahertz ban commission is initiating on a fairly narrow aspect and the remaining effort which involves moving dod radars and opening the best of the ban to share needs to be addressed in the very near future. This requires heavy lifting and the subcommittees assistance in this matter will be invaluable. Finally, the subcommittees held requested in addressing the diversion and ive reported many times to the subcommittee on the progress they are making to reduce the number of feed diverting space. We have sexily removed several. The remaining states we have begun the process of changing the labels of various fees or downright ignoring our call to end the thievery. As mr. Walden recently suggested diversion for the tea ban plans may be one strong option to consider and i would add establishing further statutory diverters is much needed as well. Thank you for inviting my testimony and i welcome any questions you may have. Thank you, commissioner riley. You are not recognized, mission or car. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member, distinct numbers of the subcommittee. Its a privilege to appear before you. When i testified seven months ago i outlined the bold steps the fcc is taking to accelerate the buildout of 5g and other internet structure. Im pleased to report the commissions reform are delivering results. The internet speeds are up 56 compared to two years ago. The Digital Divide narrowed by about 20 last year alone. Providers buildout more miles of highspeed fiber than ever before. America now has the worlds leading 5g platform. The very first commercial 5g Service Launched here in the u. S. More than one year ago. The private sector brought 5g214 communities last year and quickly expanded that to over 30 in the first part of this year and now one provider alone has committed to building 5g99 of the u. S. Population. Small cell bills have jumped from 130002017 to about 60000 in 2018 to a total of 200,000 by the end of the year. These figures show the momentum america now has 45g. Of course, numbers alone dont tell the full story and if id bills were limited to the wealthiest neighborhoods of americas biggest cities we cannot claim our policies are working. We reach the finish line when every community has a fair shot it next gen connectivity. That is why i spent time on this job outside of dc. In the communities we cant leave behind in the transition to 5g but theres much more to do and im proud of the result modernize infrastructure rules and are already delivering. Take houstons second word. A neighborhood that always has not shared in the prosperity and investment of neighboring communities. I spent time there with the mayor Sylvester Turner and talk to the broadband providers who were then trending fiber and empowering up new small cells. Infra structure bills that are boosting capacity in a community where for many there Wireless Connection is there only onramp to the internet. Take sioux falls, south dakota. A Community Many would not associate with the leading edge of 5g. In a few months back they showed me the 5g cell sites that are already going up. This is great news and its 5g opportunity can be a unique privilege of living in a big city. That is why we focus on ensuring Rural America is not left behind. Not left out of the jobs, the healthcare and innovations that will arrive on the 5g network. To further extend u. S. Leadership we need to expand the Skilled Workforce that can buildout this infrastructure. Industry can fill another 20000 tower climbers to complete this 5g bill and these are good paying jobs. Ones you can raise a family on trade they dont require extensive fouryear degrees. Earlier this year i announced the Jobs Initiative the looks to committee colleges as a pipeline for these 5g jobs and met with officials at a Community College in south dakota to recently announced they are launching their own program this next month. The new jobs fulfill that this will enable, create the platform for Innovative New services and telehealth is a great example. I saw it earlier year with Ranking Member lata at eight hospital in toledo. A doctor showed us how a video up on his phone now lets them see and treat patients from almost anywhere shaving precious minutes and saving lives. Its an example of a new trend in telehealth with apps that can be accessed on the patients own device, quality care cannot be delivered directly to patients. If the healthcare equivalent of moving from blockbuster to netflix. The fcc should support this new trend, particularly for low income americans and veterans that ive led the work to stand up a new one a milliondollar connective care program which can do just that. Id like to move to the order and that is proceeding in 2020 and i look forward to working with all stakeholders in doing so. In closing, i want to thank you again, chairman doyle, Ranking Member lata, members of the subcommittee to testify and i look forward to your questions. Commissioner you are wrecking eyes for five minutes. Good morning. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member lata and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to be here today. The wall street journal published an article a few weeks ago entitled the people left behind in a broadband world. It began by describing a parking lot in Southeastern Ohio and it is right next to it county library. Every evening long after the library has public auction test. Test. Test. See, the libre wifi on even after it has shut its doors. It means students who need Internet Access to do their schoolwork can get their assignments done while sitting in the cars of their family and friends because so many of them do not have access to broadband at home. Today seven and ten teachers assign homework that requires Internet Access but fcc data repeatedly show that wanted three households do not subscribe to broadband. Where those numbers overlap is what i call the homework gap. According to the Senate Joint Economic committee homework gap is real. It affects 12 Million Students in every state all across the country. You see it in communities everywhere, kids lingering after hours in Community Parking lots were striving into fast food restaurants to do their homework with a side of fries or urging their parents to shuffle them to the homes of friends and relatives just to cobble together the connectivity they need for nightly schoolwork. The homework gap is the coolest part of the Digital Divide. There are things we can do to solve it. The fcc could start a homework gap proceeding to identify solutions and new ways are universal Service Policies could help. We could explore how the programs could equip school buses with wifi and in turn right time in rural areas into connected time for homework just as legislation before the committee recommends. We could even go bigger and establish a National Fund that solves the homework gap for a portion of the funds raised from the future auctions of our airwaves. The fund could be used to make sure there are wireless hotspots for loans in every School Library across the country. It would give every student a fair shot to do their homework keep up in class. It could solve the homework gap virtually over night. We can do this if we set up a fund from the revenues raised by new licenses in the c ban. To this end i am glad the chairman has announced we will have a public auction of these airwaves and i think the next step to be exploring how we can solve the homework gap using the revenues from this auction. If we do this we can ensure no child is left off line. I think we should because in too many fcc policies we are leaving too many people behind but we disapprove the largest wireless transaction in our nations history allowing two of the four National Carriers to combine and we all know what happens to consumers when market concentration increases following a merger. In the Airline Industry this consolidation brought us more baggage fees and for smaller seats. Why do we think it will be different this time . On top of this we are taking the wrong road in a race to 5g auction off highbandwidth airwaves and the rest of the world has focused its efforts on mid ban of spectrum we are have a serious risk of falling behind. Moreover we have real work to do if we really want to secure our 5g network and coordinate across the government because we do not have a national 5g Security Strategy and experts agree we need one. When it comes to the resiliency of our existing networks we need to organize wildfires and hurricanes are becoming more common and that Communications Outages that accompany them are becoming more severe but we have not updated our fcc framework for Disaster Response and we need to. Finally, the fcc is issuing all kinds of press releases about how we will update our universal Service Policies with the new funds Rural Broadband through wireless but how will we do this when our maps are so inaccurate we cannot say with certainty where service is or is not. Common sense says we need maps before money and data before deployment. I fear that is not how we will proceed. These things need to be fixed. Im glad you are holding this oversight hearing today and we have problems and resources that are constrained and communities that have real difficulty to navigate the digital age. I still believe medications technology can help. I believe with the right fcc policies in place we can help solve the homework gap and so much other challenges that are before us. Thank you and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner starks you are recognized for five minutes back thank you. It is a privilege to appear before you today. Since i began in the seven months since i last appeared before you i repeatedly stressed through critical importance of reliable, affordable broadband to committees thought america and thats why once again the Digital Divide is heartening into the state of internet inequality and how the fcc needs to improve universal Service Funds to address this issue. Millions of americans remain in the hardest served areas are getting left behind. I have proposed a fourpoint plan to address Rural Broadband. First, fcc must fund Rural Broadband with six maps. Youve heard this here today but the fcc recently proposed attorney . 4 billion plan, tenure World Digital Opportunity Fund critically 16 million with nearly three quarters of that fund will be spent over ten years on the data and maps in nearly every stakeholder agrees is badly flawed. We should have proceeded with the smaller initial budget and shorter Service Terms while we fix that data and mapping and proceeded with the bulk of the support over longer terms but unfortunately, the structure adopts are ready, fire, aim approach that savers speed over funding. To address world connectivity we must consent buys providers to bring future proof broadband to our communiques. Close review of the proposal by many communities will be deemed eligible are currently underserved, already received fcc high cost funding. How did this happen . That is why i called for a data driven tenure look back on how our highcost programming has performed in bringing broadband to our hardest to reach areas. Sometimes you have to look forward or look back in order to move forward. We cannot have a world in ten years from now when we wake up with another 20 billion dollars spent we still dont understand the precision which communities remain underserved and how we can accurately finish the job to connect them. Third, we must hold our op auction winners accountable. Sadly, more than a dozen winners from her last universal service fund auction have already defaulted on their bids. To provide that Necessary Service we must be absolutely sure the carriers receive u. S. Funding will deliver and the connectivity to communities that needed the most. Finally, to address Rural Broadband we must advance a more affordable way for our poorest Rural Americans to connect to the internet. The fcc should require u. S. Auction to have an affordable option. We should examine the experience of a number isps including comcast, cox, att and spectrum that you provide lowcost offerings for the internet around 15 or less of families participating in low income federal programs. Connecting all americans is not enough if those connections are not secure. Back in may i raise the alarm that we need to focus on problem of untrustworthy chinese equipment that is in our networks. We need to find the insecure equipment, find it, fix it and fund it. Last month my colleague and i unanimously voted not only to no one but also critically to address what to do about the equipment that already stands on our networks. There are additional security risks that must be addressed. One in particular that i focused on his Election Security print reporting indicates that a least sixstates and washington dc use Voting Machines that transmit results over Cellular Networks meaning result could be blocked, altered by criminals or our adversaries that can use fake cell towers and hack untrustworthy routers. Because of these risks i met with the major wireless carriers to address or discuss and have them tell me how they are protecting our Network Security but the important goal here that we must have is every vote needs to be counted accurately each and every time. Finally, we must make sure all americans share in the benefits of 5g. That technology has the opportunity to drive solutions, Real Solutions on issues that matter most in our world not just for today but for our shared tomorrow. The future of work is one of these great 5g will allow Massive Iot Networks using automation and Artificial Intelligence to achieve unprecedented productivity and efficiency and that transformation will also displace millions of workers and in particular, research from mckenzie shows this revolution will disproportionally Impact Communities of color and women. That is due to the overrepresentation for truck drivers, food machinists and we need to partner with private sector to encourage develop programs used by cheat better. Lastly, i will highlight the issue of Climate Change. It is an issue that we are seeing that our folks and companies are deploying and info structure to plummet to account for Climate Change where there are disasters but 5g and electric grid will play a Critical Role Going Forward. Thank you for having me here today. Thank you. Weve concluded our openings. We now move to member questions. Each member will have five minutes to ask questions of our witnesses. I will start by recognizing myself for five minutes. Chairman part, im glad you have come to see the public auction is in the best interest of the country and best approach. I want to ask all the commissioners to respond to my question by raising your hand if you agree. I wont make a statement. If you agree, raise your hand read good the commission under its Current Authority use spectrum auction revenue from the sea ban to pay for Rural Broadband development . Could you use it to pay for deployment of nextgeneration 911 . Could you use it to close the homework gap . Would Congress Need to pass legislation to authorize revenue from an auction of the cband in order to delineate those things . Exactly. This is why we need to move quickly to pass legislation to address these issues and i stand ready to work with all members of this committee and the senate who wish to do the same. This is an opportunity we dare not miss. I also want to ask all the commissioners to respond to my question by raising their hand if they agree. This is a different approach. [laughter] the fcc broadband Deployment Data is significantly lacking and deeply flawed, do you agree with that statement . These laws are so bad that some of it as the chairman has said in the case of the Mobility Fund to data we will need to redo it. They need to be redone. When you have bad data as you did a Mobility Fund it to, you cant make good decisions. Do you agree with that . Mr. Chairman, will you commit to collecting new, accurate data as it seems that you need to do for other proceedings . Mr. Chairman. We havent done that with a Digital Opportunity Data Collection which we adopted august 1 to fix broadband. The greenfield bill will be exploring the news proposed rulemaking early next year. The way to move forward given the expanse we had and thats why i agreed with the recommendation that we should close down the challenge process. It was inaccurate maps and we cannot go forward we should close down the challenge process. The maps we had were inaccurate and we cannot go forward making a good decision on the basis of bad data. Does it seem to you that the chairmans decisions about when he needs accurate data and when he doesnt is rather arbitrary because i cant find any rhyme or reason for why he accepts he needs good data but in other proceedings such as this new forbearance proceeding regarding Competitive Services and the next round of grants, the commission seems to be ignoring the lack of data in its decisionmaking. Would you like to comment on that . I agree with you, chairman. I think youre right. We need maps before money and data before deployment. I could not agree more, mr. Chairman. And it took us over a year to say that the Mobility Fund 2 data was broken which seems shocking to me. Im disappointed as well in the Enforcement Capacity that we are not going to hold folks accountable for those misrepresentations. You told senator blumenthal that you were wrapping up your investigation into location sharing and you want be responding to the incident in the near future. Its december and we still havent seen anything. I know yesterday you emailed me a request to my update saying you would try to share the results of your investigation as soon as practical. Could you tell us more specifically when were going to get that information . Mr. Chairman, as i pointed out in the letter after consulting with the career staff of the Enforcement Bureau they told me they would be in a position to provide those recommendations to me to wrap up that part of the investigation by the end of january which is why i said as soon as possible thereby i would be happen to share with you and other interested members of the committee what those results would be. Commissioner rosenworcel, do you have anything to add to that . Its been well over a year since we learned that theres a black market out there for where we are with our wireless phones. For a few hundred dollars, anyone could buy where we are within a few hundred meters. Thats dangerous for our national and personal security and its crazy that Wireless Companies sold this data to skip tracing firms who then sold it to bail bondsmen who then sold it to bounty hunters. Here we are months and months later. I still dont know what happened and the Chairmans Office has refused to provide us with any information about letters of inquiry or what were investigating. I think that this is something that you need to follow up on because this goes to the security of every one of us who holds onto a mobile phone. Thank you. I see my time is expired. Do you agree with that statement, commissioner . I do, mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I now yield for five minutes to the Ranking Member. Thanks, mr. Chairman. And, again, the commission, thanks for being here. If i could start my questions with you, i applaud the work you and the commission are doing to make six gigahertz available for unlicensed use and im concerned about how it might impact the utilities in my district who rely on that band for fixed services. Does the commission have the Technical Knowledge to craft rules that ensure that incumbent users are being protected . I appreciate the question and the answer to that question is yes, led in part by our sterling chief engineer and the other talented staff of our office of engineering and technology. We are doing the necessary Technical Analysis to understand the extent to which the sharing of that 5925 to 7925 band with unlicensed operations would be consistent with the operate functions that that spectrum serves for the electric utilities and others that you identified. Well, i appreciate that. Will you commit to ensuring that the incumbent users are protected when you make six gigahertz available for unlicensed use . Absolutely, congressman. I said consistently that we will make sure that we balance both those interests, we want to preserve those important incumbent uses and also look at unlicensed and other operations. Thank you. Let me follow up with another question. Recently you put forward a new proposal for the 5. 9 gigahertz band which would make 45 megahertz of spectrum available for unlicensed use while the remaining 30 megahertz would be split between two different auto Safety Technologies, the dsrc and the cv2x. Would the proposal allow automakers to continue using the 5. 9 gigahertz band to send safety messages and provide other critical lifesaving services. It would, congressman. In fact i would argue that my approach would deliver the most significant automative safety benefits to the American Public in decades. And the reason is, it would allow cellular vehicle to everything, in particular, in that upper 20 megahertz part of the band to progress under the current rules, cvx cannot go forward at all. We are stuck with the dsrc approach. And so my goal is to enable automotive Safety Technologies like that to thrive and at the same time we want to recognize, as i mentioned in my Opening Statement, that dsrc should have a fair shot in making its case. And given the fact that the japanese employ 10 megahertz channel, thats why i included in my proposal seeking comment on whether dsrc or cvx should have an additional ten megahertz. Thats a 30megahertz wide channel that would be dedicated to automotive safety driving tremendous benefits to American Consumers and this is where i pointed out, a lot of automakers are focusing a lot of their energy as well. Let me ask a quick follow up on that. You talked with the department of transportation on that . Extensively, congressman. For many, many months i personally and my staff and the staff of the engineering and technology office, among others, have been consulting with them extensively. We revised our proposals substantially to accommodate the interests and in fact the approach that i published on internet a couple of weeks ago reflects that compromise, that we arent were focusing on a balanced approach that would give Automotive Safety Technology an exclusive home and unlicensed operations in exclusive home and we feel like thats the best of both worlds. Thank you, because, again, as the fcc i think you talked a little bit about this. Has the fcc performed or evaluated any engineering studying to determine the impact on the uses on this band once open for the unlicensed use . Thats a good question. Thats a part of the reason why the approach i suggested is the best one. Under the previous administration, contemplation was that we should share the entire band between dsrc and unlicensed operations. In order to test the feasibility of that, extensive testing was required. And that testing has taken a long, long time. Under my approach with spectral separation, by creating an exclusive home where automotive safety could thrive, they dont need to worry about unlicensed operations interfering with them. Similarly on the unlicensed side, because they have that 45 megahertz exclusive home in the lower part of the band, theres no problem in terms of the interference with automotive safety. Essentially its saying, look, everybody gets a different bite of the apple, so to speak, and those bites dont have to conflict. Thank you. Commissioner, i know earlier this year, you were a key driver in the fccs launch of a hundred Million Dollar Pilot Program to support telemedicine. Ive always been an advocate for telehealth. Last month, this committee passed my bill aimed to address mortality disparities which include utilizing technologies. Would you please give me an update on how the Pilot Program is going . Thank you, congressman. We moved to the next phase earlier this summer. The comment cycle on that has closed. My hope is we would move forward quickly in 2020 with an order that will stand up formally that Pilot Program. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, my time has expired and i yield back. The gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes mr. Mcnerney for five minutes for questions. I thank the chairman. I thank the commission in your work in the initiatives you described this morning. I sent you a letter urging you to start a proceeding to take a fresh look at 5. 9 and make it an available for unlicensed use and i appreciate your proposal on it. Im pleased to see that. Youve also put a proposal to make the six gigahertz band available for use and im hoping the commission can move forward very quickly on this as well. And thats been echoed by members of the commission. Chairman, yes or no, will you commit to moving forward in a timely manner to make the six gigahertz band available for unlicensed use and protect the incumbents. Yes, with a caveat that obviously were going to be driven by the Technical Analysis and i agree with the timely action on that basis. Thank you. Commissioner, if our nation to have a successful 5g strategy, how critical is it that we make more spectrum available for our unlicensed use and why is the six gigahertz band important for that person . Youre right. Unlicensed is absolutely critical. When with you talk about 5g, we cant talk about licensed air waves. We have to talk about unlicensed too. We know about 70 of 5g traffic is going to be off loaded onto wifi at some point. We have to find places in our air waves for that unlicensed activity to grow. Six gigahertz band is near existing on license. Well have economies of scale and it offers big, wide channels. Well have big capacity. This is where we get gigabit wifi. Its where we go next. Thanks for that answer. Chairman, during the recent california wildfires, hundreds of cell towers went down when the power was turned off and contra costa county, we had 88 cell towers go down from power outages. This means that people couldnt call 911 or let loved ones know their status and so on. Mr. Chairman, please answer yes or no again, will you commit to conducting a formal investigation into why cell towers went down during the power outages, including examination of backup generators and what coordination existed between carriers and utilities . Congressman, we are already doing that. Our Public Safety and Homeland Security bureau is already has already reached out to the Communications Providers to understand what went wrong, looking at updating the wireless thank you. Will you commit to holding a hearing in Northern California to hear from the stakeholders involved . Congressman, i would be happy to explore that with you and other affected areas in california. Will you commit to doing this within six months. Yes. Thank you. Commissioner, what should the fcc be doing Going Forward to make sure that cell towers dont go down during power outages. Its a terrific question because were having these onceinacentury weather events every year. We got to start planning and learning from them. We need a new playbook for disaster. Within six weeks after one of these outages, we should have an initial report every time. We should make sure we update our policies regarding cell towers and outages. We used to have backup policies at cell towers. We discussed them extensively after Hurricane Katrina but the office of management and budget took our rules and authority away. Weve got to revisit that. Weve also got to update the wireless resiliency framework at the agency which would be the subject of gao criticism and update our Network Outage reporting to make sure it reflects whats happening when people lose service. Mr. Chairman, i would like to submit a record a letter from 24 Public Interest organizations. Without objection. Commissioner, the Lifeline Program is critical for so many of my constituents, especially during emergencies like the wildfires. Im troubled by the fccs repeated efforts to determine the program. Its concerning that weve seen a decrease in enrollment despite a large number of households who qualify. What should the fcc be doing to promote the program and increase participation . Yes, congressman, thank you so much for the question. Lifeline is the only program that we have right now that is designed for our most vulnerable, lowincome folks and times of emergency is exactly when they do need those connections. Issues with regard to the verifier and our ability to connect with some of the states electronically as opposed to doing the manual review has been part of the function of us having diminishing numbers. But i do have concerns that we need to do better by the most vulnerable. Here in d. C. , i visited, most recently, a homeless shelter and spoke with a number of folks who have had trouble getting their lifeline phones and i know we need to do better. Mr. Chairman, i have five more questions. Can i have five more minutes . No, you cant. The gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the full committee for five minutes for his questions. Thank you for giving me his extra five minutes, mr. Chairman. I like that. As we learned yesterday via the press release, the fcc plans on dealing with this whole issue with the faulty mobility data which was slated to provide 4 1 2 billion over the decade to bring 4g to Rural America by instead proposing to move forward the new one rebanded as 5g. Two weeks ago this committee reported out Bipartisan Legislation which would direct the fcc to review its mobile coverage maps to fix the exact issue your investigation sought to review, inaccurate broadband maps built on faulty data. Now, it appears inside the fcc has decided to move ahead not only with the initially proposed 4 1 2 billion dollars but with an additional 4 1 2 billion in new funding. I have a couple of questions for you. How does the fcc plan to ensure these funds are distributed to appropriate places when you dont yet have accurate maps. I think we can all agree on that. And do you plan to distribute these funds once you have accurate data as legislated by congress or move forward before knowing what locations actually need the funding and the third unrelated to this is the new nprm on forbearance. Is that going to rely on bad maps too . Maybe you cant address that because its an nprm. But at least these other two we would like to know more about. I appreciate the question, congressman. With respect to the question of proceeding on the basis of maps, thats part of the reason why i agreed with the career staffs recommendation to suspend the nf2 challenge propose and the proposal to terminate that proceeding all together and to move to the 5g fund. The entire point of the 5g fund is we are in the early stages, deployment is relatively constant. In rural areas, its virtually nonexistent. So the problem of inaccurate mapping does not map onto the 5g environment. Secondly with respect to the subject, thats one of the things were looking at as well, and ill be rolling this out in the proposed rulemaking that i proposed to my fellow commissioners in early 2020, is understanding some of the puts and takes with respect to the budget, the mapping, making sure we have the right eligible areas, et cetera those are the things we want to tee up early on in the notice of proposed rule making to get public input. The other thing i would note is were hopeful that past is prolong. With the connect America Fund Phase two, because of the reverse auction in intraarea and interarea competition, were able to drive down the amount of funding that was required from 5 billion to 1. 5 billion. Our hope is that well be able to do the same thing here. With respect to forbearance. I couldnt agree more. When we were in eastern oregon, we met with some of those affected providers and thats why in the context of our pending proposal, i take a very balanced approach mindful of that and some of the comments ive had with heard from chairman doyle is not to throw the baby out with the bath water but to understand that some of these rural areas the infrastructure is being used by some of the competitors in a way that promotes a Public Interest and thats why we took a very measured approach on that. Yeah, i think well see how all of this plays out and the comments that come in. But i was given a map the other day that shows burns, oregon, is an urban area and its not. They would even admit its not. And theres some things there we have to look at and theres some dark fiber issues that i think deserve some review. Anyway, we can deal with that. At the last oversight hearing we had an exchange about delaying the tband auction for states and stop diverting the fees. I ask every member on this panel if they disagreed with what we were trying to accomplish with that proposal and nobody objected. So, commissioner, will you and commissioner oreilly coauthor an oped on the issue. New york state allows these fees to be put in a slush fund, my term, and used for their pet projects, my term, unrelated to 911 services. Thats a fact. What are your thoughts on new yorks diverting of fees specifically . What impact does new york fee diversion have on their Public Safety operation . Thank you for the question. Look, fee diversion is terrible. Its bad. We should use every resource we have at the commission and working with you on this committee to stop it. Its just an outright lie when your phone bill says those numbers are going to support 911 and they i actually think its postal fraud because if you did that or i did that in a business and ran it through the mail system and then used the fund for a different purpose, i think i would and i would say its especially cruel we have about 6,000 911 call centers in this country with about 100,000 people answering those phones from those days worst day of your life every day. They pick them up and they need about 12 billion to update to next generation 911 which will make them effective and all of us safer. We got to start somewhere and stopping fee diversion is the right place to start. Thank you. My time is up. Thank you for your service again to the country. The chair now recognizes mr. Loebsack for five minutes. Thank you for convening this oversight hearing today and i want to thank all of our witnesses for being in attendance. Its great to see you. I cant believe its been seven months. Hopefully it wont go seven months again before we see you again. I do have a lot of material i want to try to get to today. Im going to jump immediately to questions. First, for you, commissioner rosenworcel, im sure youre aware of the work this committee has been doing on broadband mapping and im proud that we recently passed the broadband data act with this commission unanimously on voice. And that will head to the house floor hopefully, where i believe it will receive strong bipartisan support again. And i know youve been a proponent of crowd sourcing to get better maps. I agree its important to have multiple points of reference, multiple points of data too and im proud that we have a robust challenge process also to ensure in this bill to ensure that every day consumers and state and local governments are able to challenge a map that says they have service when they dont. I like it when you say its commonsense. Additionally, im glad that this bill includes quality of service metric, the bill that we put forth. Because its important to know what sort of Internet Service is available, not just whether it is available, but what kind of service as well. So with the fcc working on its own mapping proposal, i want to ask you about advantages or disadvantages you think this proposal, our proposal, has compared to the fcc proposal or other proposals. Thank you for the question. And thank you for this committee on its bipartisan on maps. Its really important. We have got to fix the situation we have where our data is so inaccurate we dont know if were sending funds to the right place or not. I think the best part of the legislation that this committee produced is its all about public participation. Were going to take in crowdsource data. Were going to take in information from people in communities who know where there is service and there isnt and were going to test it against what people file with us in washington. I think the best broadband map is not in fact going to be developed by us in washington but its going to be a citizens map that we all develop and your legislation speaks to just that. I do appreciate that. And thank you for your response. This committee as you know has focused a lot of time making sure that we get accurate map and is theyre granular. And i want to follow up on what Ranking Member walton asked about as well and give you a chance to respond. Given the fccs announcement of a highdollar fund, im concerned that the commission hadnt yet taken the steps to ensure that the maps are accurate enough. That this sort of funding will in fact close the Digital Divide. Do you think programs like the newly announced fund will make a meaningful impact for rural iowans . What are your thoughts on that . It could but we have a basic problem. We need maps before money and data before deployment. I like that phrase, by the way, maam. We are pumping out press releases about funds but we are not explaining where were going to send them and based on what information and thats a problem. We all have stories we could tell i dont have enough time to go through mine, obviously, commissioner, i invite you to offer your insight on a mapping work this committee or the recently announced 5g fund. Yes. I too am of course being somebody from kansas, i am eager to see that we get the latest technology and connectivity out to even our most rural citizens. But i have deep concerns and questions from what was announced yesterday, where is the money coming from, where is this the same type of data that was relied upon on mf2 which we all know had to be taken down and very much related to the announcement from yesterday is a real issue of holding folks accountable where they have data thats incorrect. One additional thing that i wanted to highlight is there was information yesterday that was redacted from the report that was issued by the chairman. Im working with the chairman, with the staff because i think theres critical Consumer Protection information in there that is not confidential and so im extremely hopeful that information will be lifted soon so that the American Public can know whats going on. I think we need to focus on the fact that we dont want to waste taxpayer dollars as well. Weve got to have good data, otherwise this could be a waste of taxpayer dollars, the money that we do send out. One last question, if i may, commission rosenworcel, you know about our precision ag bill. What do you think needs to be the first focus of the task force, i should say, to ensure that were tackling this problem in the right way . Terrific. I think the chairman has set it up so its task force has its first next week which is exciting. I spent some time in iowa and i saw what it looks like when we connect cows in every corner of an agriculture field. So heres my concern, were going to produce so much data from our farms theyre going to have to upload that to the cloud. Traditionally our broadband standards have been asymmetrical and that there are much higher speeds that come down and much lower speeds sending it back up. Thats based on the idea we watch video and we just use broadband for consumption activity. Farms are going to start to get in the business of creation activity. We have to figure out how we have more symmetrical speeds to serve our agriculture future. Thank you. And i know ive run over, mr. Chairman, but as cochair of the gps caucus, i ask consent to committee for the record a blog post from the gps Alliance Data today for the record if i may. Without objection, so ordered. Thanks, everyone. The gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from the great state of texas, mr. Olson for five minutes. I thank the chair for that very warm introduction. My home state of texas, happy holidays to the entire fcc. I have to open with a confession, chairman pai. A few years ago with an example from chairman car, you both committed to climb a communications tower. In august of 2018 you did that. In colorado, the tower was 131 feet tall. I havent forgotten my commitment to you to climb a tower. The problem is, im in texas. In texas, bigger is always better. So ive been trying to climb a tower thats 20 times your tower, a 1,971foot tower in missouri city, texas. If i can make this happen, youre welcome to join me as you are too mr. Carr and the commissioner, two miles up a tower. Congressman, i certainly welcome at the invitation, but at the risk of getting an okay boomer response from commissioner carr. I would say that i would have to view it from the ground just to be safe. Commissioner carr, thanks for mentioning the board in houston. A great example of how big city americas Third Largest city has the same problems with 5g as Rural Americans. Thank you for mentioning houston, texas, and the mayor. My first question for you, mr. Pai, i know the commission under your strong leadership has focused considerable resources on ensuring that the essential midband spectrum is made available to fuel 5g and keep us competitively internationally. Can you describe the steps youve taken to to expedite the to expedite this resource. I appreciate the question. When it came into office, we were starting from scratch in terms of mid band spectrum and one of the things weve done as part of our fast plan is to move aggressively on low, mid, and highband spectrum. With respect to midband spectrum, in particular, we started the process of freeing up the 2. 5 gigahertz band, ebs band for Wireless Service including a triable window. The 3. 5 gigahertz band will be auctioned off. Made an announcement recently about the public auction of the cband. In addition to that, as part of the tmobilesprint merger, they have committed to deploying their midband spectrum assets quickly for the benefit of American Consumers and although it doesnt necessarily rely on spectrum in particular, the small cell reforms that weve done to encourage the deployment of these next generation networks, the architecture of those networks has been vital as well. Its curious when those who criticized us for not acting quickly on mid band are missing the fact that we are moving quickly but in many cases, in fact in all of those, we faced opposition even from the commission. Next question, you have been adamant about the need to make this c band spectrum available as quickly as possible. Can you explain why speed is important especially with your trip overseas and how a delay can hurt our National Security . So i believe that c band is the most ideal place for midband spectrum for 5g services. Internationally, theyve already identified and are making that available in either auctions or licenses to their providers. So theyre using the same identical bands that we would like to make available. And ive argued that we cannot wait and delay for that process. The equipment manufacturers are making equipment for those purposes and it will be delayed as a nation and our providers will harm from that if we do not move forward on c band as soon as possible. And how does that hurt our National Security . In terms of both parts, economic security, in terms of economic growth, and also nasa security because the growth in international has been from one particular country, china. And china is spreading its equipment through any through multiple different means, and in a public setting, i dont want to go there, but theyre using all kinds of tools to expand their network throughout the globe as best as possible before we can get onto the playing field. Thank you. Final question to you commissioner carr, you talked about finding qualified talent in areas of technology for the fcc. Can you touch on whats been done within your commission to get the people you need with the qualifications you need to move forward and how congress can help you get those people. I know you talked about Community Colleges, local colleges, but what resources have you gotten and how can you help get the resources you need to go forward. Thank you for that question. Congressman loebsack has a bill that would go a long way in terms of funding these training programs. Ive been working directly with Community Colleges. I started in South Carolina in looking to expand their program as a model. As i mentioned, weve had some success already with at least one additional Community College working directly with them and the fcc has a committee that is also looking at these workforce issues. I think thats going to be a fruitful avenue as well. The gentlemans time has expired. Go navy. Beat army. The chair now recognizes mr. Ohalleran for five minutes. Thank you, chairman doyle. I would like to acknowledge the commissions recent action in spectrum policy. Including maintaining fcc leadership for the public c band option and proposing to expand wireless use into the 5. 9 gigahertz ban so long as it can be done safely. Making more midband spectrum available is important for 5g deployment, but also for eventually closing the Digital Divide in Rural America. And commissioner carr, i appreciate your statement earlier on the facts as far as that closure. I dont see that at all, anywhere, in Rural America that ive been and im in Rural America all the time. So i our staff will get ahold of your office and try to come up with a how those numbers were put together. A divide that is only getting wider as we implement 5g into the entire process. A lack of Broadband Access means life and death in Rural America and, chairman, you had mentioned that. It also means its not just Rural Americans. Its all americans that travel across our country. All 320some million of us eventually travel across an area that has very little ability to have broadband. It impacts the opportunities for children in Rural America compared to those in urban centers. It impacts Business Development and has a profound impact on health care. My district is home to 12 travel nations which is the most of any congressional district. I will go back because mr. Lujan would be upset with me. The most population, not the most tribes. Unfortunately for indian country, the fccs latest tribal broadband report showed that 36 of tribal households lacked access to any broadband which is simply unacceptable in todays age. This is compared to 8 of nontribal households without any access. Thats your report. The act directed the fcc to complete a proceeding to address barriers to tribal access found in the report within 30 months. Chairman pai, we are now almost two years since this part of the act was signed into law and over six months since the tribal broadband report was released. With nine months left to meet its statutory deadline, would you explain why the commission had yet to begin a formal proceeding to specifically address these barriers from the report and when do you think it will be done . Appreciate the question, congressman. The staff is in fact working on that report but in the meantime, we are taking serious and meaningful steps to address particularly that issue of the lack of tribal broadband including a tribal broadband factor, for example, in our universal services program. Creating rural tribal window so tribes can use that public resource to benefit the people well talk about that offline. But i just wanted to know that specific area. Yes, sir. Commissioners rosenworcel and starks, has the Chairmans Office reached out to either of you about what the proceeding will look like before the upcoming statutory deadline . The answer is no. Not to me either, congressman. Let me go back to chairman pai then. Why is that the case, chairman pai . Were always happy to have conversations. This is an issue that the staff is working on, that particular report. I myself have not seen the recommendations thus far. But wed be happy to this is a bipartisan issue. Im the first chairman to get across the table a tribal law proposal, 2. 5 gigahertz. These are bipartisan issues that i think bind the commission together. Whenever ive been in a leadership role, ive made sure that those that have to work with me are informed on a continual basis of the any processes moving forward. As you all know, i care deeply about the Educational Broadband Service spectrum auction and ensuring tribal governments have ample opportunity to take advantage of the tribal proprietary window. I appreciate the commissions recent announcement that this priority window will now be extended for 180 days to ensure all tribes have the consultation and resources to participate in the auction. This is extremely important that the tribes have these resources. However, prior to this announcement, i have heard concerns from tribes that the overall outreach affects efforts from the fccs office of native american policy where insufficient to fully educate them on the auction process and many other matters. Chairman pai, will you commit to holding more inperson and educational workshops for this proceeding beyond those announced in the next few weeks . Congressman, i will and we are. And i see my time is up. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you all for being here. I very much appreciate it. I know weve talked about this, but i do have a few questions. You announced, mr. Chairman, just before the thanksgiving break that youll proceed with public auction to repurpose 280 megahertz of the c band. While there was a lot of debate about how the fcc was going to proceed on this band, there was one principle that seemed seemed to be universal, that these proceedings need to occur quickly and efficiently. I was open to either mechanism, as long as we held to the principle of doing things quickly, plus one other principle that substantial revenues raised be raised for the treasury and hopefully for things like Rural Broadband developments and similar programs. But given that most stakeholders estimate a public auction will take longer than a private sale. Mr. Chairman, what can congress do to help speed this up . Do you need authorities . Do you need temporary people . Appropriations for Auction Software . What are the things that we need to be aware of. I certainly appreciate the question, congressman, and with respect to some of the Public Interest benefits that have been identified by members of the committee, we would need to legislation. Three years ago, i was the first to propose a rural dividend, portions of the proceeds being allocated for Rural Broadband, that would require legislation. So we certainly welcome the committees input on that. With respect to the structure and the conduct of the auction, there are resources that we have to muster, there are issues that we have to work out. I believe we do have authority currently to be able to do the necessary leg work in order to conduct the auction quickly which is one of the things we want to prioritize as well. Should that change, i will let you know in the immediate future. Keep us updated. Absolutely. I think we would be eager to help. On the supply Chain Security front, i want to thank the commission for its unanimous vote back in may to prevent china mobile from interconnecting with u. S. Networks on National Security grounds and i also appreciate the commissions ongoing proceedings to prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to buy dangers telecom equipment. You all may have seen before thanksgiving break, this committee reported legislation that i and chairman doyle authored to facilitate information sharing from the federal government to the private sector. The goal is to better inform smaller and more rural carriers about the risk that certain foreign commitment can pose to our networks so they dont purchase or install it. Commissioner carr, do you believe that smaller and rural carriers have adequate access to classified information on Network Threats . I hope they would. I spent some time outside of d. C. Including in rural montana meeting directly with some of the small providers who are impacted, but im happy to engage in more discussions with them as needed. Do you think we should be doing more and this legislation would go in helping that information flow . Im very supportive of the work we need to do to make sure we have secure networks. Well follow up and you can follow up as well with any additional help you guys need. And to continue with some of these security concerns, chairman, are there cybersecurity or physical security concerns if information and communities, Technology Companies allow noncleared or unveted personnel access to Software Development kits or application programming interfaces for 5g. There are tremendous dangers not just to the economy of our country but to our National Security. 5g networks, unlike their predecessor networks, will be Software Defined suppose to hardware driven. And thats why its greater. When you consider that 5g will involve billions more connected devices driving transportation, health care, agriculture, you name it, we have to be right across all of these different verdicts. And thats why weve taken 5g so seriously. Part of the reason why ive been speaking to our allies abroad to help them understand the risk profile and the need for us to collaborate under a riskbased framework. The challenge that china presents is one of the top National Security issues for this country and 5g is at the heading ell heading edge of that. Is there a way to analyze source code . Theres no standard, as i understand it. And part of the problem, in addition to that is that a lot of these networks are going to be managed over time. Youre going to get Software Updates just as people get Software Updates on their phone. Governments have the ability to monitor the lines of code thats being updated. We need to think of security as a fore thought as opposed to an after thought and have that riskbased framework that all ally countries agree on. We like to find everything that divides us in this business. Were very united on this. The chair recognizes the gentle lady from california for five minutes. Thank you, chairman doyle. And welcome to the full commission. I guess theres an advantage to be one of the last members to question and my observation is the following, we keep talking about the same things that have not been resolved. I want to start with chairman pai. This whole issue of the letters of inquiry, you heard my displeasure in our exchange seven months ago. Can you sum the letters of inquiry to me. My understanding is that the Enforcement Bureau does not do that. Im not talking about tradition and understanding. Im asking you a direct question. Will you send the letters of inquiry to me . I would have to consult with the bureau staff you keep talking about the career staff. Yes or no will you send the letters i will see what we can do. Thats a very thats not an answer. All right. Im going to move on because thats essentially a no. California has obviously been in the news for something that is really sorrowful. These massive wildfires. And as california undergoes the pain of this, the aftermath, the loss of life, the loss of homes, the loss of property, theres also the loss of a telecommunications system. Californias not the only state that has undergone or will undergo these weather catastrophes. We have tornados, we have hurricanes, we have flooding. Now, it was raised that we have no backup plan. In california, 874 cell towers were out. Emergency Services People cannot communicate with one another. I had a letter from seniors that are a couple and said, what do we do . We have no way to contact 911 if theres a medical or fire emergency and we cant contact the utility. How are we going to call the Fire Department or Emergency Services . So whats your answer to them . I feel whats your answer . By the way, have you been to california . I have. Have you met with emergency Services People. I have. When was that . I cant recall the specific dates. This year . I cant remember if it was this year or not. Let me know. Whats your answer to these people and i would like to know why omb shut that down. I dont understand what omb has to do with this, but it would be interesting to know. With respect to the second question, the office of management and answer the first one. Whats your plan . With respect to the first question, this is part of the reason why i have stressed before the wildfire situation youve described, ive stressed the need for Power Companies to share information with teleCommunications Providers. In this case they did not do that. Thats one of the reasons why the Public Safety you know what, if you ask for that information, they did not give it to you, its your responsibility just as it is mine to follow up with people. You have to be gum stuck to someones shoe on behalf of the American People. Were not just states in america. We are the United States of america. We need a policy that is going to serve everyone. There needs to be a plan on this. This is about life and death. Were not talking about, i dont know, some small potatoes somewhere. Its disturbing to me that there isnt a plan. You cant articulate one. You dont remember when youve been in california. You dont remember the last time you spoke to anyone. And so let me move on. On lifeline, ive been a broken record. This is a program that president reagan put into place. Ive spoken to each one of you individually about it. I consider this a moral issue. A moral issue. And why . Because were talking about veterans, were talking about the elderly, were talking about Domestic Violence victims, were talking about people that have or are experiencing homelessness. Now, i dont know what any of these people have done to anyone of the commissioners but to have a program that has an unfathomable 45 in the last three years, thats what it has fallen by. Are you gladdened by that . Is that something, mr. Chairman, that you can take out there and brag about on the road . I dont think so. And i somehow i dont know how i can ever get to people to understand that people are being hurt by this. None of us went into Public Service whether elected or appointed, to hurt people. But you know what, in this 45 in the last three years, people have been hurt. People have been hurt. The time has expired. Thank you. I yield back. The chair recognizes you for five minutes. Thank you to all of you here this afternoon. Its not afternoon quite yet. Pretty soon. Chairman pai, as you know, a portion of my district is part of a peninsula i dont know whats going on here. The gentleman will suspend. Youre recognized. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman pai, as you know, my district in the tampa bay area of florida is part of a peninsula and during an emergency this creates unique challenges as the bridges off the peninsula close in high winds and up to 1 million residents are sent north to a limited number of west, east, evacuation routes off the coast, gulf of mexico. Luckily we are close to approval of an additional route that will ease congestion, its called the ridge road, the ridge road extension project which we feel were going to get the permit this month to extend the road from west to east. But separately in 2016, the fcc modernized the wireless Emergency Alert system requiring providers to better target alert messages. This will alleviate the road congestion from unnecessary evacuations. Have all providers complied with this requirement and how will a full implementation of 5g enable even more specific geo targeting of enermergency alerts . Im pleased to say that the providers who participate in it were ready. Fema had not set up that system for testing, we extended the deadline for another couple of weeks. My understanding is, that we that system will be up and running in the very near future. I hope it happens, you know, in early spring. Absolutely. You know why with the hurricanes and all that, natural disasters. Commissioner carr, last year i had the pleasure of hosting a pasco county Emergency Services center. One of the issues discussed at the time was the desperate need for system upgrades and thank you very much for coming down to my district and i obviously chairman pai, we welcome you back as well. Im sure this is something that you hear about with the 911 centers all across the country, especially as many wish to move to next general services. What option is the commission looking at to take advantage of improvements to help centers save lives and how much money would it take to upgrade the country to next general services. If you can give me a round figure, its so very important, obviously. This is a Public Safety issue. If you could respond, please, i would appreciate it. Thank you for your leadership on these important issues. I enjoy spending time with you at the pasco county 911 center. In terms of the general figure, the estimates range from 9 to 12 billion to upgrade the systems. Doing so is important for the reason you pointed up to date modern information at these call centers. Al one step we recently took at the fcc was z access, vertical location information. For the very first time, those 911 call centers and in turn Public Safety responders will know the vertical height of a 911 caller to accelerate response times. Its part of a, i think, broadly speaking upgrade to next ggen intelligent we need to kbhiyou have long advocated use of spectrum. The commission is now working on repurposing and you alluded to this, i think, other commissioners as well have alluded to this. On repurposing the ban which was largely unused for nearly 20 years. Can you talk about the benefits of freeing this spectrum that has gone unused for so long, and are the incumbents left with enough spectrum to engage in Safety Technologies . If you could elaborate on that, sir, id appreciate it. Sure. To answer your second question, yes. I believe it does address their needs compared to the 75 mega hertz. It looks similar to what ive been advocating for a little bit of time. I think it falls in line for things ive been pushing for. Were on the same page, the commission is on the same page. We have been working on this issue for quite a while. She articulated the benefits, hopefully early next year the huh ca accommodation, wide channels, 160 megahertz, the capacity. Ive seen upwards of estimates of 80 of our commercial wireless traffic will be on licensed spectrum Going Forward. Its the benefits to the Underlying Network itself. Thats unimaginable. We talk about how much costs for this band or that band or what we can spend the money on. Were talking about trillions of benefits for the economy. The gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the man from north carolina, mr. Butterfield for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you all of you for your service. Chairman pye, congress has tasked the fcc to regulate our nations Telecommunications Policy in a fashion that promotes diverse voices. You know that . I know that. My research over the last few days shows that despite that mandate, minority broadcast ownership has never been risen above 3. 1 . Womens ownership has never exceeded 6 . So my question to you is i want a yes or no answer would you call that rate of ownership for minority and women acceptable . No. Of course not. Thank you. Last month, mr. Chairman, the Third Circuit court of appeals ruled for the fourth time that the commission has failed to adequately facilitate and promote womens and minority media ownership. In light of that ruling, sir, will you commit to addressing the critically low rates of media ownership by minorityeies and women . Can you make that commitment . Two parts to the answer. Number one we have been making that commitment. I personally as a person of color and person who believes in broadcasting think this is a priority would you double down on it . Well, the problem is, congressman, one part of the decision that the Third Circuit struck down was our inkue bater program. Let me take you in this direction. Ive been doing research. From 1978 to 1995 the fcc provided a tax incentive to those who sold their majority interest in a broadcast station to minorities. While in place, that program boosted the number of minority owned stations from 40 to 323. So yes or no, would you call that Program Effective . Congressman, if you look at those report that congress did when it repealed that program in the mid 1990s to understand whether it was effective or not. What i can say is were not waiting. I know thats a decision for congress to make. To go from 40 to 323. No one can dispute that is an effective program. Its declined. Let me go. This time goes very fast. Commissioner, earlier i introduced a bill that would put the fccs tax certificate back in place and expand it to include women. Could you speak to the impact that reriviviving the tax certificate would have . Its a terrific idea because there is no other policy tool weve had in history thats been as effective at diversifying the ownership of these properties. It matters. What we see on the screen says so much about what we are as a community, as a nation. I think restoring the tax certificate is a terrific idea. In rural areas many expecting moms do not have resources to receive the treatment they need. The results are deadly and were talking about it more and more now. The problem hits women of color especially hard. How can we use telemedicine to address the lack of maternal access to care . Im the only woman here, so im probably the only mom. Im going to speak to that. We should take this 100 million Pilot Project and address a national crisis. The United States is the only industrialized country with a rising rate of maternal mortality. When we do implement that program id like to see one in every state in this country. Weve got to figure out how we solve this problem. Its a crisis and we need to fix it. Your views on that, commissioner . Thank you for your response. Let me conclude with commissioner stark, commissioner, our 2016 election was targeted by russian cyber hackers who sought to interfere with our election process. Is the commission doing anything about it to secure our election infrastructure . Thank you, congressman, for the question, and thank you for your leadership on this issue. I continue to look forward to working with you. We do know that intelligence confirms that foreign actors tried to impact our 2016 elections, in fact, we know that all 50 states and their Voter Registration rolls were attempted to be hacked. And we do know that at least seven states, illinois, florida, michigan, maryland, rhode island, wisconsin, and d. C. Still use Voting Machines that connect to our regular Cellular Networks. That means theyre susceptible to being hacked by what we commonly call imzi catchers. This is something im specifically focused on. I think the fcc is tasked with focusing on our National Security. I cannot think of any higher purpose than protecting our elections and protecting our democracy. Democracy is at stake. Thank you very much. The gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes mr. Johnson for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And chairman pai and to the rest of the commission, thanks for all that youre doing. I mean, its these issues are complex and the world is moving at light speed in our telecom arena. So i appreciate what youre doing. Chairman pai, id first like to thank you personally for your recent decision to hold a public auction. I think it was the right decision to make. Following along with what was said earlier, is there anything we can do to help you execute that auction . Certainly, congressman, my pitch would be a reprise of my 2016 proposal to allow the fcc to allocate a portion of that funding Rural Broadband deployment. There are many parts of the country that can benefit for the funding and we cant allocate you dont have to hit me with that hammer too hard. I appreciate it. Well certainly be looking at that issue as well. What about regulations that might be roadblocks . Anything we need to help you break down . I was mentioning in my exchange with the congressman i believe we have Current Authority to take the necessary stems. Should that change, were working quickly to enable you to meet the chairmans admonition that this Congress Needs to move quickly. Weve got to insure any decision does not create issues for Critical Infrastructure communications or the ability for our First Responders to do their jobs. How is the fcc ensuring that we can address unlicensed spectrum needs without creating interference . Thats the key question. Thats why ive consistently said in this proceeding were going to be driven by one thing and one thing alone, the Technical Analysis. So for example, one can imagine one use case where its a power plant in pittsburgh, and its an unlicensed user in los angeles operating indoors at low power. There would not be interference there. If theyre next to each other and theyre blasting waves in the same spectrum there can be a problem there r. Where do we draw that line . Thats one of the things our engineers are looking at. Can we get a commitment from you, mr. Chairman, to engage in a continued dialogue with all the stakeholders as you move through the process, including the utilities and the First Responders to make sure we dont mess up . Absolutely, congressman. Go one step further, were working with other federal partners to make sure we hear their input as well. Okay. I was going to say, one thing that can helpful on the six gigahertz item. If they could come away from the hibrbal hip hiperb hiperb hyperbole. Im a big believer when you put the stakeholders around the table, you come away with the right decisions for the right reasons. I would encourage you to continue that engagement. Today weve heard a lot of concerns about the fccs flawed maps. For the past two years, congress has appropriated funding. You know my frustrations, ive shared that with you guys. To what extent has the fcc plugged in . Our rural broad band task forces i understand are work ing with the department of commerce. I dont understand why this is so difficult. Im probably theres obviously some naivety on my part. I dont know what that is because i got 40 years in the i. T. Spectrum. So i dont know why this is such a difficult problem. But it is continuing to be so. Do you guys plan to does the fcc plan to utilize their mapping data in tias once its made available when youre making funding decisions, how to roll out Rural Broadband . Thats one of the things were looking at, congressman. Well be working with them and with you on that okay. Chairman oreilly i mean mr. Oreilly, commissioner oreilly, before we move on i want to thank you personally for taking the time to come to my district. As you know, the rural Digital Opportunity fund holds immense opportunity for Rural Broadband as do the proceeds from the c band auction. So we be got some real opportunities here to make some significant progress on Rural Broadband expansion. I appreciate your help and diligence to do that. I yield back. Gentleman yields back. Chair now recognizes ms. Matsuyi for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the commissioners for being here today. We appreciate you being here and your Public Service. I want to say first of all, given my track record on the public auction, i was pleased to see the chairmans commitment to free up 280 megahertz of spectrum through the public option. I think its the best path forward to allocate federally assets and maximize returns to federal taxpayers including for Rural Broadband development. Its so important. Now that weve moved past competing proposals to reallocate the spectrum, i also urge you and all of you to expeditiously establish a successful auction. Im probably going to sound like a broken record here, but being from california i have to say this. About wireless resiliency and wildfires, the fccs Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework is a Wireless Industry commitment to improve Emergency Communications during disasters. In april, the fcc solicited comments in response to reports in 2017 and 2018 hurricane seasons. This work will help project property and save lives in states where hurricanes present a regular threat. However, in states like california where wildfires are rapidly increasing in regularity and severity, theres an urgent need to promote Network Resiliency. Chairman pai, yesterday i sent you a letter with my colleagues urging you to include wildfire specific recommendations in the framework. Will you commit to me to include wildfire considerations and the framework moving forward . What i can say the framework includes all types of disasters within it. Its not particular doesnt exclude wildfires there hasnt been a particular emphasis on it. This is an occurrence thats happen too regularly now in california. Id like to have unanimous consent to put the letter into the record, mr. Chairman. Without objection, soer orde. Okay, the fcc also solicited framework comments january 3rd of this year on coordinating with Power Companies. Coordination with Power Companies caused widespread confusion and severely jeopardized Public Safety in california. Chairman pai, has the fcc made improvements to the framework based upon this investigation . If not, when will it be completed . The Public Safety bureau is looking at that. Theyre doing aggressive outreach to communications companies. I personally have repeatedly, even before the wildfires emphasized that Power Companies and Telecom Companies need to cooperate. One of the problems, we dont have jurisdiction over energy companies. I would welcome the subcommittees action on this. At the end of the day, if your consumer is affected by wildfire, you dont care whether its the Telecom Company or the Power Company that has dropped the ball exactly. But we believe theres a loud voice that the fcc can provide. The committee, the fcc, putting a special emphasis on this. Without meaningful action from the fcc, im worried that we fail to learn the valuable lessons that can save lives in the future. The wildfire season starts earlier, ends later and the devastation is unbelievable. After the wildfires come, if theres a lot of rain, floods. So its a process thats become escalating. I urge you to put special emphasis on that. Thank you. I introduced an act with congressman guthrie to prohibit fcc funding from being used todto purchase equipment from Companies Like huawei. It would have communication providers remove vulnerable equipment and replace it with newer equipment. Helpi he its a National Step to boost National Security. I continue to push for consideration of this bill. Why the fcc recently voted to prohibit the funding from being us used, it did not commit to replacing existing equipment. Commissioner starks, do you believe theres a need for federal government to support smaller carriers to identify and replace existing huawei or zte equipment . Yes, thank you so much for the question, congresswoman. Thank you for your leadership on this. I think its imperative we focus on the small rural carriers that do have this untrustworthy equipment. Thank you. I have ran out of time already. I yield back my two second. Chair now recognizes mr. Long for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank yall for being here today. Chairman pai, i appreciate your work. Your work ethic and commitment to freeing up additional spectrum, both licensed and unlicensed for the commercial marketplace and in particular the midband spectrum. Many of us are excited about your agenda, such as moving forward with your plan to use the 5. 9 spectrum for unlicensed use and wifi. There is more that needs to be considered as the commission strives to make the equal amount of spectrum available for both licensed and unlicensed use. Before i get into some of that, the old Country Committee and jerry clou jerry clowor used to have a good bit about coon hunting. They had what they thought was a coon treed. One of his buddied climbed up with a sharp stick and have the dogs get the it down on the ground. It wasnt a coon, it was a lynx. They were screaming and they were at it in the tree. So one of his buddies on the ground has a pistol. He said shoot up here amongst us and the guy hollered up and i said i cant shoot up here i might hit you. Shoot up here amongst us, one of has has got to have some relief. The folks on each side of the equation, they want some relief. Theyre ready for you to shoot up there amongst them and give them some relief. So can you tell me where we are on l band, when that decision after four long years is coming down . Congressman, that was a point to wind up. Appreciate it. Thats how you wrote it. One of the things that i have done is to struinstruct our stao draft a proposed resolution. The interagency process to get the considered views of the executive branch. The branch has requested extra time when did they request extra time, how long ago was that . The new deadline is tomorrow when did they request extra time . I believe it was four weeks ago. Three weeks ago. Theyre not going to meet the tomorrow deadline . Im not sure. I hope they will. I certainly hope they will. Id be happy to get back to you on that. One of the things that we are looking to do is to get the reviews so we can move forward. I hope you can go to them and, you know, tell them after four years, thats enough time, we need to get this thing wrapped up. Anyway. Okay. Given the recent decision on the c band, are you committed to conducting the public auction in 2020 . Yes, congressman, were aiming to commence the auction by the end of 2020. Okay. And will you commit to insuring that satellite incumbents adhere to previous commitments by requiring additional clearing within 18 months and total clearing within 36 months of an fcc order . Thats one of the things were working on now. I would anticipate that in the proposal that we will introduce to the commission for its consideration early next year, that is one of the things that were going to be focused on. As i have consistently said its important to get the spectrum allocated quick ly as you know, part of the controversy on which way to go with the auction and being an auctioneer of 30 years experience, i believe in the auction method. I think thats the fairest and most transparent way to move forward and the way to get the most money into the federal government. And most of the auctions have brought way above the first estimates they would bring. I would hope you can get this done in a timely fashion. I think its vital for getting 5g out there. I think if we change the name to ive been called worse. Wed get things done. Anyway, i appreciate your efforts and trying to get that, you know, moved along and auctioned and cleared and allts th all that. Thats a big hurdle. The way things go in washington, d. C. With l band dragging on four years. Im very hopeful you can speed the process along, because i think that its incumbent on you all to try and get that done. I couldnt agree more. Just to be clear, this committee, this congress would have to act in order for us to be able to designate you as the auctioneer, hopefully we can incorporate that into the package. I yield back. I wasnt sure where you were going with that story. You tied it up there in the end, brother. Chair now recognizes mr. Welsh for five minutes. Thank you. Its good to have everybody here. And everybodys reports were terrific, were getting along. Id ask my first question, is he doing okay . Youve got a bill of health here, youre doing good. It actually is really reassuring on the spectrum auction. Were all delighted that i think the commission supports the chairmans decision here to have a public auction. You know, thats something where i give mr. Doyle a lot of credit, my republican colleagues a lot of credit as well. Theres real opportunity hiere with the shared sense of purpose that both republicans and democrats have to try to get broadband up to Rural America. I want to say that decision is important. But theres two things that have to be part of that, in the implementation. Are we going to use the proceeds for a dedicated fund . Because theres unity here about wanting to get broadband out to the dakotas, rural new york and vermont. And its so hard, as you know around here on a very practical basis to get money. And some of my Senate Colleagues have introduced legislation to have the proceeds in a dedicated fund. We dont know how that money would be spent exactly, but it would be dedicated to Rural Broadband. I think the commissioner this is something thats of evidence to you. Maybe you could speak on it and id ask the chairman to address that as well. Sure. A lot of the members have asked the version of this question, what can you do to help us with the c band . There are two things. The first, were going to have to figure out how to properly incentivize those existing satellite licensees to return their spectrum. I think there are legitimate legal questions about what authority we have today under title 3 of the act. We may need your help to make that authority more clear. And the second thing we have to do goes straight to what you just said. You have billions of dollars that may come in as a result of this sale. Lets figure out how we can use those billions of dollars from the sale of public aeir waves t solve a public problem. We have a huge problem with Rural Broadband in this country. Kids everywhere cant do their homework. We could solve it with this legislation from you and i hope we do. Chairman . Congress, i couldnt agree more on the need for to take action here. Id reiterate my call from 2016 for congress to create a rural dividend. To give you context, when i made that proposal in 2016, at the time the fcc had conducted 100 billion worth of auctions. Think about if that extra 10 billi 10 billion back in 2016 had been allocated for Rural Broadband. Weve got go ahead mr. Oreilly. I was going to add if a fund is created, if money is allocated in terms of the bill you talk about, you consider using the fccs distribution model. I was doing the mapping problem. You have existing other federal agency whose have been distributing dollars against in competition with us thats been problematic. Hopefully the committee will consider thats a very practical suggestion. The second part of this weve got to get this right now. Create a fund, im Hearing Support for a fund. If we dont have a fund its going to be very difficult for us to actually deliver for Rural America. It might go somewhere else. The second thing is can we have standards that future proof the speed and the quality of the broadband that goes out there . Right now i think it could be 25, 3. You dont think 25, 3 is adequate for Rural America . Thats part of the reason its part of the rural Digital Opportunity fund, looking to increase all the way up to giga bit speeds. Why dont we eliminate that . We know thats dumbing down. Wi why dont we get rid of 25, 3. The fear i have there will be a lot of excitement in our rural communities. Weve got no g in parts of vermont. If people are given that opportunity to get something thats inferior quality but its better than zero, theyll want it. We have to have a standard. Mr. Carr, you were up there, i think you said in iowa, i know were you in south dakota, too . Yeah. What are your thoughts about establishing a High Standard as opposed to a low standard thats going to perpetially make Rural America a second class citizen . I appreciate and i want to get as much speed and capacity to everyone in america. When we have raised the speeds in the past, the dollars tend to the places that are easier to serve if we get standard. This is a request you guys have to play a role in this to make certain that its not its done for the benefit of rural citizens, not for the entrepreneurs who want to make the easy quick money. We need audacious goals right now for broadband. I completely agree with you, congressman. Gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes ms. Brooks for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chair. Chairman pai, since the fcc began reviewing the potential for a greater use of six gigahertz in 2016 so much has changed in the communication space. Were expecting over 95 g deployments by u. S. Carriers. With these deployments comes a clear need for more of the midband spectrum weve been talking about. Have you thought at all about licensing some of the 1,200 mega hertz of spectrum in the six gigahertz span instead of opening it all up . I can tell you our focus has been on unlicensed operations but im taking meetings among other stakeholders for folks who support that approach. Well move ahead with an open mind. Would some of those groups be Emergency Communications, utilities, spoand those groups . Theres a wide variety of stakeholders that encompasses those constituents. We have to make sure this can benefit all players. Lets make sure we get that right. I come from indiana, a huge automotive state. I want to commend the commission for proposal rule making or 5. 9 hertz band. The spectrum has been underutilized for too long. I also cochair the 5 g caucus and recently visited with the 5 g Automotive Association, and i have to tell you, one of the greatest concerns when we talk to constituents about Autonomous Vehicles is everyone remains concerned about safety. That is the number one issue. But im encouraged the draft proposal would allow and ive tried to learn more about the cb 2 x which i didnt know much about. And i certainly think the american citizens know little to nothing about to have access to the spectrum ban. I think it does have potential what im hearing to reduce highway fatalities. I understand theres a 5 g version of this that needs to be considered for an additional portion of the spectrum band. But regardless of how the commission proceeds, i want to make sure that consumer safety is first and paramount. As commissioners, can you tell me how youre prioritizing road safety . People are still very concerned about as the Automotive Industry is moving forward and we need to and want to move forward, how are we prioritizing road safety and automobile safety . How can we insure that it will be protected regardless of how its all allocated . Commissioner pai and other comments . Critical question. Thats part of the reason why its so important to follow the balanced approach ive outlined. Allocating the upper 20 mega hertz for cv to x, taking Public Comment on the next ten mega hertz, but even beyond that in 2017, two years ago, i proposed that we allocate portions of the 76 to 81 gigahertz ban, five gigahertz there, and thats being used for the safety allocations youre talking about. Its not just the 5. 9 band, this commission is committed to making sure technologies move ahead. How are we working with the Automotive Industry . The chairman has done a good job of setting up the discussion. Hes acknowledged the needs of auto safety and the needs of unlicensed and my hope is that Going Forward we can find way to accommoda accommodate both. How are we working with industry that is developing these technologies to make sure that were youre being informed sufficiently . Weve been working on this issue for quite a while. Ive talked to and worked with a number in the auto industry. They have moved away from dsrc. One think that can be helpful ive been unable to do in this process is commit the words you used. Whatever the portion of the remains be used for safety. When i pushed the Auto Companies to use commit to using actual safety, hey, i dont know, we might i dont want to commit. Thats a problem there. If they were going to have a band thats dedicated for safety it ought to be used for safety, not advertising, not parking spots and all these other ideas that are out there. Okay. Thank you. With that, i yield back gentle lady yields back, the chair recognizes mr. Pelon for five minutes. I wanted to express agreement with Ranking Member walden, i too, have serioconcerns about tc providing little notice to the committee before taking significant actions like the 9. 05 g fund that was announced yesterday. That raises many questions that need to be answered, including how the money will be spent without good maps of mobile deployment. Its troubling our members only seem to get answers from you hours before an oversight hearing. Theres bipartisan agreement that you need to do better and i expect so as we go forward. But i wanted to ask some questions about resiliency, which is, you know, so important in my district. We had probably most impacted by Superstorm Sandy and we worry about all these hurricanes and storms that hit us repeatedly now with Climate Change getting worse. I have repeatedly urged the fcc to meaningfully improve the resiliency of communications and networks in the wake of disasters, but i fear my concerns which are shared by millions of americans are falling on deaf ears. Its time for congress to address this issue. Since 2018 the fcc has issued two reports with recommendations on how to improve our Network Resiliency, and is part of an investigation i requested the controller general issue a report in 2018 on Network Resiliency with recommendations with which the fcc agrees. Were talking about two fcc reports, one controller general report, three total. And i just wanted to im kind of assuming that all of you had an opportunity to review these reports. Just to be sure, if anyone hasnt reviewed these reports, all three, would you just raise your hand . I assume you have so i dont expect anybody to raise their hand. That means you all have. Okay. Do any of you disagree with the recommendations in the reports if implemented, you know, that the recommendations that they have, if implemented can meaningfully improve our Nations Communications network . You can just raise your hand if you disagree with the reports recommendations essentially. I dont expect anybody to raise their hand. All right. I think thats good. I appreciate that were generally in agreement with it comes to using it as a base line. Let me ask the commissioner, i know youve focused on this issue, so beyond the recommendations in these reports, what more do you think we should be considering . Thank you. We need to update the wireless resiliency framework. Two years ago, the gal told us that they dont know how to measure it, they dont know how to enforce it. Weve got work to do. Since that time, weve issued four Public Notices asking for comment about it. I think we should stop asking for comment and we should start fixing it. I certainly agree. As you know, the Trump Administration is well known for undermining Civil Servants and ignoring experts if it benefits big corporate interest. In october the fcc approved the merger of tmobile and sprint. Questions have been raised about the process and im quite concerned about these allocations. Again, commissioner, you voted against this merger and raised concerns about the process. Do you want to express your concerns . This is the largest merger of Wireless Companies in our nations history. Were all going to pay more Going Forward as a result. Heres the problem, before we even had any engineering, legal, or Economic Analysis before us, a majority of our commission announced they were going to support it. And then after the department of justice reorganized the entire transaction, they took a lot of meetings on it but they denied the public an ability to actually come in and comment about it. Then rewrote the original draft from our expert staff from front to back on major competition issues. On this committee i think you should ask for a copy of that original draft because there are such glaring differences between it and what we issued publicly. I think that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Congress and the courts should know what was changed and why. Well follow up on that. Let me ask commissioner starks, i know you have some process concerns related to this merger. Can you elaborate as well . Yes, thank you, mr. Chairman. In particular when the chairman announced there was going to be the largest investigation of lifeline violations ever, i said that we should pause our review of the transaction, actually study what happened, let the investigation run its course, and in particular as a former enforcement official, i wanted to know more before we lowallow the transaction to go forward. There was an article published yesterday that there are more lifeline investigations that redound to sprint. So it certainly confirms there needed to be more time and more investigation of what went forward. One of the things i would highlight for you when youre talking about an enforcement action like that, there are two phases of it. The first is going to be a clawback because the u. S. Government must be made whole. And so for whatever improper ineligible lifeline recipients sprint received money for, all that money should come back. The second phase is going to be a penalty phase. Previously we have issued penalties where there improprieties with the lifeline fund. Ill expect significant action on both fronts. Thank you. Gentlemans time is expired. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you commissioners for being here today. I want to start by thanking you on your work by ending illegal robo calls. It passed the house yesterday. I want to thank you for next weeks anticipated action around 988. Mr. Chairman you highlighted that in your opening comments and i commend you for a National Suicide hotline. Unfortunately, montana has the highest suicide rate in the country. With about 164,000 montanans that have some form of Mental Health condition. Unfortunately, Mental Health care is not available to many montanans. In fact, more than 600,000 montanans out of a population of just over a million, 16 , live in a area where theres a shortage of Mental Health professionals. Ideally everyone would have access to preventive Mental Healthcare, but montanans know how difficult it is to achieve in our rural communities. This crisis of access to Mental Health care is why this 988 is so important. Thank you for your anticipated action there. Commissioner carr, i want to thank you for coming to montana and seeing firsthand the challenges we face. You mentioned while you were there that commending you, youve been to now well over 30 states around the country. You said our cell phone coverage is actually the worst youve experienced anywhere in the country. So i appreciate you coming and feeling some of the pain with us. And i appreciate the commissions emphasis on improving our maps, which is the path forward to fix this problem. In mapping legislation, its moving through congress, a lot of emphasis has been put on a workable challenge process to correct some of the mistakes. Commissioner carr, could you just talk a little bit about how why a challenge process is so important in developing sound maps and making good decisions . Thank you congressman, thank you for your leadership on Rural Broadband. I did the drive from muzissoulao great falls, zero bars the whole way. I was talking to my colleagues the whole time. The mechanism has to be right because we have to make sure that no matter what community youre in, youre seeing the investments needed to give you connectivity, whether its Mental Health services or letting people telework. It would be a boost to rural workers. Would a challenge or validation process improve the accuracy of the maps . We absolutely have to have a mechanism in place that makes sure were not sending money to places with the private sector is already on its own building out and can sustain those builds without funding. Thank you. Chairman pai, id like to thank you for listening to my concerns around the best way to repurpose the c band and applaud your announcement in moving forward with a public auction. As you continue to move forward on clearing other midband spectrum for 5g, id like to raise my concerns this has been raised by a number of other members, to make sure incumbents are at the table, particularly electric utilities and railroads that are currently using some of the spectrum. Can you commit that theyll have a seat at the table as you have these decisions . Absolutely, congressman, they will. Okay, great Ranking Member walden raised an issue earlier with the recent fcc nprm that proposes a definition of urban, which is at 25 a population of 2,500. The beauty of standards is we have so many of them. We operate were an agricultural state. The farm bill is a piece of legislation that affects all of our agricultural producers. In the farm bill, they have a definition of rural as 50,000 people. Can you just is there way we can sync these two so we dont have multiple standards . Im hearing concern from back home that with a really low bar of 2,500 population, that this would exclude many communities from the back haul and the th resale we need. Can we sync it up to the farm bill . Coming from what i thought was a rural town of 11,000 in kansas, but going to your state, i understand how rural it is. I think theres an important priority for the fcc, but all federal agencies to have a consistent definition to the maximum extent possible. Thank you, with that i yield back. Gentleman yields back. Chair now recognizes mr. Cardinous for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And i appreciate very much all of your service, ladies and gentlemen, to the people of our great country and you have tremendous responsibilities on your shoulders. Im going to start off by applauding you a little bit. As americans continue to depend on technology more and more every day, the decisions you make regarding our public air waves have an incredible impact and shape our lives. Several of my colleagues and i sent a letter in october in support of a public auction of c band spectrum to help Americas Development of 5g technologies. I was really glad to receive your response a couple weeks ago announcing that the commission will be proceeding with a public auction that will give the American People the transparency and accountability they deserve in such a crucial process that will help maintain americas standing as a Global Leader in innovation and technology. I also applaud the commissions continued efforts in the unlicensed Spectrum Arena to make more room for our increasing wifi needs so we can close the homework gap, run business and stream our favorite entertainment. Id like to pivot to a different 20 topic. Over a year ago there was a merger. There is substantial and material questions of fact as to whether sinclair affirmatively misrepresented or omitted facts without fully complying with our broadcast ownership rules, end quote. Earlier this year the fccs Administrative Law judge stated in her ruling that, quote, honesty with the commission is a foundational requirement for a commission license, end quote. And she referred to section 1. 17 of the fcc rules when she wrote, quote, mandates that fcc licensees deal truthfully with the agency, not only by refraining from misrepresenting information, but also by not omitting Material Information that is necessary to prevent any material factual statement that is made from being incorrect or misleading. End quote. And then about five months ago, it was reported in the press that the media bureau had started an investigation into sinclair. I know my colleague and i would be happy to know more about this investigation, but i want to focus on what the Administrative Law judge said. That honesty before the agency is foundational to holding a broadcast license. This is important as broadcast license renewals are set to start next year and the American Public should be aware and have all the information about broadcasters that weve given their public air waves to. So my first question is to you, chairman pai, if you could give me a short yes or no answer. Do you believe that lying to the agency, the fcc, is a serious issue . Yes. Thank you. And yes or no, do you agree with the Administrative Law judge that honesty is foundational to hold a license . Yes. Thank you. Do you believe an entity that has lied to the agency should be held accountable if theyve lied to the agency. Yes, consistent with law and regulation and precedent. Yes, thank you. Should an entity that has lied to the agency be eligible to hold a license . Sorry, can you repeat that . Should an entity that has lied to the agency be eligible to hold a license if they have, in fact, lied in the past or recently, et cetera . No. Material to material to the holding of a license . Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Pretty straightforward questions, but youre not evading, im just saying i want to be clear thats why i asked for a clarification. Thank you very much. Commissioner, do you agree with those questions and answers . Im not entirely sure, did the chairman say that the if they are dishonest in front of the agency they should or should not be able to hold a license . Thank you for that clarification. So for example, as many entities that hold licenses they may have an application in 2018 or 16 or 17 and for some reason theyve materially it was found they materially lied to the fcc and they hold other licenses and, for example, theyre up for relicense, et cetera, renewal, should that be a material fact in determining whether or not they have the integrity and the should be given the responsibility to hold those licenses as well . Obviously, the fact specific, ill reiterate what the law judge says, honesty good, dishonesty bad. Bad meaning its a trust by holding a license, being granted a license. If theyve been bad actors to the degree they lied to the agency that bestowed that license on them, maybe they shouldnt be given it again. Ive made clearer, candor before the commission is a value we cherish and i know this committee does as well. Thank you, i yield back. The chair now recognizes mr. Flores for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. I also want to thank the commissioners for your service and thank you for being here today. I think its important, as you and i have discussed we preserve spectrum for intelligent auto safety. I was glad to see in your recent mprm that youre saving 5. 9 for dscr. I do however share concerns about the uncertainty of esrcs future and the significant investment and research its been put into this technology so far. So two quick questions on this. The nprm seeks a comment on ten mega hertz for dsrc. Do we have any analysis so far to show this would be enough to continue Adequate Research for this standard . Congressman, part of the evidence would be the fact that the japanese among others potentially have allocated 10 mega hertz channel for dsrc. It involves making sure we have an exclusive home for ccx where most of the automakers have shifted their focus. I wanted to make sure we had an open conversation to let everybody make the case based on the merits, not based on a political appeal. Thanks. And i understand that both the fcc and the nitsa. Now that weve added the cv 2 xh how do you see that process evolving . This is part of the reason why i think that this approach really is the right one for automotive safety. Under the previous administrations framework, dsrc would be sharing the spectrum, 75 mega hertz with unlicensed and extensive testing would be required for a whole bunch of different use cases. By separately the two, dsrc on one hand, unlicensed on the other, we can avoid the problems that all of the extensive testing would require. You dont need it to know you have an exclusive home in one part of the band. Our hope is this removes the uncertainty, allows Safety Technologies to be developed and put into the use for the benefit of American Consumers. Thats what gets lost often. This is a public resource that was devoted for the purpose of automotive safety. The step were poised to take next week, i believe, truly would be the biggest benefit for automotive safety, American Consumers have seen in history. I appreciate your feedback and i appreciate how thoughtful yall have been in putting this out there for the public to look at. I look forward to seeing what the comments are. Shifting gears a little bit, commissioner oreilly, youve been supportive comments in the past on modernizing the merger reviews for the fcc to efficiently consider applications. I plan on reintroducing legislation to codify the fccs Current Practice of using 180 shot clock for the commission to consider a merger application. This commonsense provision would give more certainty to the industry and our consumers. Can you speak to the importance of having a more efficient review process . I believe whatever decision we come to should be done in a timely manner. The time that we spend and number of transactions go lengthy is money thats being spent on lawyers and bankers and not in terms of deployment and facility and network and services. Thats a problem. We can speed up our process if it needs to be an escape valve, thats one thing. This chairman has done a wonderful job in speeding it up. Anything that congress can do to add to that would be helpful. Thats helpful feedback. Are there any other lessons the fcc has learned that we should be aware of . To codify the 180 day shot clock . I think it can apply in many different situations. I have a number of ideas. I look forward to working with you on that. Shoot those over to us and well get it incorporated. I thank you i yield back. The chair recognizes ms. Clark for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank you our Ranking Member and all of our commissioners for their presentations before us today. Id like to start with the idea that every citizen in our nation regardless of their income, their race, their national origin, their gender, have to be concerned about in the next couple of weeks, actually. And that is the 2020 census. For the first time in the enumeration of our nation, were going to be doing this online. And i want to start with you, commissioner, during your visit to my district, thats brooklyn, and our discussion on your podcast, we have visited the topic of broadband deserts a few times. Its taken on another dynamic or dimension. One of our most basic rights true and fundamental to our democracy is the apportionment of our representation. Thats because for the very first time, again, well be conducting this primarily online. However, we know that millions of people are at risk of being undercounted because they lack access to the internet. And many communities across this nation have been hard to count even without that dynamic. My question is, do you see risks in this approach, and what can we be doing to make sure that everyone is counted, commissioner . Yes, thank you for the question. There is enormous risk in this approach. We all know sitting at this table that we have a Digital Divide in this country. We have broadband deserts in urban and Rural America. We have the duty to count every citizen and the administration has decided its digital first. Theyll tell everyone to respond online. Were hiring 125,000 fewer people to knock on doors. Ill tell you right now, im worried were not going to be able to count people who are on the wrong side of the Digital Divide both in urban america and in Rural America. It will have constitutional consequences. And i think that this commission has to help the folks at the census and the department of commerce to make sure we get it right. We get one chance every ten years. And we have to get it right. I thank you for that and i hope that, you know, were focused on this. Because, indeed, we get one shot at this. It happens once every ten years. Commissioner starks, im concerned the fcc is not complying with existing law. Specifically the fcc has not followed its statutory mandate to collect equal unemployment opportunity data for broadbrand licenses. Although the fcc sought comment on the ex eo enforcement its made no moves to implement the law. Can you describe for us your views on this decision and what steps the fcc should take to remedy this longstanding failure to comply . Thank you for the question, vice chair clark. From behind the camera to in front of the camera to who makes decisions of what local news and what our news really looks like i believe diversity is imperative. That we solve this issue. We have a statutory duty to collect this diversity information from our broadcasters and we have fallen down on that duty. And i have requested that we specifically satisfy that. There are constitutional questions that have been raised. I was eager to take on those constitutional questions. I thought it should be part of the Comment Period. Im frustrated folks have constitutional issues with asking a constitutional question. That really cannot be the case. And so im eager now that the Comment Period has ended we move forward quickly to make sure we satisfy our statutory obligations here. Absolutely. As cochair of the smart cities caucus i understand the important of midband spectrum. Its being held as the goldilocks of frequencies. In that vein, i have quick questions for each commissioner and answers, of course, are yes or no. With regard to the relationship between 5 g and c band spectrum. Do you agree that midband spectrum is essentially . Yes. Yes, all three bands are going to be critical. Yes. Bands will be critical. Yes, yes. If c band spectrum is not made available, will the u. S. Fall further behind china 5g deployment . Were not behind i didnt ask that. I said if its not made available soon, could we fall behind china . Yes. Yes. Yes. I dont think i said if its not done soon, could we fall further behind china. Im going to disagree with my colleague. Were falling behind the rest of the world. Were resting on our 4g lawyers. Midrange spectrum is the way to fix that. We need to auction that in 2020. And we need to move on getting the cband. I yield back. Thank you. The chair would request unanimous consent to wave ms. Blunt rochester on to the committee. Without objection. Now the chair recognizes ms. Blunt rochester for five minutes. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you to the commissioners. Im sorry i wasnt able to be here at the beginning this really important hearing. I was in another subcommittee, the one on environment and Climate Change, discussing building a 100 clean economy, its really pivotal and very much tied to what youre talking about here and the work that you do. I have gotten permission to start a future work bipartisan caucus in the congress. Your work is pivotal here. I want to thank you for that, for your service and say how important it is for my colleagues and i to understand the decisions you make and the strategy, particularly as it involves americans and our economy. Like most of my colleagues today, many of them probably brought up the issue of Broadband Access. Im concerned that some of the actions that you have taken im encouraged that some are dealing with Broadband Access, but im concerned that were not as far as we need to be. I want to share an issue thats personal for me. In delaware, the coverage maps, your current coverage maps suggest the entire state of delaware has one provider that provides at least 25 megabits per second. Yet from my own personal experience, just driving up and down my state, whether its on my farms, whether its in the city, we have patches where there is not access. This is a priority. While i appreciate the willingness to adopt the shape file approach to resolve some of these issues, it seems not as precise, particularly when youre measuring through census tracts, and for a small state like delaware that has great impact. I wanted to ask a question, you know, about the rejection of the proposal to utilize location fabric approach, which is more granular, i understand. And also had bipartisan support, was endorsed two weeks ago. Commissioner pai, can you share why the fcc rejected that proposal that would have been a little bit more provided more realistic coverage . Appreciate the question, congresswoman, as well as the concern youve raised. Ive seen that myself driving from wilmington, the bars start to drop. There are rural parts of delaware. And in the urban parts as well. And in the urban parts. With respect to the question you raised, part of the reason im proud the agency spoke with a bipartisan voice on august 1st when it upgraded the system is that we included not just the shape file approach but also crowd sourcing to understand from consumers where they live where access is and where it is not. So we can have better datadriven decisions. There are a lot of things that make the issue complicated. But at the end of the day we want to understand not just from providers by from consumers where is broadband to get as granular as we can while making sure we understand the challenges out there in terms of broadband deployment. I want to also turn the commissioner and get your interpretation of this as well. The i have a lot of technical things that i can ask here on this page. Peoples eyes will glaze over. Yeah. Bottom line, i would like to get your perspective i work on these issues all the time. I know what you mean by eyes glazing over. We have to get the most granular and accurate data as possible. Bottom line. If we can start with shape files, great. I would point out this committee in its broadband data act included both. Just as important is that we get the perspective of people driving up and down the roads of delaware who can tell us where they get bars, which houses where they dont get service. We have to bring in crowd sourcing, Public Knowledge to refine this to the next level. Commissioner starks . I agree as well. You are right on the issue of census tracks. I think that was a tremendous problem. We needed as granular as possible. So i i have also been somebody who said the shape files are a good place to start. Getting it more granular at the address level is what i have long called for. Thats people live at their addresses, turns out. We need to make sure were getting it as detailed as possible so that we can have the connectivity that people need. To the other commissioners . Gentleladys time has expired. Sorry, i will hear from you following. Thank you very much for your work and thank you, mr. Chairman, for your leadership. I thank the gentlelady. No more members ready to testify . The chair requests unanimous consent to enter the following into the record. A letter sent to me by chairman pai dated december 3, a letter from its america, a letter from the motor and equipment manufacturers association, a letter from the ultra wide band alliance, a letter to the fcc from safety advocates. A letter from global automakers, a letter from safety spectrum coalition, a letter from nine Public Safety railroads and Public Transit oil, gas and utility organizations, and a statement from the National Safety council. Without objection, so ordered. You have ten days to answer additional questions. I ask each witness to respond promptly to any question you may receive. Before i adjourn, i want to wish all the members of the commission a happy holiday season. Good to see you all back and to everyone in the audience, too. Happy holidays. The committee is adjourned. Yune yune [inaudible conversations]provid coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country. So you can make up your own mind, created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. We are live this morning for the House Rules Committee meeting which will be setting the parameters for tomorrows house debate on articles of impeachment against president trump. The committee will recommend how long the debate will last and whether any amendments will be allowed. The meeting could be brief, could last a couple hours or it could go into night. Well have live coverage on s cspan3 and you can see live coverage tomorrow on our companion network, cspan. Once again, were live on capitol hill as we await the House Rules Committee hearing now, which will be setting the parameters for tomorrows house debate on articles of impeachment against president trump. We did expect it to get under way at 11 00 straight up here, but members of the committee are over in the House Chamber taking holding votes, we do expect them to wrap up those votes in just a couple minutes after which the meeting will get under way here on capitol hill. Live coverage of the House Rules Committee here on espn 3