Transcripts For CSPAN FCC Commissioners Testify At Oversight Hearing 20170729

I want to welcome you to the subcommittee. I appreciate the commissioners appearing to offer their testimony today. And we appreciate that we have been able to hear from you in advance of this hearing. Beencc has not reauthorized since 1990 and its current appropriation is 430 million. It is charged with the administration of Communications Act. Reexamine the Core Functions and restore a culture of humility that was lacking under the regulatory class left by chairman wheeler. The fcc plays a vital role in our increasingly Technology Dependent society. The subcommittee has released a draft for consideration. I would be remiss by not discussing Net Neutrality. The commissions decision to classify the internet as a public utility was a power grab laced with the irony of suffocating the most innovative part of our economy with in 1930s era law. This gave new meaning to the term progressive. Reply comments to the commissions are due august 18. We hope you are keeping that wed whacker handy. It has a lot of work to do. Title ii reclassification has created a 5. 6 reduction in isp network investment, will lead to rate regulation and has generated tremendous uncertainty. I know there is disagreement. While my colleagues on the other side of the aisle had nothing to do it this, internet giants amazon, facebook, and google recently joined with websites such as pornhub and dark money groups for a day of action to claim republicans will break the net. Me be clear, republicans have always supported a free and open internet. Lets not have any misunderstanding on that issue. We must move past the partisan rhetoric. The Ranking Member said in 2010 this is a job for congress in referring to the Net Neutrality rules and i agree. Other issues included administration of the Lifeline Program, media ownership rules and process reform. The gao released another report article of the Lifeline Program on june 29. Said over 6000 deceased individuals were enrolled after their death, and numerous carriers improved eligibility based on fictitious documentation. Outdated media ownership rules and process reform issues also concerned the committee. Broadcast ownership rules released last august was divorced from the realities of todays media marketplace. Finally processed reform has been an issue of bipartisan concern for some time. Bipartisan bills have passed the house five of the last six years. Chairman pal youve taken positives steps including release of a fact sheet for any proposal to be considered at an open meeting and releasing the text of the documents to the public in advance of a vote at an open meeting. However, more must be done to promote and sustain a culture of transparency at the commission on several other issues. Noted in the majority memorandum. I look forward to todays hearing and at this time i yield the balance of my time to mr. Lance. Thank you chairman black burn and welcome to the fcc kirgss. Fcc commissioner. Internet is a great equalizer provides a open platform to embour innovation and free speech as well as other invention and histories by reclassifying Internet Services under depression area title 29s common carrier rults in 2015 the fcc needlessly risked this great economic engine. Fch title 2 ohms the door to burdensome regulations that harm competition threaten the investment and broad band needed to close the Digital Divide. And holdback innovation such as 5g. I applaud chairman pal for phishing a proceeding to rf the misguided reclassification p misguided reclassification. Its important for consumers not to conflate the harmful title ii reclassification with the Net Neutrality principles as some would suggest. There is strong support among the American People for a light touch approach to internet regulation. And a strong kwon sense us on strong consensus on both sides of the aisle for Net Neutrality principles. These ideas do not need to be mutually exclusive. It is my hope that the commission and congress can finally resolve the open internet issues, and that we can Work Together in a bipartisan capacity. Thank you madam chair. And now we recognize the Ranking Member mr. Doyle for five minutes. Thanks chairman for holding this long overdue hearing today and thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us. Its my sincere hope we can make this a more regular occurrence. Ive spent my time in congress and on this committee as a strong advocate of competition innovation and opportunity. , these are the pillars of a successful marketplace. And the driving force of our economy. When we act to weaken them we weaken our own economy and our country. In the time that you have been head of this agency we have seen an agenda that is anticonsumer, antiSmall Business and anticompetition antiinnovation and antiopportunity. Right out of the gate the commission took a range of actions including pulling back an investigation of anticompetitive zero rating practices and a mere Progress Report on updates to a program to bring broad band to schools and libraries. The commission reinstated the uhf discount for what seems to be no other reason than to enable an unprecedented merger between sin clear and tribune that would give the combined entity a foothold in nearly 80 of american households. The commission eviscerated competition for Business Data Services in this country. Your order concluded that a market is competitive if it is served by one provider with the possibility of another one might enter at some point. I dont even see how this makes sense. The commission ended a program that enables poor people to get access to broad band literally pulling service away from people who had already signed up. The commission is in the process of eliminating the fccs open Internet Order. Which as of this morning 12. 3 million have written to you in overwhelming opposition. These rules are working they have been upheld in federal court and they have promoted a Virtuous Cycle of investment and innovation online. And i dont think this point can be stressed enough. Publicly traded companies are required by law to tell their investors the risks to their company. No publicly traded isp has made such a claim. However, many Online Companies including netflix and snap have claimed that oh eroding or eliminating the rules will in fact pose a threat to their businesses. You know when i read your statements and you talk about investment and your concerns, you only seem to talk about in relation to isp investment. Im concerned that maybe you just dont get it. The internet isnt just an isp connection to the consumer. Its a vast array of Networks Services and applications. Ignoring the rest of the ecosystem is to ignore the part of the internet that is the most vibrant and innovative. Im deeply concerned that the fcc is on a wrong path, a path that will hurt Small Businesses regular people and some of the most innovative sectors of our economy. And on that cheery note i will yield the balance of my time to miss eshoo. I thank the Ranking Member and what a superb Opening Statement you just made. One of the most important issues currently before the fcc is obviously Net Neutrality. We have heard a lot from Net Neutrality opponents about the impact of title ii on brad bant investment while fielgts affirmative. Ps tell them its kmield investment their executives tell sharmds a different story. The benefits of title ii protections to every other sector of our economy are enormous, a free and open internet supported the creation of 10. 4 million u. S. Jobs in all 50 states in 2016. 86 of these jobs came outside of major tech hubs. Despite the broad impact of the open internet on our economy, the fcc is barreling down the road of eliminating the critical protections and making it clear to the American People startups and Small Businesses that their input is not valued nearly as much as that of washingtons special interests. So i look forward to discussing this issue further and ask that my full statement be inserted in the record. I also plan to discuss very directly with you mr. Chairman the whole issue of rt in the Intelligence Communitys Public Record statement. It is replete with references to rt. And i think that we need to pay a great deal of attention to that. I thank you the gentleman for yielding and i yield back. The gentle lady yield back does the gentleman yield back. I yield back the gentleman yields back his team i will say to my colleagues we agree you that the issues of the cosystemen oh the net true nalt title ii deserve additional attention attention from this committee and we look forward to carrying forward with this. That time i recognize the chairman of the full committee mr. Walden for five minutes for Opening Statement. Morning madam chair to all of the witnesses, the commissioners and the chairman to our guesting. To our guests. American innovation and the internet space is literally revolutionized the world and everything we do and how we do it. From research in communications to shopping and entertainment, the internet is an essential part of our everyday lives. Given the debate over the rules for internet operations and Consumer Privacy it is our responsibility on the energy and Commerce Committee to fully understand all sides of the internet governance issue. Therefore, im announcing this morning that im convening a full energy and Commerce Committee hearing entitled ground rules for the he internet ecosystem for thursday, september 7th, 2017. Today i am sending formal invitations to the top executives of leading tech Companies Including facebook, alf wet, amazon and netflix, as well as broad band providers including, comcast, at t, verizon and charter kmupgsing, inviting each of them to come and testify before the full energy and Commerce Committee. Its time for congress to legislate the rules of the internet and stop the pingpong game of regulations and litigation. Make no mistake given the importance of the Public Policy debate and the work we need to do as a committee it is essential that we hear directly from the countries top internet and edge provider leaders who frequently speak out publicly about rules of the internet. Its time they came before us and directly shared their positions and answered our questions. And with more than a months advance notice im sure they can arrange their schedules to accommodate our invitations. Now with regard to todays panel, chairman pal, welcome and congratulates on taking over the helm at the fcc. Commissioner clyburn, commissioner oreilly were glad off you back us as well thank you for the work we do we begin a new charp in the history of the fcc one that will ham shape some of the most important parts of the national kmi the video distribution sfree, Telecommunications Industry and the internet. In todays hearing we begin to examine rethorsoning the fcc thats the First Time Since 1990 the fcc has come up for reauthorization. By any estimation this discussion is long overdue. And today we continue conversations to make the fcc a model agency with proposals for a number of process reforms. Many of which will sound very familiar because weve taken them up before in this committee. When we first took up the open government reforms i said it was not about who headed the fcc at the time it was about improving transparency and public involvement in a public process. I believe that under chairman wheeler and i believe that just as much now under chairman pal. I was pleased to be the chairman demonstrated his commitment to making the operations more transparent through action by initiating a Pilot Program to publicly release the text of Commission Agenda items at the same time theyre presented to the other commissioners for a vote. A measure his predecessor oppose ds there are a number of matters pending with the Commission Many of which we will discuss. With the the broadcaster repack is under way. The commissioner set forth of a fwrchs schedule to move all the broadcasters impacted by this auction. While i have every confidence that the chairman will work to ensure consumers to have access to over the air television concerns remain about the sufficiency of the 39month time line and the 1. 75 billion budget. I take the concerns seriously and will continue to work closely with the commission and my colleagues to make sure that over the air broadcasting and the viewers they reach on main channel and on their translatesers are not adversely affected. Of course chairman pal commence add proceed egged to examining returning regulation of the internet to barpt framework that made it the economic engine it is today. As we wait for this process to take its course pb the future of the greatest economic engine of modern times is clouded with uncertainty with a frohhing recognition that the time is now for legislative action we offer to waived for on Net Neutrality in 2015 i believe now as i did then that we should Work Together to write Bipartisan Legislation to protect the internet from bad actors who want to use their unfair advantage to block throttle or in other ways engage in bad behavior. The American People deserve no less we stand ready to act. Chairman pal commissioner err clyburn shall commissioner oreilly thank you all again. There are others who want to use the last 15 seconds i would happily yield and if not i yield back the balance of my time. The gentleman yields back at this time i recognize the Ranking Member of the full committees mr. Pallone for five months for opening. Thank you madam chairwoman. Id like to thank you the fcc commissioners for joining us this morning our first fcc oversight hearing of this congress. Kwhiel im glad youre hear this hearing should have occurred months ago the republican majority had no problem conducting oversights the prefer ov administration holding quarterlily oversight hearing now their own Party Controls the majorities of the commission we are six months into the administration and this is our first hearing with the new commission. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. Do because the commissions own actions have shone the critical need for congressional oversight. To date most of the fccs actions have ignored the needs of consumers. To often when given the chance this fcc has sided with large corporations to the detriment of hard working americans. The commission started this year by making it more difficult for competitors to offer broad band to low income people through the life line program. It continued with the scheme to encourage for consolidation into the Media Industry eliminating voices from the air. Last week chairman pal to refused to commit to protecting the funds necessary to close the homework gap as part of the popular Erate Program in our schools pen then the alarming outright refused by the fc. Kr to protect the security of the broad bant networks at a time when the russians and others are looking for new ways to breakin. But the highest profile example chl fcc side wg large corporations over mall businesses and hard working americans is the attempt to eliminate Net Neutrality andfree and open internet is kmurgs for democracy by giving everyone an equal voice online. They get to decide which videos we watch, which sides of we read , and what services we you that we use. Nobody gets to influence that services we use. Nobody gets to influence that choice. Not the government, and not the companies that run the networks. A free and open internet also allows Small Businesses to flourish. The Small Businesses many of which owned by minister and women are responsible for more than half the jobs in the country today. If the fcc moves ahead with Net Neutrality were, the consequences will be severe. It will cut away at our connections with each other and to limit Economic Opportunities for the future. The fcc claims that Net Neutrality repeal is necessary because consumer cap Consumer Protections might deter infrastructure. Results,ad to cruel the hope that the commissioners are listening to the billions of comments coming in from throughout the nation. This is not an oversight hearing, the republican majority surprised us with a 42 page reauthorization bill that had absolutely no democratic input. Its lashes 18 million from the fccs budget. This is not serious legislation and it does not load well for any serious legislation being developed by the majority of this subcommittee on any major communication issues. I would like to yield such time that she wants to miss matsui that i have left. Thank you very much. I represent sacramento, the capital and the state of california. My constituents are extremely concerned about fast and fair access to the internet, which is essential for an innovation economy to thrive. Comments inn so may here in washington dc. Everyone from Small Business owners to educators and librarians have told me they are counting on the fccs Net Neutrality rules. Ends, it is statue americans across the country, almost 11 Million People have contacted the fcc about why the Net Neutrality is so important. Students, these are seniors, these are librarians. These are people who use the internet every single day and wanted to be there. I urge you to listen to these and not roll back the progress we have made. Is important for the future of our young people. Way, ifbelieve in this i urgeis progress you to listen and i urge you to balance and i yield back the balance of my time. Inhad this hearing scheduled march for the markup of the health care bill. We would have liked to have this hearing earlier in the year. Member Opening Statements. All members pursuant to the committee rule, they have an opportunity to make their Opening Statement a part of this record. We want to thank all of our witnesses for being here before the subcommittee. Witnesses will have the opportunity to give Opening Statements, followed by questions from the members. Chairman of the federal communications commission, the honorable mignon clyburn, and ,he honorable Michael Oreilly who is also a commissioner at the federal communications commission. We appreciate you being here today. We will begin with you chairman, you are now recognized for five minutes or your Opening Statement. Thank you chairman blackburn, Ranking Member doyle. Think you for giving me the opportunity to testify today. It has been an honor to work with you on many issues. To strivingor together to bring Digital Opportunity to all americans. A chance to work with him over the past few years. I have known the truth to many of you to know him is to like him. Thoughts and prayers continue to be with him and his family during his recovery. July marked Consumer Protection month. Triad of consumer scorches, unlawful robo calls, and rural call completion, all on the heels of taking down the largest spoof or in our agencys history. August will be robotic been we will also explore how to ensure Employment Data is accurate and efficient as possible. Is of course much more to the agency and what it is doing. There is much more to be done. To workingward together on a bipartisan basis. We will promote innovation, protect consumers and public processes the fccs and procedures. Here are issues that are right for legislation. I am eager to work with the subcommittee to advance this. I want to highlight one particular provision entitled deposits to be deposited in treasury. That provision is absolutely critical that our nation is going to lead the world and 5g. Here is why. The Communications Act requires that up payments upfront payments be deposited in an interestbearing account in a Financial Institution. A recent regulatory requirement has dissuaded private institutions from upholding payments. Public institutions have indicated that Going Forward have no interest in establishing the specialpurpose accounts that would be necessary to offer such services. Is no Financial Institution is now willing to up uphold upfront payments. The fcc currently has no way to comply with the law. No way to move forward with any such auction. That is why i appreciate the subcommittees willingness to address this. To fcc would again be able schedule a large spectrum auctions by allowing payments to be deposited at the treasury. I would like to update the subcommittee on transaction transition process. Two days later, the fcc announced that the aggregate costt of the estimated reported by broadcast television stations and multichannel video programming distributors that are eligible for reimbursement billion. 5 we expect additional estimates from a small number of stations. In recent days, the fcc has received several additional estimates and ever total of toimated cost has increased 2. 13 billion. Given the estimates that we have received today, was all initial estimates are received, the total will be low 2. 2 billion. Looking beyond the initial round of estimates, the estimated repacking cost will continue to change the amendments and independent review through the transition process. When these reasons, the fcc cannot definitively took this will cost. The final number could be lower or higher than the current 2. 1 billion dollars. Theo expect it to be above 2. 15 billion dollars at the congress has provided the commission to reimburse the broadcast stations. Unless Congress Acts to raise the 1. 75 billion cap, likelihood is that broadcasters will have to repay a portion out of their own pockets. Lb had to work with the subcommittee to address this important issue. Chairman blackburn, that he holding this hearing. With authority answering your questions. Yields back right on time. You are recognized for five minutes. Members of the subcommittee, good morning and thank you for the opportunity to again appear before you to share my priority for advancing competition competent strengthenings viewpoint diversecy and ensuring skupters are always put first. Last week i had the privilege of traveling to marrietta ohio. It was there i heard countless stories from individuals businesses and local government leaders who but for no other reason than their geographic location and maybe slight income gap find themselves on the wrong side of digital and opportunities divide in appalachia. Too many families in Rural America and even many urban communities are suffering from poor to no connectivity and substandard service that to add insult to injury, to simply unaffordable. I believe however that that if we commit as an agency to put the interests of consumers and Small Businesses first we will be able to truly say that we are fulfilling the statutory mandate to serve the Public Interests. Allow me to spend the majorities of my testimony today further explaining how the commission can achieve this goal. Among my Top Priorities is reserve the commissions 2015 open internet rules. But just what is this administrations response to the more than now 12 million commenters who expressed their views with the commission . To propose a dismantling of the bright line rules of road we adopted in 2015 and were upheld by the d. C. Circuit last year. We need to hit the pause button and begin serious discussions about the broader implications of undoing our classification of broad band as a title ii service. Take for example Consumer Privacy. In a World Without title ii not only will the fcc be forever barred from addressing Consumer Privacy in a broad band world it is unclear that any agency will ever hold that authority. Similarly, when it comes to our efforts to expand the deployment of broad band, including in Rural America, taking away title ii for broad band undercuts our ability to ensure universal Service Support for broad band by taking away our clearest choice of authority to make sure all americans can wekt o connected. Undoing our classification of broad band as a title 2 service also harms the fccs ability to enable competition. Without title ii it will be far more difficult for the commission to enact policies to promote competition. Second, i need a tireless leader and defender of the fccs life line program. And the need for there to be affordable connectivity for all american consumers. The reality is that at 80 to 100 a month broad band bill is simply out of reach for americans struggling to meet make ends meet. Moving forward, we have a choice to make as a commission. Will we be short sighted and weaken a Program Designed to assist our nations most bible . Or will we commit to constructively address and fix any remaining issues . Third i remained committed to dlifrpg just and reasonable andelivering just reasonable rates for the 2. 7 million children who have been hampered in request to communicate with a narted incarcerated parent. Tank for the leadership bobby rushten and others subcommittee who fought for reform. Rest assured i will continue fighting to ensure that inmates and loved ones do not have to pay several thousand percent of what a nonincarceration incarcerated person pays just to stay in touch. Fourth i a strong believer in the need for greater diversecy of viewpoint across the public airwaves. However the commission has taken several highly concerning steps this year to derail that goal and including rereinstating the techologically obsolete uhf discount. By reinstituting the maintaining this loop hole that belongs in a regulatory trash heap the commission has signalled its willingness to allow a single broadcast Station Group to reach nearly 80 of the u. S. Households in a way that is nontransparent to the public and enables a nearly doubling of the ownership threat tolls set by this body into thousand four in 2004. Finally i would like to share some views about the commissions work around around broad band enabled health care if you would. Last month the commissions connected health task forced released update of our popular broad brand mapping tool our latest data shows there are 214 counties, 175 of which are majority rule, were broad band access is below 50 and diabetes and obesity rates are above the national average. In a laet breaking update i am latebreaking update i am pleased to report that as of friday, the fcc has reopened the broad band health paroleding for additional comment. Equipped with this information and working our federal partners a the hss the va and the the fcc will be better positioned to target those double burdened counties. In conclusion, let me say that i always stand ready to work with my colleagues, this subcommittee, state and local partnerings and Business Leaders to advance policies that put consumers first and ensure our kmupgsing landscape remains the our Communications Landscape remains the envy of the world. I thank you very much. Am very enthusiastic about being here as you can tell by process mime statement and i look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you commissioner. I commend the subcommittee for its continued focus on this. I commit to make them available as a resource if i can be of any assistance to the subcommittee in any manner i sin material sincerely appreciate the efforts of the subcommittee to economic the elements to the reorganizing. I believe its incredibly valuable and important anytime Congress Excuse me. Anytime congress articilates its views including its funding level and subsequent issues. Let me lend my strong support. I humbly suggest 15 additional process improvements in my written testimony that could be included in any reauthorize legislation. Many of these ideas will benefit being included in the statute so that future commissions continue. Additionally, i would be remiss if i had request to address the if i didnt include a request to address the problem of pirate broadcasting. There appears to be great interest to provide additional federal funding for purposes of esh panding broadband of expanding broadband capabilities to more pattern americans. One option been discussed is the potential to include one option epiin a new infrastructure bill. Additionally, to succeed at the next technological challenge, wireless providers are going to need two important ingredients. Access to sufficient mix of spectrum bands and reduced ens installation of wireless equipment. The commission has been allocating existing bands. Obstacles that are hampering the ability of providers to serve americans. On another topic, as chairman pie noted, its in the early stages of impacter brought casters that impacting broadcasters that didnt participate or one once selected in part of our process to allocate broadband spectrum for analysis. Well, the new wireless services. While the commission will need to scan and review broadcast estimates. It does appear there may be a need of Additional Resources from congress. Accordingly, the subcommittee should keep a close eye on the repacking estimates and may want to initiate a legislative drafting process soon. Certainly, if it is determined that additional funding is needed to complete a successful repack, i would support such action and help in any way. This concludes my testimony. This concludes the testimony portion and we will now move to the questions. Recognizing by myself for five minutes. As many of you have said, we have seen in these Opening Statements, there is an ongoing dispute about the impact of title ii reclassification on investment. We hear it doesnt hurt, we have heard it does hurt. One thing we can all agree on is that an investment is the key to massive broadband deployment. We need this to connect to all americans. It affects education, it affects health care, as mr. Hybrid mentions, it affects Economic Development and the creation of jobs. An analysis by a consultant 130100d that we need 50 billion. Private investment is critical but i fear we have put a kink in the investment with title ii. As i noted in my opening, we are seeing decreasing Capital Expenditures by our largest broadband providers. Some of my colleagues continue to contend to otherwise based on different studies measuring different parameters. Senator marquee continued that no publicically traded isc has reported to its investors that title ii has negatively impacted their networks. But chairman pie, have you seen any impacts title 2 is having on broadband providers . We have seen evidence raised that suggests concerns these changes have impacted infrastructure and investment. We have culled the 10ks of those isps. Each of them has suggested these title 2 regulations do in fact represent significant risk with the business going for. Additionally ive heard from myself amongst smaller providers these rules have impacted Infrastructure Investment. I held a round table just a couple of weeks ago in maryland where cable told me that the exquisitely pulled back on one phase of the broadband deployment because of these rules. We want to test the propositions which is why we have opened proposed rulemakings so we can figure out what the facts are. Thank you for that. I chuckled a little bit, the new , ik times had a article think it was this weekend, saying that infrastructure is fast becoming an afterthought. They want to talk about broadband more than anything else, and they dont care how they get it. Mr. Chairman, you were kind enough to come to my district, and this was something we had planned last fall and executed in february and did a broadband seminar. You talked about some ogthf some of the things the commission is doing to make it easier to employ wireless and broadband. Touch on the things that that will helpo ease the way to achieving the goal we all want, which is to have the country serve broadband. Thank you for the question. Two big buckets of reform one involves the subdy programs we over see and other involves regulatory reforms. The first full month as chairman adopted funds to our Mobility Fund to make sure both let and broadband is pushed out to unserved parts of america. On august 3rd were going to be taking those next steps to ensure those happen in a timely way. I setup a Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee in cooperation with other agencies, federal, state, and local can cooperate. Weve taken steps to remote things like the great easier sighting, make it easier to deploy the fiber. These might not be the highest profile issues the agency works on, but in terms of your constituents and i dare say the constituents around the country, this is the number one thing to impact. Thank you for that. Now, i will just note the repack we think is also important as we look at the broadband deployment and the estimates have been filed and the process has started. We need to get some time for that to play out. We will be watching the the repack to make sure it is done efficiently. At this time i yield five minutes to the Ranking Member mr. Doyle for questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Cliver let me ask you regard to the opening internets and comments coming in. You talked to people, what gives you pause in repealing the rule . What gives me pause is hearing what they say they need and what the internet enables. In our conversations a lot of times we only talk about one part of the equation. But if youre really talking an equation, youre really talking about two parts. What is the investment, what do people need, and what they can afford. So we really need to talk about what this investment means in the communities, what expectations they have when they start their businesses in l. A. And what im hearing from people is they want options, access and opportunities. They want to be protected by an agency that im afraid right now is turning their back on. Thank you. Commissioner, riley what would cause you to oppose . As i said, i previously expressed my thoughts on the issue at length. Im looking to the record to determine if anything changes my mind. Im looking at substantive comments over so give me an example of a substantive comment. Economic analysis and real evidence of harm to the consumers versus some of the material ive been getting on the comments so far. People talk about 12 million comments. Many many of those comments are empty and devoid of any value in my opinion. Im sure there are a few empty, but i hope you will go through those comments and well hold you to that analysis. Chairman pie, the same question for you. What kind of comment would cause you to change your mind and not go forward . I think, congressman, as commissioner riley point udout pointed out, if theres economic analysis, if theres credible evidence of these of an open internet and without them theres no way theyd be able to thrive that americas internet economy would suffer, that is some of the evidence we take syriza. Thatis part of the reason i said in my confirmation hearing that we do not want to issue to simple declare that these rules would be void. We wanted to have a full and fair process to ensure that we heard those voices. I hope youre looking at that. I will hold you to that analysis. And i hope that as these comments are coming in, and 12. 3 million comments at least in the time ive been in congress, is more Public Comment then ive seen on any other issue before the fcc. Im certain amongst them are the type of analysis. I hope you Pay Attention to them. Question, you another mr. Chairman. It seems to me that the analysis you cited about isp investment seems to be onesided. You talk about broadband investment by as peace isps of thes an indication health of the marketplace. The thesis of an open Internet Order was to promote this Virtuous Cycle of innovation and online. Why arent you talking about edge providers, the investments theyre making and the jobs theyre creating . I appreciate the question, congressman. Everyone there is a free and open internet. The great challenge, however, is theres millions of americans and ive visited them, on the wrong side of the divide. They are not getting the access they need to be able to participate in the digital economy. To the extent that these rules are impacting infrastructure, my fear is that those votes will be left out of some of the benefits that we get in terms of better education and health care and the like. Theset to understand how rules are impacting infrastructure and investment. Along with that, one of the effects of greater Infrastructure Investment on those types of companies, weve been to places in kansas. Farmers ando, fishable, virginia, i saw the you can have of treating a broadband patient before they arrive to the hospital. And these are critically important. Those Core Investments in the network are critical if every american is going to be able to thrive in the 21st century. I see my time is expiring. I hope we have time to submit more questions for the fcc response. The gentlemans request is noted. Thank you. I now recognize the chairman of the full committee, mr. Wallbman. Thank you for enlightening us with your comment and testimony. Chairman pai has talked about continued Net Neutrality. Are you opposed to open net nutrality . Chairman, ive said that i agree with it. Do you oppose it . I am not opposed to net trutrality but using the strongest legal tools at our exposes disposal to uphold it. I support an open internet. I determined that the neutrality means somebody Different Things at this currently the definition point. Means that every packet has to be treated identically, and that to me is not supported by the current activities of the internet. I dont support that definition of neutrality, no. I guess one of my questions are replied comments are due fairly soon. Chairman pai, you expect to act quickly once the record closes . What are your thoughts in terms of time lines, not decision. Mr. Chairman, were going to move as promptly as we can. But but we are bound by the administrative procedure act to find substantial evidence for whatever conclusion we reach. And we are going to review the record fully and fairly to make sure we reach the appropriate judgment. Were more concerned of getting it right then getting it done quickly. In terms of getting more transparency in the process of the fcc, making more of what you do more public sooner so more people can participate in the process we all value. Are there issues in this graph draft that we are looking at . We put this out for all of my colleagues. We put it out well in advance so we can gets input and make it bipartisan. Hopefully there are bipartisan issues in it. Do you care to comment about what were putting forward and your thoughts on it and how it might be affected by implementation of these changes . I think theyre largely improvements on the way the fast does business. The fcc does business. I find myself broadly in support. I think theres bipartisan agreement on relaxing the sunshine act restriction. I love to see them together at the commission more often so we can collaborate in ways that benefit the Public Interest and the fccs decision making. Thats been a bipartisan piece of this discussion draft i think all along. Mr. Cliver, you wish to comment on some of this . I know things have shifted at the committee since the last time we rock as a. Brought this up. I am more in favor of transparency, i am more in favor of us doing this especially. Ive been doing this for a number of years. Im in favor of us being able to talk about things building up to this. And enhances transparency decisionmaking. Do you support that . We are still in a evaluation mode. So far, i have not heard any major complaints. I support the legislation draft legislation has been put before us, i think i put 50 new ideas in my testimony, they could be included if youre so inclined to do so. Think the reform is valuable, i would go further. I am not trying to criticize the provision. I dont know how often we would use it. I appreciate the things like lacking that has been in our decisionmaking for so long. I think it is a very important step for the committee. If i could add one observation. One caveat i would add is that Enforcement Matters for due process. It is sometimes impractical for us to publish a decision in advance of a boat. We are in terror of transparency but there are different considerations when it comes to lawEnforcement Matters. I realize my time has expired. We appreciate your suggestions, your counsel and how we might get this right, that is what we want to do, make the fcc do grow model for good transparent public process. Mr. For one for five minutes. Ive to questions, one to you chairman and want to commissioner clyburn. Numerous desiccant have detailed influenced the broadcast group. There has been speculation that the top initiation has been in touch with your office. I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to this. Question, nothe one in the white house or the administration has made any representations to me about any fcc procedure relating to the company. Have not asked me to take any particular action or express views on the merits. What about the press accounts that have detailed how your policies have benefited Sinclair Broadcast Group . Did you want to respond to that . I would be happy to do so. If you look at any of our regulatory actions, we are not behind any particular company. We are meant to take a view of the marketplace as it stands in the law as it has been written by congress. It is a Pretty Simple matter. I pointed out a year and a half ago that to the extent that the agency considers the discount reforms, they have to consider the national cap. Im not proposing what it should be or what the national cap should be. The point is that the two go together. One cannot consider one without the other. I plan to file comments at explains howc that the neutrality is essential to protecting free speech online and creating jobs across the country. The gop and the members of the commission focus on the Legal Authority of the fcc, but in my opinion ignore the benefits of Net Neutrality, that would be lost if it is repealed. I think it details potential costs of regulations without mentioning these benefits. So i jus want to ask you if you could tell me what in your opinion benefits exists with strong Net Neutrality protectionsats fcc and what would be lost with repeal . In terms of the benefits, when you have a Small Business owner that might be worried or about whether her website or experience would be throttled or negatively impacted, thats the type of uncertainty that no Small Business should worry about when it comes to the most enabling platform of our time. When it comes to people being able to access, you know, a Health Care Website or their health care professional, for anybody to wonder whether or not some traffic would be favored one or the other, that is a very unsettling. When we talk about strong, open internet rules what were talking about is the capacity for all of our communities, all of our businesses, all of our individuals to have access, to be better thems, to be Better Business owners, to have access to content that will be able to educate and inspire. Its very important for the rules of the road to be clear, for people to know that theyre protected or this platform toby open and free and transparent. If not, youre going to have bottlenecks that will throttle experiences and throttle economic and other opportunities. Well, thank you so much. Let me go back to the chairman since i have time for a third question. Last week i introduced the viewer protection act, and this bill would provide extra funds for the incentive action repacking process to make sure consumers dont lose access to the local stations they rely on. I also appreciate your statements that you believe Congress Needs to act to provide additional funds to this effort. Now, one issue in my bill that i think has been over looked is making sure consumers are properly educated about the process and what they need to do to keep their signal. Im particularly concerned about communities that rely on the foreignlanguage stations. Can you explain your plans to make sure consumers know how to keep their signal . I guess you have 20 seconds, but well see. Thank you for the question, congressman. First and foremost i commend you for that legislation. Youve tackled the issues of viewers around the country. The fcc has not been allocating funding by congress specifically for that function. We obviously want to do as much out reach as possible to let people know if theres going to be a channel reassignment or others to impact to view their station of choice. We would be happy to work with you and your staff on your bill Going Forward. Thank you, thank you madam chairwoman. Gentleman yield back. Vicechairman lance youre recognized for five minutes for questioning. Thank you, very much madam chair. Regarding the 2015 internet rules, your opinion, i think theres at least one matter of which we should be able to agree. That a legislative fix is possible to pingponging we have seen play out recently at the fcc. Anything the fcc has done in this policy space has proven to be temporary, and i dont think thats good Public Policy. I believe a vast amount of the agencys scarce resources have gone into this issue for the last 10 years or so. And so to the chair and to the distinguished members of the commission, i ask each of you the following question. What would provide better sernlt for broadband providers, online users and Internet Users . Continuing to changing internet regimes or legislation to establish Clear Authority and bright line rules of the road that protects consumers and innovators and encourages investment . Thank you, congressman. I believe better legislation would provide better certaintity to consumers alike. I believe we have already had certainty. I believe wave already followed the guidelines. Title 2 has been up held by the courts. And if i might followup, you dont favor any amendment of title 2 in this area . I will reserve judgment on that. I will favor anything that will improve and enhance our ability to connect america. Was title ii initiated in the 1930s . Youre probably right. I get a d minus for not knowing the answer to that precisely. Ill get that back to you. If you get a d minus, im probably at the level of f. We will Work Together on that. Rules of the road need to be clear. They cant be that if we have a general conduct standard. So i think that legislation is the only way to draesds this issue. Commissioner oreilly, has there ever been a definitive ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States on this issue . No, there has not. Is that the consensus of the commission that this has not been fully addressed by the Supreme Court . Roughly ten years age, a little more than ten years ago, yes. Given the response of the members of the fcc and of course i hope there will be a full complement of commissioners, i think we should continue to pursue this question because i think the public deserves certainty in this area as do those in the community but certainly in my judgment this is paramount for the American People. Another issue, chairman pai, it is critically important the United States wins the race by g o 5g. P a recent report has suggested that 5g will have increased gdp. Im concerned other contraz may get their first including china, japan, and even the eu, a series of countries. In your opinion how important is it to make sure the United States wins the race regarding 5g . It is absolutely critical, congressman. I do think americas internet economy has demonstrated itself over the years to be the most innovative. But 5g heralds the most special ability when it comes to high broadband applications and low bandwidth applications. We want those companies and technologies to develop in the United States. Those are high quality jobs that could develop across the country. And we are focused on securing that prize as best we can for the United States. Thank you. Commissioner clyburn, your thoughts. Im looking forward to working and continuing to do thingsane an expedited manner. Do things in a expedited manner. We need to mike sure no part of this country should be out of what the opportunities 5g has to offer. Thank you madam chair. Mr. Wells, you are recognized for five minutes. I have five minutes, and i have three points. One about the open internet. Number two broadband and number three the rural fund. Just to comment on the open internet, everybody says theyre for the open internet. The question i have is why change the existing regime where everyone agrees there isnt an existing open internet . A lot of folks in the public are concerned that that wont be the case. Thats a question i think the proponents of change have to answer, why change it . Second, Rural Broadband, chairman pai as you know its incredibly important to those of us in vermont, working with mr. Kramer as well, to have open internet. In the promise of the 1996 act has been broken. Rural internet is not the same speeds and the same capacity as we have in urban areas. Theres now a potential opportunity with the repacking in the white space as youre aware. And theres a challenge, because we want to make sure that our broadcasters have signals that are strong and they dont suffer interference. But there are many now who are seeing that this white space is a technological development, it provides an opportunity for inexpensive build out in effect of broadband. The question i have for you is are on that and where fcc is on that. Anything we can do to get that broadband out and the deployment is a financial issue, i want to do. Can you address that . Absolutely, congressman. I share your ethos as you addressed it im talking white space now, though. Were still notice early stages of study. Just a couple of weeks ago i visited microsofts project in virginia. I talked to some of the students about that issue. Were effectively studying it and working with stakeholders to figure out. That is important for america as well. We want to get our tv stations and our local news. We have that space where there is a promising opportunity to build out. Youre going to be aggressive. This fcc will not stand idly by. Since talk to the promises of this in verbal communities and communities where this case cannot be made. I will be a wind beneath that. . Commissioner rally i will say i dont support aside bokoting broadcast stations because a fight between the two and broadcast band, let me just say as ever a person, i am urging you an industry to protect the get into signal to rural areas. It has to happen. Mobility fund, a second issue that is really important to us in Rural America, there is going to be action on that. Chairmanion i have mr. How the on have information is provided, there will be an opportunity for challenge from some of the role providers that can test how the decisions are made . They have to be given an opportunity to do that. Can you assure us that the. Ommission is moving forward it will ensure that the Data Collection process will lead to a coverage map that accurately reflects the current broadband makeup . In that allows for smaller carriers . We need to challenge data that they believe was accurate. Aspiration. Y we hope to get across the finish line. You will let them have a seat at the table to challenge . Family colleagues. That is the goal. I are my colleagues, that is the goal. Ive been pushing for a robust open challenge process. It is important for that information to be granular. We have been pushing for that. My last four seconds, i want to say thank you to commissioner clyburn. I would concur with that, why dont we give commissioner oreilly the opportunity to answer the question . Im giving you the question to allow him to answer. Back entleman yells yields back. As you have shown, there are so many questions and so little time to deal with what you all do on a daytoday basis. Im going to pick a few. First of all, it is no surprise to chairman pai. Thisve talked about between ourselves for the last couple of weeks. There was a grant Program Designed but never initiated by the fcc. We all know that money is needed but what else can be done to help move next generation 911 forward . We are grateful for the promise of ng 911. Tennessee with chairman blackburn. Delivering functionality that traditional 911 calls dont have. We at the fcc are broadly supportive of any efforts we can take to promote ng 911. It is an ipbased technology. We are encouraging the transition away from the old fddi networks toward ipbased networks and it is vital. Without this, they dont have the money themselves to punch that transition and they will be left in the lurch. That is the number one thing we can do. We can work with members of the community to see if there is legislative tools that we can support. Lax we know there was a Grant Program authorized but never initiated. We need to find out if that is an issue. I do think that the community is struggling to try to get to where they want to be. 911 is of the essence in world. Let me go to commissioner oreilly. We have had subcommittee hearings, the buzz is that there may or may not be an infrastructure built. That if always say there is and if a structure built, broadband and the climate areas that are identified appropriately to a good mapping system should be aided and assisted. Direct funding to help deployment, what would be your vision on how that could best work . Tothe committee should look run aghcost program, i universal service. We had an nti program. I think those programs were suspect and had a lot of difficulty. We had difficulties on our universal services. Minimizeeen trying to the amount of subsidy needed to target the funny stretches as far as possible. That is a valuable way to go. Monsieurut not least, commissioner clyburn, i appreciate your passion. Can mobile broadband though some of the gaps in unserved areas . Can youyou see follow what is coming next to that a lot of us do . If not, is that coming around soon . Ini mentioned that i was representative johnsons district. Mobile broadband is necessary on those roads where i did not have service. Especially in those households where they can only afford a connection. Mobile broadband is it has to be front and center. That is why we are moving to the next phase of a fund. We cannot drop the ball when it comes to legacy. There are certain things you cannot do on this. It is a common to the entire telecommuting since Health Medications ecosystem. Telecommunications ecosystem. I want to address a bill that we passed through here which addresses the call completion problem that occurs, it is really addressing more accountability than just advisory. What is your position on that bill . Support say that i do efforts to give the Commission App authority to tackle all parts of the problem. Does anyone else want to comment on this question mark this . There is a lot of variables there and a couple of players there. When you have two and three and between making that call and completing the call, that is a problem we need to fix. The reason this exists is because of some of our old antiquated rules. Thank you to all of you for being here today, this is always pretty fascinating. A lot of us on this committee are obviously very concerned about wireless and rural areas, broadband, all of those issues. I want to say one thing, before i ask questions, this is not just a urban issue as you all know. These things are tied together. In iowa, and vermont or whatever, if we had an urban hospital that wants to do telemedicine, with rural areas, it is great that that urban hospital has sufficient bandwidth to do that. Obviously, if a critical access not, that area is going to be affected as well. That hospital cannot connect efficiently with those people. Urban,ot just rural and those areas are tied together. I think we often forget about that. We just think in rural terms or urban terms. Everybody is in this together. That is my speech for today. Now i have questions. I was the original drafter of the Rural Wireless act. We had plenty of issues about mapping and figuring out what areas are covered and which areas are not. That legislation would require the fcc to establish Service Definitions on wireless coverage in an reliable and efficient way. We can all agree that that has not been the case in the past. I was down at the fcc has recognized problems with the data. Where are we with that including any data set . Will it make the requirement of my bill . It is our hope that it is worthy of the legislation. Next week we will be voting on some of the steps. It has been a difficult process but we have a decision to make, do we rely on the data that we have . Do we create a Data Collection . We decided to go down the ladder road. Some of the data we had was not sufficient. We want to make sure that if the map says there is coverage, there is in fact coverage. If the map says there is not, we direct them toward funding for those areas. Can we get a commitment that whatever you come up with will meet the requirements of my bill . Recently,norville certainly, in the spirit of it, i have not seen your bill recently. In the spirit of it, we will look into it. We are just looking for it to be robust, and standardized. That is what we are asking for. That is what we are voting for on august 3. Howchallenge is what do you get providers to come to a uniform manner. How do we my notes and how do that . Dmeld and fix i represent the southeast part of the state, i have no doubt that when you are andeling between sioux city southwest minnesota, you probably ran into some issues. It was incredible. How many times i had to mention to my colleague that we are just going to have to talk. We have the inability to check emails, is really a gap. That was just inconvenience. Patientif you are a who has to make a 911 call. Those are the connections that really do matter. Not just professional interest for me, it is my colleagues with personal interest. I agree with the work that we will do. We would pushing for greater data. I think it is very important. I want to get this bill passed. To get it passed and signed into law by the president. I think there is very significant partisan support for this. It is not just a borough areas but the connection to the urban areas as well. It is actually critical. Becky to all of you, i yield back. Thanks to all of you, i yield back. Chair. K you, madam thank you to our distinguished panel. It is always great to have you here. If i could start my questions with you commissioner oreilly, i want to thank you for showing interest in coming out to my district to speak to our people. I think it is important that people back home understand that the people of the fcc are listening to their concerns. I recently introduced a bill that would require the fcc to documentsescribe all beforevailable. 4 hours action is taken. This will ensure that the commission is appropriately delegating items and not passing the decisionmaking to other cases where items pose new and novel questions and policy. I am pleased to see that my will has been included in my discussion draft. , ied on your statement believe you agree with this policy but however in your testimony, you mentioned that this division could go further, would you mind expanding on the ways in which we could improve the language in the draft . An identification of notification. The commission is required to tell people which is a step to improvement. Is a second part of the question we should get to. Whether you are we as a commission get an opportunity to vote on those items. I was commissioning one of every nine items. Eight out of every nine items were being delegated. Way thato do this in a does not delayed items delay the items. Melded to find a way to both part of the equation. We need to do it in a timely matter. I think that would help frame the issue a little better. I want to thank you for coming out to my district a couple of years ago to meet with telecoms. You understand that the issue that we all have out in our borough section of the country. In the Communications Act, it directs the fcc to review these rules. They have been made necessary due to economic competition. Does the fcc specifically consider the impact of the smaller providers . Would it benefit from a review of the entities . As ado think that standalone project, it would be worthwhile for the fcc to think about the impact of our regulations and didnt have to have on Small Businesses. The accounts and others are filling out the paperwork that are otherwise helping them comply with the agencys rules. Let me follow up with another question. Are there other infrastructure highlight the areas where additional already could the needed . Gigabytewould be the opportunity act. It has been introduced. Was go a long way to providing the country with a blueprint for broadband deployment. It would be helpful to have authority for polety wit attachment for highspeed internet access. Making it the law of the land would be extremely helpful. Fourth, i do not know if it requires congress, but we are facilitating greater coordination among federal agencies. Single point of contact at various agencies. That would be helpful. My time is about to expire. Firstgo to the author five minutes. Welcome, mr. Chairman. I hope the next time we meet that we will have a full commission. It is important that you are here. I have an observation. Curiosity that i raise this. Very chairman and asked the commissioners if they supported Net Neutrality. Withone said yes additional comments. , your chairmanship rests on the altar of unraveling Net Neutrality as we know it. Respect, i do not think it is a credible statement for you to say that you supported because everything that i have read about what you to unravel netse neutrality. It is easy to say i am against blocking and throttling. Who is going to enforce that . Observation but i think it is important to place on the record. I have raised this in previous hearings when they bring up the economic case and the chilling of investment in our country because of the sanctions that are part of title ii that were applied to Net Neutrality. Heldow that publicly ceos andd very there ceos have to be truthful. I cannot find anything in any where a ceostates ii,said because of title there is a chill on the investments of the company i represent. Are you going to compare their statements made by executives to their shareholders which i said have to be truthful with the comments that are filed by the same companies . We are going to test all of the facts in the record. I am asking you a specific question. Are you going to take the comments from the ceos and compare them with the comments they placed to the fcc . Those are in the record. We will look are you going to compare and contrast them . [speaking simultaneously] what is important to note is a recent poll found that 70 of voters across the country think the internet has improved. We are talking about every one that is a part of this system. I think that is being overlooked. It is disturbing that you have refused to comply with the request asking for the text of 47,000 Net Neutrality complaints filed with the fcc. I think you are being selective about what you are wanting to hear. Count. Nt that is your prerogative. I do not think saying im for Net Neutrality is a credible statement. Russiano raise rt, television, but they changed the name so people wouldnt know who they were. They are operating in our country. I did not understand your response. Can you tell us what your commitment is to do from the commission because both in a classified setting, the Congress Heard the Intelligence Community speak to it in the deep isssified Public Document it replete with references to rt america. They are operating in our country and i would like to know if you believe they are spreading propaganda in our country. The question is with respect to the sponsorship identification. Those rules apply to broadcasters. To the extent that rt is paying broadcasters i want to know what you believe the fcc can do. Sponsorship the rules to the respect are you prepared to do that . We will always enforce our sponsorship id rules. Why havent you begun . It is public realm now. I am not aware have you read the declassified report . I have not. I would like you to read that. The time has expired. Now, we go to mr. Guthrie. Ing. Hank you for yield friendworked with my over the years on spectrum issues. We hosted a spectrum caucus panel. I want to follow up on some things that we learned and ask you about what is in the pipeline. Work, then to your notice of inquiry is the Commission Also looking at reallocating their bands . Are there additional bands that you are looking . Thank you. There are no republicans or democrats, just people interested in the future of wireless innovation. [indiscernible] we are actively studying that issue to figure out if there are ways to allocate large swaths of spectrum. We are not content to rest on our laurels. We have focused on 3. 7 and 6. 4 gigahertz that we have opened up for the public to tell us if there are other bands. Holistic asto be as we can be. That is the best way to give internet tools. Statutory deadlines this is a notice of inquiry. We cannot proceed from a notice of inquiry to final rules. We are hopeful for wireless consumers that we can identify areas of consensus. Goo. Ank you you have been vocal about deficiencies. The commission is looking at whether to change the rules regarding licensing, the licensed tier. Licenseth of the both of those functions need to be changed. We are looking at doing that. Hopefully we will be able to look at that. My goal is to have that completed by the end of the year. We want to create the rules of the road. What should we avoid . Foremost, give the fcc the flexibility it needs. Urge the fcc to set up an auction process. The fcc has the tools that it needs. In rurald my proposal areas. If this is being allocated to a private entity, that private entity uses it. I have to build on that and ensure that we have expectations are being met by those who went the right [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [indiscernible] it will indeed give persons regardless not just the big players. That is important. Those in your communities who want to serve a smaller print print they should be able to do so. Can i kind of change a little bit . Success ofer it a allowing spectrum to be available. We impose the number of policies that probably were problematic. That should not have been included in the first place. You will see that there is a differential. Yields. Entleman programs help families, schools, and libraries get connected. Have taken issue with the actions you have taken. One troubling area is the attack on lifeline, a program that americans count on. The small amount of support can make a huge difference. Parent can stay in touch with a school or a job application. Administration, the fcc made progress to start the process of reforms. As part of their 2015 lifeline modernization order, the fcc begin the process of creating National Verifier eligibility. This is an important check on a system. Us with aprovide status update on where the sec is with regard to the verifying . The National Verifier is not scheduled to be running on till later this year and it is not scheduled to be operational in until 2019. Of dollars are being wasted because we cannot certify that everybody getting a subsidy is eligible for the program. That is not very much progress. Can you commit. I mean, with quarterly reports. I would be more than happy to do that. Implementingbe this reform so that we can andguard against abuse instead of continuing to attacking lifeline. I know that commissioner clyburn has been a champion of this. What can we do to strengthen lifeline . We can ensure we have the reports needed for us to evaluate. Some of the reports were rescinded. They were not released. It is hard for us to see how we are doing. What are the next steps . Uncertainty is abound. We have nonproviders who spent millions to take part that we approved that no need to apply, you know . Uncertaintyot of and a program that can provide the most is in a state of flux. I hope the commission puts more Energy Behind the program. I share your belief that we need to strengthen localism. Ofhave a strong tradition local broadcasting in sacramento. I know that you have concerns about the fcc decisions on media specifically rolling back the uhf discount. How is reinstating it opening the door for a greater allowidation . It will to withtential licensee under the cloak of darkness to account for 50 of certain license. And that means that you would make the assumption that you are under your cap. Anything obsolete will negatively impact the ecosystem. I would like to give a few minutes thank you for holding the hearing. I want to submit my questions to the record. Just want to register some questions i have. Reach that they would have and the must run content pushing on local media, so thank you very much. Welcome, commissioner clyburn and chairman. My questions concern a spectrum for commercial uses. The auction of 30 megahertz by 2024. Adequate . Ny megahertz and the fccgress due to identify additional bands that could be made available . Constant in the Wireless World is change. A fully anticipate that 300 megahertz, innovators will find applications. We want to pursue as many as possible. Said, we are thinking as broadly as possible. To the extent that congressional , weority might the helpful would be happy to exercise that authority. Repercussions what is going to happen . Significant. If you are a Health Care Provider in a rural area, Wireless Connection might be necessary. That requires spectrum. All of these things depend on wireless spectrum. Up. Nds on the network go one of the things is we are working with our federal partners to ensure that we are on the right track. We are talking about and all of the above approach. I know the momentum is there. We need to sure up the Public Public partnership. Oni have been putting hard millimeter wave band. Agency spectrum fees opportunity cost. Make a mechanism that they would realize it in their budget right now there is no cost and that keeps that bottled up. That would be one mechanism. This would establish an office of economics and data within the fcc. Do you support this office in the statute . How can they do a better job with rulemaking . I strongly support the creation of this office. It has struck me that there is a dedicated office. There is an office of engineering technology. When it comes to economics, the economists are sprinkled throughout the agency that in pairs our decisionmaking good and makes it difficult for us to recruit the best and brightest. We are able to create this office in a way that inspires big picture thinking. We should keep it in the building. We can all agree on the benefits. About thear facilities which can take years. Doing and what more can it do how can fcc . Ess help the the chairman outlined a number of things we are already. Oing hopefully, we will conclude those. Anything that congress can do to clarify the statute is welcome. We have Broad Authority in this space. Thank you. Right on time. You. Ank i want to think the chairman and commissioners for being here. The fcc is responsible for a and irray of issues welcome the opportunity to discuss them. I want to talk about broadband deployment. One of the most important tools used in his that connect america deploying helps make and maintaining Broadband Internet possible in remote areas. Mecca,re areas like coachella, and thermal, where it is a rural area where we also have some tribes or a tribe that weo exists in that area and know that there are some classrooms in the Coachella Valley unified district with no access to internet way teachers have to print out a Youtube Video and show them as slides so that the kids can get the information. Also, the Coachella Valley district provides every student and ipad or tablet to boost achievement and narrow the design. When i grew up, we had dilapidated books. Broadband deployment across the region remains spotty at best limiting the ability of students to take advantage of the technology. Ofrote to the fcc in favor Frontier Communications proposal to acquire verizons networks to support their commitment and working together to utilize the connect america fund to deploy highspeed internet in those underserved areas in my district and i urge the fcc to support efforts to deploy broadband in my communities and to hold frontier accountable to their commitments to closing the Digital Divide through their acceptance of connect America Funding and so my first question are you committed to ensuring all connect america Fund Recipients are filling the responsibilities . Absolutely. How are you going to monitor . Upfront, we have required the recipients to build down 40 of their territory by the end of this year. We require reporting obligations throughout. On the backend, there is accountability. We will this is a Critical Program for the people and families but millions of Americans Still lack access to broadband. My next question is about addressing the challenge and the lack of diversity in media programming. , it isnt about statistics is about children who deserve to see their stories and their communities and experiences and culture per trade on the screen in a positive light. It is about giving our young people more role models. When they believe they can dream they, our nation reaps the benefit. I believe we need to see Real Progress and change and we need to improve diversity of the decisionmakers at the top. Andave seen several mergers the evolution about how people consume media content. We must ensure that it is not diminishing. The fcc has a responsibility to take Public Interest into account into determining whether to approve a proposal. Mind,riefly if you dont does the fcc consider diversity mergers . Ewing proposed that is a factor. You has been a champion for this issue in the past. How can congress improve diversity on and off the camera . One way is through ownership. Stamping every merger is not going to help diverse vacation. Workcubator program will extremely well. We could relax our ownership obligations. Those are ways that we could infuse and diversify the marketplace. I look forward to working with you both. Commissioner oreilly, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, [indiscernible] there was debate about the bidding restrictions spent a side on inspection screens. Can you say with confidence whether the restrictions applied increased participation . I cannot with all honesty say that they increase participation. They decreased participation. The restrictions decreased participation. A spectrum for particular bands for particular licenses for particular winners. I think that was harmful to the free market and they did not generate as much as it possibly could have. I can delete the second part of my question. You have answered that. This is for everyone. Netflix is the largest paid Television Service in terms of subscribers and has a content budget of 6 billion. Amazon prime, which offers premium and exclusive video programming, will soon see its subscriber numbers pass those of traditional Pay Tv Services such as cable and satellite combined. Alphabets youtube now offers a Pay Tv Service with programming no different than traditional cable and satellite to 35 of american households. My question is this. Do our communication laws and fcc regulations recognize and account for these new and Competitive Services . Chairman pai good question, congressman. I dont think they do. Part of the reason is that the laws have been frozen in place for a while. Thats why i think it would be helpful to have additional authority, for example with respect to forbearance, it would allow the agency to modernize our rules to recognize some of those revolutionary changes you identified. Rep. Long ill repeat the last part of the question for commissioner clyburn. Do our communication laws and fcc regulations recognize and account for these new and Competitive Services . Commissioner clyburn i would say yes and no. You know, we recognize part of the reason why you can mention all of those companies is the fact that we have an open internet, an open and vibrant ecosystem. I dont think we should discount that. That is very important. You would not have been able to say those alphabets, literally, several years ago. So i think we need to concentrate on that as much as, you know, recognizing that maybe we need to retool and continue to evaluate rules that are on the books. Rep. Long ok. And commissioner oreilly, again, do you or excuse me, do our communication laws and fcc regulations recognize and account for these new and Competitive Services . Commissioner orielly i would agree with my colleague and say yes and no. In terms of sorry, sir. Rep. Long thats all right. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. [laughter] commissioner orielly ok. In terms of title vi, i dont think it reflects the current marketplace. Thats what generally governs our video services. I think the law is out of the sorts with that. I think in our media ownership, we are required to look at those things and required to look at the broad ecosphere and whats happening in the marketplace. So that does, i believe. We did not do that in the last go around in the media ownership, the quadrennial review. The law does in some places, in other places it doesnt. It should be modernized. Rep. Long thank you. With that, mr. Chairman, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Mcnerney, five minutes. Rep. Mcnerney i thank the chair. Chairman pai, within two weeks of becoming chairman, you rescinded the fcc white paper on cybersecurity risk reduction, as well as the notice of inquiry on the 5g Wireless Network and device security. You then moved to stay the Data Security provisions of the broadband privacy rules. Meanwhile, we have seen more unsecured devices come to market and an increase in the attacks surface and the Largest Online Ransomware Attack in history. Im puzzled that you arent taking the agencys responsibility in the area of cybersecurity more aggressively, given that your own agency was attacked, was the victim of a denial of Service Attack. Please answer with a simple yes or no. Will you commit to working with the committee to use your authorities to protect consumers against the growing cybersecurity threats . Chairman pai yes. Rep. Mcnerney chairman pai, on may 7, after an airing of john olivers program that outlined the fccs efforts to roll back Net Neutrality, the commissions electronic comment filing system went down. The fccs chief Information Officer alleged that the agencys internal analysis found the website was hit by multiple ddos attacks. I find it troubling that the fcc could not produce any documentation on these attacks when asked to do so. Please answer with a simple yes or no. Will you commit to turning over to this committee any reports, requests, memoranda, and server logs related to this incident so we can get to the bottom of what happened here . Chairman pai congressman, ill have to consult with the i. T. Staff and the attorneys to see if there are applicable technical or legal prohibitions or restrictions on doing so. But to the extent i can share information with you and the committee, i would be happy to do so. Rep. Mcnerney you commit to that . Chairman pai yes, sir. Rep. Mcnerney what is the answerings protocol Going Forward for documenting ddos attacks . Chairman pai we consistently work with the staff to monitor the situation. They work with cloud providers to ensure they are able to scale up as necessary to address challenges our system might have. Im happy to say theyve been able to do so very successfully, judging from the voluminous comments weve received to date. Rep. Mcnerney so well have better visibility then, in future potential attacks . Chairman pai sorry. In terms of rep. Mcnerney what happened. What the attack consisted of. Chairman pai yes, as i pointed out in the letter to senators wyden and schotz, we outlined some of those facts and would be happy to produce it to the committee as well. Rep. Mcnerney the republican member of this committee sent you a letter asking that the fcc protect consumers privacy by using its authority under sections 201 and 202 of the Communications Act. Please answer with a simple yes or no. Since receiving this letter, has the commission taken any enforcement action or issued any guidance for using section 201 or 202 to protect consumer and broadband privacy . Chairman pai not to my knowledge. We are still studying that issue, the letter that was sent over. Rep. Mcnerney does the commission have any plans to use 201 and 202 to protect broadband privacy . Chairman pai the Enforcement Bureau guidance that was issued in 2015 is still in force. Were happy to provide further detail if requested. Rep. Mcnerney thank you. Commissioner clyburn, what broadband privacy protections can consumers rely on today . Commissioner clyburn to my knowledge and interpretation, although i am not a lawyer, none. We have basically gotten out of the business of protecting those online. We have made it clear that in terms of voice, were there for you. When it comes to broadband, that is up in the air. To say the fcc will be your savior, i think is shortsighted in terms of looking at what their authority is. Rep. Mcnerney startups are the key drivers to job creation, innovation, and job creation. I want to make sure startups in my community can continue to expand. How will the current proposals to roll back Net Neutrality protections affect the ability of startups to thrive and compete . Commissioner clyburn i think in terms of the fccs ability to do its job in terms of ensuring there is a way for us to ensure that there is broadband investment, oppose attachments , and other types of conduits. It is questionable right now whether or not we have the authority or the ability to do anything to enable all of that. Moving in the direction which is proposed is going to cause is going to shortcircuit our ability to do the things that america expects. And thats to connect them in an expedited, legally sustainable way. Rep. Mcnerney chairman pai, i understand you feel title ii rules inhibit investments. How can you test in an unbiased way the veracity and universality of your opinion, since the rulemaking is lacking comments on the benefits of the existing rules . Chairman pai congressman, to the contrary, we welcome those comments and we want to test the veracity of the statements made in the 10ks, the studies in the record. That is why precisely why, as i suggested to congressman doyle, we arent proceeding by declaratory ruling, fiating the particular result. We want to hear the conflicting facts, sort through the facts, and make a judgment based on applicable facts and law. Rep. Mcnerney thank you. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Bilirakis, youre recognized for five minutes. Rep. Bilirakis thank you, madam chair, i appreciate so much, and i thank the commissioners for their testimony today. Chairman pai, in past hearings, i questioned your predecessor on his proposal to close various thefield offices, and impact it could have on the radio frequency interference complaint response times. At the time, you were concerned these closures could erode the fccs enforcement abilities. In the closing days of the last administration, the fcc closed 11 field offices, including one in tampa. I represent part of the tampa bay area, i think you know that. In light of these closures, what actions has the fcc taken to ensure that interference complaints continue to be timely addressed . Chairman pai thank you for the question, congressman. Its no secret that i had substantial disagreements with the original reorganization plan that was proposed, because it would have impacted the field, including places like tampa. Going forward, we have tried to the best of our ability to use those resources in the field offices to aggressively attack issues, like pirate radio, that are a problem all across the eastern seaboard. And working with our Enforcement Bureau staff, during my tenure weve issued two notices of apparent liability or forfeiture orders, 39 notices of unlicensed operations. Thats just on the enforcement side. In terms of our rules Going Forward, we want to make sure we take every step we can to put pirates on notice that both the staff of the fcc headquarters and the field Office Enforcement staff are cops on the beat to guard against that problem. Rep. Bilirakis thank you very much. Next question. The commission has done a great job in the last few months bringing cases against scammers who violate the tcpa by making millions of unwanted robocalls to innocent consumers. I think we all agree the robocalls are a substantial Consumer Protection problem. As a matter of fact, you know, i hear about it all the time from my constituents, and even family members. So chairman pai, could you tell us more about the fccs robocall enforcement efforts, and what makes it so difficult to identify these bad actors . Chairman pai terrific question. This is the number one Consumer Protection issue, judging from the complaints we get from consumers across the country. We took that to heart. Out of the box in the first six months, we have already proposed the largest fine ever proposed by the fcc to go after a robocaller in florida who imposed 100 million robocalls in just three months on american consumers. Thats a 120 million proposed fine. Two weeks ago, we proposed an additional fine to tackle another scammer who was essentially enabling others to make similar robocalls. We also set up on the rules side , a were proposing to set up a reassigned numbers database so that those legitimate callers who want to stay in touch with their customers are able to do so free from liability. We also have empowered callers carriers, rather, to take steps to block spoofed calls. These are calls that appear to be coming from your area code or the first three numbers of your prefix but could be coming from another country, somebody masking their identity to get you to answer that phone. Were using every tool in the toolbox we can. But its very difficult. There are a lot of technical challenges. Thats why Going Forward, we have encouraged whats called a Call Authentication anchor. This would enable you to know that if you see a number on your phone, you can be assured it is from the person who was assigned that telephone number. For a variety of reasons that we dont have time to get into, its very technicalically complex to do that. But we have the best and brightest folks at the agency and the industry working together to try to figure out this problem. Rep. Bilirakis very good. Thank you. Thanks for taking that action. Again, it is so important to our constituents. Ensuring that our elderly and disabled populations retain full access to technology is very important to me. And again, we dont want our elderly or any constituents being bothered with these unwanted robocalls, as you know. But on another issue, just this month, the fcc adopted rules to provide more video described programming to blind and visually impaired americans. Chairman pai, can you describe what this will do for visually impaired population, and explain the timeline for implementation of the new standard . Chairman pai thank you for the question, congressman. Im very proud of our work in this area. So many of the things that we talk about when were with our families involve movies or tv shows that weve seen. But imagine if the core scenes in a movie or a tv show required you to understand the nonverbal cues. Those are things that blind people simply cant take advantage of unless they have an audio description of whats going on. Thats why, working together, we advanced more video description capability. That is somebody narrating essentially the critical elements of a movie or film. This is Something Congress gave us the ability to do. Weve exercised that authority to give those with disabilities the maximum chance to participate. Weve done that across a number of different areas, not just on the video side. Are respect to those who deaf or hard of hearing, weve taken a number of steps to ensure they have the ability to enjoy Communications Services as well. Using the tools congress has generously given us, we want all communities to be digitally empowered, especially those with disabilities. I think theis commission for making that a ank the commission for making that a priority, so very important that constituents have access. Thank you. The gentleman yields back. Ms. Dingel for five minutes. Rep. Dingell thank you, chairman, thank you to all the witnesses. I know you like being here as much as going to the dentist. I want to talk about cybersecurity and build on my colleague mr. Mcnerneys questions. I know its important to members on both sides of the aisle. Its really a nonpartisan issue and its something weve got to get right. The distributed denial of Service Attack that the fcc suffered on may 7 is concerning to all of us, especially because the commission has not been very forthright concerning what actually happened. Chairman pai, i do appreciate your response to some of senator wydens questions on this. On this issue and mr. Mcnerneys, but i want to follow up on that. Youve presented your plan to mitigate bottlenecks. Could you talk about this plan in greater detail and would you be willing to update the members of this committee when the plan is implemented . Chairman pai yes is the answer to the second question, congresswoman. With respect to the first, weve worked to ascertain how we can scale up our system to accommodate an enlarged amount of traffic. That is why we now have 12. 3 million comments in the system. Our career i. T. Staff working with our commercial cloud providers have the ability to make sure if we anticipate great in a in interest particular proceeding, we are able to scale accordingly. That process has worked pretty well, as far as i know, over the last several weeks, and hopefully Going Forward it will as well. Well be happy to keep you briefed. Rep. Dingell and let us know if there are problems again, as they occur. Thank you. Chairman pai, in october of last year, the dns provider dyne fell victim to a massive denial of distribution Service Attack. Without diving too deep into the woods, can you give us a quick overview of some steps you are taking to mitigate the risk of this happening again . The threat is only going to grow more and more as more and more devices are connected to the internet. Chairman pai i couldnt agree more, congresswoman. Cybersecurity is a critical issue. It seems we hear a story like that every month if not every week. The problem is that the fccs authority here is relatively circumscribed. If congress would give us additional authority, we would be more than happy to administer it. But as we read the act, we dont have the ability to directly issue, for example, cybersecurity regulations of the type that would address issues like that. Were in a consultative role with the department of Homeland Security and other agencies. I personally have been in briefings at the fcc secure facility where i have been briefed about some of the Cyber Threats we see, i obviously can cannot discuss those in open setting, but i can tell you we are focused on this issue and we would welcome any additional authority. Rep. Dingell i think its great to hear that you are, because ive been worried that its all been shunted off to homeland, and maybe in a session we can work on what you think you need for authorization because i think the fcc has a Critical Role as more goes on. But thank you. Switching gears to another top priority of mine, the Lifeline Program. Its critical to so many hard working americans across the country. Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to get by in the new economy. All of us have constituents like this. And we see them every weekend when we go home. We cant afford to leave americans behind. Im going to ask all of the commissioners this. Do each of you, to each of you, will you commit that you wont take lifeline away from these hardworking americans by artificially limiting the Lifeline Program . Chairman pai congresswoman, im not sure what you mean by artificially limiting the program. Ive said consistently that lifeline is a critical part of the equation to addressing the Digital Divide. Chairman, rod will remain part of the Lifeline Program. Commissioner clyburn i am absolutely concerned about the program. Im concerned about the posture. Im concerned about the rhetoric. If we do not fix it as opposed to criticizing it, then this program will be in jeopardy. Commissioner orielly i have no interest in dismantling lifeline. Im not sure exactly what you mean by your question. Im happy to work with my colleagues. There are a number of improvements that need to be made in this area including having a budget for the program. Rep. Dingell i will expand more on that in questions after. Im going to do a really fast one. Commissioner clyburn, do you think rolling back Net Neutrality would undermine free speech online . Why or why not . Commissioner clyburn absolutely. I think if any outside force is able to influence or limit where you can travel or where you can access online, that is very limiting, not only, you know, to free speech, but other enabling opportunities that you may have. Rep. Dingell one more. As someone with a vibrant Small Business community in my district, i have heard from many of them that rolling back Net Neutrality could undermine their growth in jobs. Commissioner clyburn, why would Small Businesses be so uniquely affected by the rollback of Net Neutrality . Commissioner clyburn because they dont have the power of being able to buy more expanded, Robust Service offerings or faster speeds. We heard from a lady, in congressman johnsons district , that said she lost 300 or 400 a month because of throttling and her inability to enhance and to promote her artwork. These are very real problems that are happening to very real people. If they dont have a level playing field, it will continue. Rep. Dingell thank you, madam chairman. The gentlelady yields back. Mr. Kinzinger, five minutes. Rep. Kinzinger thank you, madam chair, for holding the hearing. To the commissioners, thank you for being here today. Im pleased to see the fcc reauthorization discussion draft includes provisions from legislation i introduced last congress that would require the fcc to publish the draft of any item that is circulating on vote at the commission. Im pleased to see the fcc process reform act included in the bill that i cosponsored with chairman [no audio] priority and im very encouraged by the efforts you have already made. Well it has only been a few months, what benefits have you seen from some of the reforms youve implemented . Chairman pai thank you, congressman. Its been tremendous. The first and foremost reform is a Pretty Simple one, letting the American People know what were going to do at our Public Meetings at least three weeks before we do it. Thats something we have been told for legal reasons we couldnt do or for policy reasons we shouldnt do. But in my second week i instituted that reform. I adopted commissioner clyburns suggestion to accompany those items with a onepage fact sheet that explains in plain english what were doing. The results speak for themselves. People, including members of congress, are able to see the specific details of what the agency is proposing to do. Ill say for myself its made the meetings we have internally about those proposed items much more productive, instead of this game of telephone where one party says we hear that x, y, and z is in the item, can you confirm, and the commissioner or the commissioners staff has to say, well, we cant disclose nonpublic information, but you might be on the right track. Those meetings dont happen anymore because everyone can see what is in it, or if there is a meeting, we focus on the meat of the issue, chairman, youre wrong for this reason, youre right for that reason. Other process reforms have been similarly helpful. We certainly look forward to more of those going across the finish line in the time to come. Rep. Kinzinger good. We have draft legislation that seeks to advance that even farther. Ill start by asking you, and turned to your colleagues briefly. What do you see in the legislation that will be helpful and what tools might we be considering as this legislation advances . Chairman pai a lot of good ideas in the process reform section of the bill. Obviously the creation of the office of economics and data is something im very supportive of. I think it would be helpful to create a culture of big picture economic thinking at the agency , and having congresss support would aid that mission. Making sure we institute more deadlines for Commission Action is something that i would certainly commend to the committees attention. Thats one of the things that we talked about before, is that the agency can accept all these petitions and applications but theres no accountability on the back end because we have no deadline for acting. Having those deadlines, having sunset clauses, and the like, would help our work. As i mentioned earlier, the one caveat is for enforcement actions, it is often important for us not to disclose the content of those actions until after the commission has voted. That is one area where transparency, as important as it is, is countered by restricted by considerations of due process. Commissioner clyburn ill be a onehit wonder and talk about the sunshine rules. I was chair of the universal Service Joint boards. And that was definitely a barrier to communication. So, you know, pushing that ahead is positive to the now current chair. Commissioner orielly thank you. I support the bill. I think theres many good improvements to our process. I think the sunshine, as i mentioned to the chairman of the full committee, that the sunshine changes probably could be broader in my opinion. I think theyre a little limited. But they are improvements, so ill take them. Im not sure theyll be used all that often. I put forward 15 ideas in my testimony that i think could be added to the bill to make it a little stronger. There are things i was pushing when i was a minority commissioner and have advocated since it doesnt matter from the minority or majority. Im worried not about this commission, i think chairman pai has been a great leader in improving the accountability and transparency. But its two, three, four chairmans from now that im worried about. Rep. Kinzinger there are benefits to codifying. Pai,n pie, you chairman you updated us on the auction transition process. You mentioned the 1. 75 billion we provided is insufficient to cover the total cost of repack lightly. You didnt mention whether the 30month deadline will be sufficient to complete the process. Is it too early to tell whether it will be possible to move it all within 39 months . Chairman pai it is a little too early to tell. Thus far we havent yet commenced full analysis of whether the phases will be sufficient. I can commit to this committee that we will keep you apprised promptly of any developments on that front, if we get the sense that that 39 months will not be able to be met. Rep. Kinzinger thank you. Madam chair, ill give you 29 seconds back. Sounds great. Ms. Clarke, five minutes. Rep. Clark thank you, madam chair. I thank our Ranking Member. I also thank our commissioners. Its great to have you hear re before us to answer questions today. My first question is actually to you, mr. Chairman. Its good to see you. Chairman pai you too. Rep. Clark since the close of the fccs broadcast incentive auction in april, youve begun granting license applications, i believe 25 have been granted, including two applications to incumbent nationwide wireless carriers and the countrys largest cable and direct broadcast satellite providers. Of the 24 remaining applications that have not been placed on Public Notice, 13 seek bidding credits as Small Businesses, and 10 seek bidding credits as Rural Service providers. And youve announced in july that youre prepared to pay the winning bidders in the reverse auction. Now that these payments are ready to go out and now that the fcc has largely processed the applications for winning bidders it has previously put on notice, i believe the fcc should now move to be ready to process remaining license applications, many of which are for Small Businesses. Can you tell me what the timeline is for putting the remaining license applications on Public Notice . And how are you prioritizing these applications to ensure that theres timely deployment of these valuable spectrum to consumers . Chairman pai i appreciate your concern, congresswoman, because obviously that is a very limiting step for those winning bidders to deploy that spectrum to benefit consumers. Were moving as quickly as we can. Obviously we want to process those applications quickly. With respect to designated entities, there are particular procedures that the fcc is required to follow in addition to the standard procedures we have to follow for winning bidders to ensure those designated entities are in fact entitled to bidding credits under our rules and the applicable law. We will move as quickly as we can, working through those procedures to make sure they get the spectrum theyve bid for. Well be happy to keep you apprised as things go forward. Rep. Clark im just concerned because the little guys always get short shrift and the rurals always get short shrift. It would be great to flip the is script this time and make them a priority, because the big guys, you know, theyve got the wherewithal to do what needs to be done. Its the little guys were trying to elevate. Chairman pai exactly, and youve got my commitment on that front, congresswoman. Rep. Clark awesome, awesome. This question is for commissioner orielly. The fcc is currently considering whether to approve a new broadband standard, the atsc 3. 0. Im interested in the new services that this standard could bring to consumers, including access to more indepth news on topic, interactive educational programs, and a robust Emergency Alert system. What is the time frame for the fcc action on this new standard, and also, its deployment by broadcasters . Commissioner orielly so i think the chairman may be better to answer timelines on that point. I hope to be expeditious on this. I would like to do it this year if possible. He may be better able rep. Clark this year . Commissioner orielly if the chairman can answer the timeline. Rep. Clark ok. Chairman pai well, done, commissioner oreilly. So we do hope to be able to conclude to improve the new standard if possible by the end of the year. But obviously we want to follow the facts where they take us. And so were studying the record actively. Here, too, we hope to work collaboratively to figure out if we can approve that standard. Rep. Clark were moving down that track. Having said that, i was just wondering whether you would all make a commitment to make sure that no consumer will lose service, no consumer will have to spend any money to keep viewing broadcast channels. Chairman pai yes, congresswoman. As i recall the mprm, its been a few months now, but i specifically remember that most consumers have atsc 1. 0 enabled Television Sets and devices in their homes. So we obviously dont want to make a flash cut to atsc 3. 0 and leave those viewers in the lurch. Rep. Clark good. Chairman pai part of the reason we structured it is you could experiment with 3. 0 as long as the 1. 0 signal is out there and able to be viewed. Rep. Clark wonderful. Recently, two licensees, fiber tower and Straight Path, sought fcc authority to sell spectrum after doing little or nothing with those licenses for many years. If auction consistent with fcc rules, this spectrum would fetch billions of dollars for the u. S. Treasury. Why should the fcc reward fiber tower and Straight Path with private riches for not deploying service to the public . And why should fiber tower and Straight Path collect billions of dollars in payments instead of having to give that money to the u. S. Treasury for the benefit of all americans . Can you guys give me a sense of, you know, whats the deal here . Chairman pai good question. Good question, congresswoman. There are some tricky legal issues were trying to sort out and policy issues as well. Rep. Clark tricky. Chairman pai but obviously, as ive said in response to i believe congressman olson, this is a public resource and we want to make sure it is allocated in a way that benefits the American Public. Rep. Clark awesome. Anyone else have any thoughts . Ok. Very well. I yield back. Thank you very much, madam chair. The gentlelady yields back. Ms. Walters, five minutes. Rep. Walters thank you, chairman blackburn and to our witnesses for being here today. The siting of Wireless Infrastructure is a key component of expanding broadband throughout our nation while creating jobs. In fact, investment in 5g deployment has the potential to create over 2300 jobs in my district. However, Accenture Deloitte and ctia recently found that barriers remain to the deployment of broadband infrastructure. These reports have identified a number of impediments, including a lengthy and indefinite permitting process, or an unwillingness to grant reasonable access to polls or rightofways. In my home state of california, several cities require wireless providers to show gaps in service just to access the rightofway. While one city is asking for excessive annual fees to access the rightofways. Chairman pai, do these issues constitute obstacles to broadband deployment . Chairman pai thank you for the question, congresswoman. In many cases they do. If youre looking to build a new Wireless Network, especially if youre a smaller competitor, you need to be able to deploy that infrastructure in a timely or costeffective way. If you face barriers like that, it can be an obstacle to you getting into the marketplace. Rep. Walters what can the commission do to address these issues . Chairman pai part of it involves the authority granted to us by the Communications Act, sections 233, 332, and to the extent possible, 6409 of the spectrum act. Were looking at different areas like that. Also ive set up, as i mention ed earlier, the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, part of which is setting up model state and local codes for deployment that could address these issues. They will also tee up different barriers to entry like that to see if there are ways to work collaboratively. I have also supported legislation in congress that could help address some of these issues in areas where the commission currently did not currently have the authority. Rep. Walters thank you. Along the same lines, Wireless Infrastructure sitings is necessary to expand broadband deployment. Im hoping congress and the fcc can Work Together to streamline siting procedures. Commissioner orielly, does the commission have plans to review its procedures to ensure that siting applications do not face unnecessary obstacles . Commissioner orielly as the chairman mentioned, we have three proceedings were looking at on this front, one on wire line and two on wireless, one on small cells particularly. Were working on these things aggressively. As he mentioned, he has a new task force, the commission is looking at these issues as well. I just spoke in front of them and participated in their activities. We are aggressively looking to solutions, anything that Congress Wants to add or clarify in our authority would be welcome. But i think we have authority and we should move forward aggressively. Rep. Walters thanks. Specifically, how does the Commission Plan to address siting issues like deemed, granted, and environmental assessments . Commissioner orielly those things are a part of the items that i spoke of and are before us. Were taking comments and making some decisions hopefully later this year. Rep. Walters are there immediate actions the fcc can take to begin laying the groundwork for 5g . Commissioner orielly the two parts, as i mentioned in my testimony. One is making sure spectrum is available, and the second is the piece you and i just spoke about. Were working aggressively on both fronts as hard as possible, i think. Rep. Walters commissioner cliburn, would you share your thoughts . Commissioner clyburn a couple of things you made me think about in asking that question, in a World Without title ii, how would that 253 apply . Thats a concern of mine and should be a concern of yours. And another thing, we need to make sure that local communities do what we can to ensure that local communities have the tools they need to sift through these applications. If you go into Montgomery County right across the border, they have hundreds of applications and maybe just one or two people to sift through them. So not everyone is trying to stand in the way. And so we need to make sure as a collective infrastructure family that we make sure that everyone, you know, has the oxygen they need to move forward. Rep. Walters ok. Thank you. And thank you again for being here. I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Engel, youre recognized for five minutes. Rep. Engel thank you, madam chairman. And welcome to everyone here today. You know, just as a consumer, when im running around, i notice my phone rings much more now than ever before in terms of all these annoying robocalls and, you know, they even have the nerve to be stern with you, we called you last week and you didnt respond, so the average person would think, gee, i did something wrong, and maybe go along with it. When i was first in congress a while ago, we passed a bill which developed a no call yeah no call zone when people , a werent allowed to call. Why can we not exchange that . Are there technical obstacles to developing new standards for call certification . Why cant we have a do not call list like we once had years ago for regular telephones . Anyone who cares to answer. Chairman pai i would be happy to start, congressman. A part of the problem is we have a lot of unscrupulous actors, some of whom are beyond our borders, who find it profitable, frankly, to prey on consumers with the is robo calls with despite thells, fact that they are on a do not call list. This is a major issue for the United States. We need their cooperation in terms of cracking down on some of those call centers that are disobeying our do not call rules. We want to use the authorities we have. Thats part of the reason we set up what is called a do not originate database functionality. Basically if a consumer does not want his or her number used for any purposes other than his or her own, they can tell a carrier , do not place a call if it does not come from me. Thats one complement to the do not call list in time to come. Commissioner clyburn i agree, any proposed rules Going Forward, they dont apply to people who are not willing to abide by them. Thats why we created this task force. We know we cant do it alone at the fcc, we dont have the tools. Were attempting to enable the providers to have more teeth, so to speak, to make sure that they can be a part of fixing this problem. It will be ongoing. And i wish i could tell you next year we would have a different conversation. We might not. But hopefully well be able to move forward. Rep. Engel thank you. Because just as a consumer, running from meeting to meeting, all of a sudden i answer something and its so annoying, and its increasing every single day. Thank you. Commissioner clyburn, let me ask you this. Privacy and Data Security. According to the Identity Theft resource center, last year u. S. Companies and Government Agencies suffered over 1008 a breaches, a 40 suffered over 1000 data breaches, a 40 rise from 2015. They exposed everything from Social Security numbers to login names and passwords. Congress gave the fcc a clear role and responsibility in overseeing our nations commercial networks but theres a growing consensus that were falling behind. So our privacy protections seem to be frozen. Provisions were gutted requiring isps to notify consumers of data breaches. And we might never know the full scope of these breaches because many are undiscovered and underreported. Let me first start with commissioner clyburn. Do you think the fcc should issue rules on this issue . Commissioner clyburn do i think we should issue rules . Im sorry. Rep. Engel yes. On the issue of commissioner clyburn i think we should, i not sure we can. Am i dont know what the impact of the Congressional Review Act is. Im trying to figure out what our next steps are, particularly when it comes to voice, i think its clear, but when it comes to broadband, were increasingly moving to ip. I dont know what direction were headed. Rep. Engel what role should the ftc play . Commissioner clyburn i think a complementary role. When it comes they dont have any type of authority, as my interpretation is, as it stands now, when it comes to common carriers. So as it stands right now, the ftc, i dont see what role they can play in terms of broadband protections. Rep. Engel if we leave regulations up to the states, what happens . Commissioner clyburn i think there are some states that are looking at this that were responsive after the cra. But we would have a patchwork of regulation. I dont think that works well for businesses who have a nationwide footprint. Rep. Engel what are the consequences of leaving Data Security up to the isps . Commissioner clyburn i think uncertainty. I think, again, that hodgepodge. I dont think the American Public would be very comforted to know that depending on who they call or who their provider is and where they go online, they might have Different Levels of expectations or protections. Rep. Engel thank you. Thank you, madam chair. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Johnson, youre recognized. Rep. Johnson thank you, madam chair. And chairman pai, commissioner clyburn, and commissioner orielly, thank you all three for being here today to talk about such an important issue. Chairman pai, a lot of questions have already been asked. But im going to give you an opportunity here to talk more in a broad context. What has the fcc done during your time as commissioner, in the commission, to facilitate the deployment of Broadband Networks . Chairman pai boy, a lot. Weve been pretty busy on this front. Number one, in february we kicked off the process for the connect America Fund Phase ii as well as Mobility Fund phase ii. Next week, we are going to be voting on the next steps to make sure those auctions happen in a timely and effective way. Number two, weve taken a very aggressive stand in terms of modernizing our rules to recognize that broadband deployment is our top priority. We kicked off, for instance, a Wireless Infrastructure item, voted on unanimously, i would add, that would enable the deployment of some of these nuts and bolts of these Wireless Networks in an easy and timely way. We teed up a number of ideas for promoting the deployment of fiber and the other guts of a network that go into the ground and on poles to make it easier for broadband providers to deploy. Additionally, using the discretion granted the chairman, i set up early on a Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee to help us create model codes for states and localities and other issues tee up other issues for the commissions consideration, for us to think broadly about ways to promote broadband deployment. I would also add that im working cooperatively with my counterparts at other agencies. Just this morning, at the most recent meeting of the rural prosperity working group, i had a chance to meet with the secretary of agriculture, secretary chao, secretary price , and others to figure out ways to synthesize our efforts across different agencies to make sure we are delivering Rural Broadband connectivity. Because broadband is not simply good in and of itself. It delivers highquality health care, education precision in , agriculture, job creation, so many verticals that are lacking currently in places like in your district, as commissioner clyburn has seen. Weve been active, but theres a lot more to do. That is why closing the Digital Divide is our number one priority and i hope to work with congress to make that divide a thing of the past by the time were done. Rep. Johnson i appreciate it. I applaud the work that you and the commission are doing now. And im happy to be leading in this effort. Commissioner clyburn, thank you for your testimony on affordable, reliable broadband, specifically as it relates to rural areas, especially those like ohio and my district. I share your goal in that regard. My only regret is that i wish i had known that you were coming to my district, with enough advance notice that we could have participated with you, and your summits and your meetings there. Because commissioner clyburn i was told we called your office. Im sorry if you did not rep. Johnson no, i didnt know anything about it until i read about it in the newspaper afterwards. But if you want to come back again, i would certainly encourage that. Because people in my district know what a struggle it is in our areas without broadband connectivity. Is there an obstacle you can identify for us that prevents a tech company from deploying their own fiber network, so that this becomes less of an issue in Rural American places . Commissioner clyburn as it stands now, making a business case, a very beautiful country and beautiful people, but, you know, its not necessarily in not necessarily the most densely populated region. There are some economic challenges. There are some economic challenges in some of the pockets. So investment is not going to organically flow without a universal service construct. And, you know, you know what i know. Theres some basic things that some of your constituents were talking about, in terms of land line service. When it rains, it literally pours and they dont have connectivity. Weve got a job to do. Were talking about 5g. Theyre talking about Legacy Service that there are issues with. So i look forward to continuing to talk return. Try to work on that cell coverage on 69 and 70, you know, the highways. But looking forward to return. Weve got some very fundamental problems that we need to address. Rep. Johnson i can actually personally relate to some of what you just said. Because living right there in marietta, i live in town, and weve got broadband connectivity. But every time it storms, it goes down. Commissioner clyburn yes, sir. Rep. Johnson the internet goes out. And its a problem. I can only imagine the frustration that the unserved areas of my district face. So i look forward to working with you. Thank you. Commissioner clyburn thank you. Rep. Clark thank you all three very much. Madam chair, i yield back. The gentleman yields back. Mr. Door . Madam chair, i would request unanimous consent to enter into the record a document with a number of quotes from a number of isd executives claiming that the open Internet Order will not affect broadband investment, as well as a report by the Public Interest group free press on broadband investment and online Video Markets that shows investment is thriving under the current rules. Without objection, so ordered. And mike and i have been sitting up here discussing privacy, and Data Security, and solving all of those problems. Arent you all thrilled. [laughter] and i am glad we just are so appreciative of you all taking your time. There are no other members in the queue to ask questions of the panel. So pursuant to committee rules, i remind all members that they have 10 Business Days in which to submit questions for the record. And we do know that there are additional questions that are going to be submitted to you all , as we did miss the hearing we had planned for the first quarter. And then we will ask for your responses within 10 days of receipt of those questions. So there being no further business, committee adjourned. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer tonight, a discussion on the future of data analytics. We will hear remarks from a psychologist and data scientist, talks about the method he developed for analyzing an individuals personality traits based on their social media activities and how those profiles have been used in business and politics. The event was hosted by the Computer Science museum in mountain view, california. You can see it tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan. After that, the naacp holds a discussion on the u. S. Government Justice System. You will hear about the state of the Justice System for people of color, the disparities in judicial outcomes faced by black citizens compared to white counterparts, and what changes need to be made to close such gaps. The event starts at 9 10 eastern, also on cspan. Cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. An attorney who specializes in the foreign agents registration act. He discusses the law and its relevance to the russian investigation. 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They literally got a lot of Young Americans killed, because what general westmoreland denied that the city had been taken it was a fact but he continued to deny it for nearly the whole time the battle was fought and as a consequence, would numberoncede the sheer of enemy forces that were in the city. So small units of marines and troopers were being ordered to heldk positions that were by overwhelmingly superior enemy forces in entrenched positions. Announcer sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. In his weekly address, the president talks about the military and law enforcement. Representative Betty Mccollum of minnesota delivers the democratic address, discussing her partys efforts to improve the economy. Pres. Trump my fellow americans, this past week we have celebrated, saluted, and honored american heroes who have devoted their lives to god, family, and country