Transcripts For CSPAN3 FCC Chair Discusses Communications Policy 20220728

Affordability, and order to ensure all americans get a fair shot at 21st century success. From fighting to protect Net Neutrality to ensuring access to the internet for students caught in the homework gap, she has been a consistent for all. She is a leader in spectrum policy and responsible for developing policies to help expand the reach of broadband to schools, libraries, hospitals, and households across the country. As acting chairwoman she has continued to be a fierce advocate on Consumer Protection issues most notably taking swift action to improve the agencys ability to combat unwanted robo calls. Acting chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel brings over two decades of Communications Policy experience and Public Service to the fcc. Prior to joining, she served as Senior Communications counsel for the u. S. Senate, committee on commerce science and transportation under the leadership of senator John D Rockefeller the fourth and senator Daniel Inouye a. So please join me and welcoming jessica rosen. [applause] we are going to do a little bit of a fireside chat with our chairwoman and we are so excited. I am so excited to be here and i am excited all of you came here. This has been a long time. To see real people, and their eyes. It is pretty glorious. I am glad you all came. From the earliest days in this country, americas libraries have been a force. Increasing access and serving as a gateway to the world knowledge and resources. The internet was a real game changer for libraries. What we see has enabled for tonight with access to highspeed broadband, Technology Devices and platforms and the skills to use them both. But we made progress certainly in our collaborative work in k12 schools, College Campuses and communities across the country. A 2020 Public Library Association Study provides a recent picture of how Libraries Service Digital Equity hubs. The study found more than 88 of all Public Libraries offer formal or informal Digital Literacy programming and more than one third have dedicated Digital Literacy programs and training staff. Last year, ama adopted a resolution in support of broadband as a human rights. We note that universal connectivity requires collective collaborative efforts across all levers levels of government. More action is needed. As the ala resolution also noted communities of color, low income residents, people with disabilities and people experiencing homelessness are more likely to beat without a strong connection to the internet. Many of them left lack of appropriate equipment and skills to access resources. Too many people still lack Affordable Access to broadband and devices that leaves them where they are and supports them in a lifelong learning. As chairwoman, of the federal communications commission, you are certainly one of the most powerful federal policymakers when it comes to Information Access and you have been an ally for so long. Can you tell us what has been your professional past to leadership and what first ignited your interest in communication and your path leading the fcc . Thank you and i appreciate that introduction. Libraries are responsible for good stuff. I will not sit and tell you ever since i was a small child i knew i wanted to run the fcc. It is also not true. I think it is important for people to acknowledge some serendipity in their life and that is probably what brought me to washington. I did not anticipate i would be here more than a few years but i found myself working in the trenches asked the sec as staff fcc as staff. And from there, i went on to capitol hill where i worked for two legislative giants senator from hawaii, and senator rockefeller from West Virginia who is also the father of a program i am sure we will talk about later. I had an incredible time actually. I feel fortunate to have worked for both of them. I learned about legislating, getting things done, and recognizing that progress is but you have to work at its. One of the ideas i went to senator rockefeller with about 10 years after 9 11, if i found there was one outstanding recommendation from a 911 commission, it was this idea we needed to get police and firefighters and Public Safety personnel all operating off the same resources because on that horrible day, we had so many people who wanted to help and they came together from different jury distinction jurisdictions and they cannot communicate. I went to the senator with what might now be called a harebrained scheme, which was maybe we can take some of that spectrum that has been over allocated for broadcasters, have an option and get some revenue and build an entity and make sure First Responders have access and rather than deciding there were probably other things to do that day, he tasked me with trying to work it out. Eventually we were able to convince president obama and his team this is a good idea. It was legislation that passed in 2012 and then i was invited to go to the sec fcc and help implement it where i learned fast that coming up with an idea is one thing but implementing it is something else. I spent time on the sec then. President obama appointed me the chair last year. I am the first woman in 87 years. [applause] i am the first asianamerican president of the not the last. You also have to make up for lost time. Equitable access to information is a bedrock principle of librarianship. That includes much more than books on the shelf. It is access to Digital Content as well. Information only available in a digital format. Access to info is almost impossible without a highspeed internet connection. Access to a device and a Digital Literacy skills, you need all of those things to thrive online. How would you define Digital Equity . There is a definition that is not my own that i like for the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and it goes like this. Individual and Community Communities need to have the technical capacity to fully participate in modern society, our democracy and economic life. I think for that to be true, we need to make sure 100 of us no matter who we are, relive, or where we came from, have consistent and reliable access to broadband. [applause] i would add affordable in there also. Absolutely. Next time i say that. Very good. One of the things that i was very lucky is to spend a little bit of time with tribal libraries during my tenure and now more tribal libraries are eligible for the discount program. That is an enormous success in policymaking. [applause] and thanks to our ala Advocacy Team for making that happen among many others. It is a great way to address digital inequities. Libraries of all kinds, school, public, academics they are positioned right where people most need thats connectivity. Over the past year, i hosted a series of Instagram Live events to learn how individual libraries are connecting and bringing connectivity closer to the communities. I learned a lot. Last month i spoke with Michael Bradley of eugene Public Library. Eugene has 500 hotspots things to the generosity of the eugene Public Library down tatian foundation. A shout out to all of our Library Friends and foundations out there for joining us at this conference. [applause] the story i wanted to convey to our audience and to you today is that the eugene Public Library reserves 200 of those 500 total hotspots or nonprofit organizations in their communities that are serving large numbers of unhoused people in the community. Those hotspots are not just for the clients, they are for operational use for so they can provide Deeper Service for their community. It was a wonderful story. Are there any Library Stories that really stand out to you from the pandemic . There are so many. The work they did with hotspots making their signal available even when doors were closed. I was struck by learning san fran libraries opened for childcare i am a mom and you look at that. It is an amazing thing. When we needed institutions to step up they were there. I am in off of d. C. Residence and the way the d. C. Library libraries have given out covid rapid tests. While those things do not involve technology and connectivity, they are essential connections for the community. By also just a few weeks ago, was in san antonio where i visited the mena branch. The main branch. We sat down with the leadership and librarian and i was really struck by what one of them told me which was he had been a few weeks ago, waiting for a bus and started talking to someone who asked him questions. He was looking for visual cues to make sure you got on the right bus to the right place and he talked to him about how important that was to him to have visual cues and that he was more likely to watch videos than to read. And so this library and came right back to the library and started reassessing everything they had in the community because he said this is the kind of person who might come into this branch. How do we make it more accessible . A library and looking at everything in the world around him in his community and figuring out how to replicate that maximum use in the institution. Librarians across the country do that every day. [applause] one of the things about the eugene Public Library experience is that libraries are really multipliers when it comes to demonstrating potential impact in their communities. You shared so many good stories about how libraries made a difference every day. One of your colleagues refers to libraries being not necessarily First Responders but first informers because they have done so much to bring information to the communicate to the community. Not all Library Services enjoy the level of support that places like eugene Public Library or maybe even san antonio, right enjoy might enjoy. What would you like libraries to know about the fcc and programs that could help them better serve the community . Lets talk about new programs first and then we will talk about boulder. During the pandemic then we will talk about older programs. During the pandemic it was a 7 billion fund we are still working on and it was designed to make sure that schools would have access to funds to get students connected at home for Remote Learning and libraries would have access to funds to get patrons connected at home. It is apparent may need to do these things more generally with the pandemic shining a light on that. I want to think senators and representatives who worked morning, noon and night to make sure and the fcc as a result has been able to support more than 900 libraries across the country doing that and thousands of schools. We got more than 12 Million Students connected who did not have connections at home which is a really big deal. [applause] that is a new program. And we are dependent on congress to continue to find it and that is a challenge. I also want to talk about an old standby. I worked for its father so i feel like a relative. It was a program in 1996 congress created. That was the dialup era. I had an aol account. Congress thoughts clearly we needed to bring this information superhighway to libraries. And set up that you rate program to help support that. So that libraries in every state could get funds to have connections. Over the years we have been able to update that program. We moved it from a program to connect libraries in schools to making sure capacity is what you needed today. I hope over time we can continue to update it so we meet you where you are and get you connections you need. I think this program is a quiet powerhouse. It has done more to connect libraries and schools in this country than any other single program. I am committed to make sure that it thrives. [applause] thank you. And thank you and the team for making ed a little bit easier to apply for also. We are going to keep working on that. It is amazing because it is a digital age program. We are going to have to keep working on that because we cannot make our prop profit so complex. Thank you. [applause] speaking of schools, and that same instagram series i mentioned, we also covered i spoke with a wonderful Certified School librarian at an Elementary School in florida. I think she is in the audience. Alma serves a coastal Ridge Community with a sizable population of migrant students. I asked her about her work and how it fosters digital and what she sees when her students do not have connectivity at home. Here is what she had to say. [video clip] we want to keep extending, one of the most ambitious projects we are involved in. I meet with teachers and i coteach lessons with them. Based on the standard or lesson sometimes i will be teaching a lesson that has to do with teaching a database from a project coming up or i could be teaching them how to use destiny which is an online catalog. So Different Things change based on whether or not whats the teachers goal is for them and then i prepare the lessons from the librarys point of view. We are in a Rural Community so when students do not have connectivity they fall behind. Patricia i know closing the homework gap is a big priority for you and the sec. The homework gap is an experience. School librarians are information specialists and exceptional leaders not only for learners but also for educators, School Administrators and several parents. Many schools across the nation have their School Librarians to thank for training teachers and getting classrooms online during the pandemic. So i shout out to our School Librarians. [applause] we have a lot of fandom in the Library World. So School Libraries and especially School Librarians are uniquely positioned to teach every student and the school community. The generals skills they need to be successful and connect effectively. Many of us in the Library World see Digital Skills as a kind of literacy. What do you think constitutes Digital Literacy and how should we measure it . Jessica first things first. The federal Communications Commissions experts with network technology. I am probably not the person to come to to define Digital Literacy so what i do when people ask me is i point to that ala definition. [applause] and i it is about having the cognitive and technical ability to find evaluate, create, and communicate with information and communications technology. Patricia thank you. And we applaud the fcc partnership and making sure we have Digital Literacy throughout our country. Tell me more about your thinking around the homework gap and how the sec can make a difference. Jessica i first started talking about this in 2015 but i noticed when i ran around the country and i talked to School Administrators and librarians, i would hear the same thing over and over. They had a lot of students hanging out in the parking lot of the library after it closed to catch the free wifi signal. Sitting in fast food restaurants doing their homework. When i was growing up i did not meet any of that. I had paper, pencil, leaving me alone. But those days are over. This was apparent back in 2015 because i noticed there was data that suggests that seven in 10 teachers were requiring assigning homework that require internet access. I started calling thats the homework gap because when we talk about the Digital Divide we have to be very particular. The next generation of students were struggling. It did not seem we could come up with something to close the homework gap. Then we had the pandemic and suddenly i did not have to explain it to people anymore because they saw it also with their own eyes. We got initiatives as a result but its the truth is, i do not think we can stop until 100 of us have access at home and that includes every student. [applause] patricia thank you. Why was skills necessary for success in todays workforce. In terms of impact perhaps in addition to the homework gap we could also talk about the learning cap gap. One of the persons i talked to on the Instagram Live stories is chris martinez. He served as the Harris County Public Library in the houston area. 13. 6 households in Harris County do not have internet access. So i talked with chris about how to guess the community online. The library applied for and received thousands of hotspots and chromebooks through the Emergency Connectivity Fund that you just spoke about. I spoke with chris after his county library began this process and he told me about a new project they started. If we could take a listen to this. [video clip] we want to keep extending. One of the most ambitious projects right now we are involved in is Harris County. There is a Broadband Team putting out antennas which is the same antenna thats at t and verizon have, tmobile. They are broadcasting that signal into some of the most the areas that have the most need. That signal is being broadcast directly into those peoples homes. Our role is providing broadband for the antennas. We are also distribution partners. We are in charge of delivering the devices. That has been a game changer for us. Engaging with the School Districts has also been a role we have been involved in. Connecting the right people. That has been a real game changer for us. We are really happy to be a part of it. Really happy to be a part of the conversation. All of these programs started with a conversation, started with eight what if. With a what if. What if. That is the right question. Out of the pandemic emerged these rich partners. We see Harris County as a great example. They could not do it without the wonderful support from the sec. I am wondering how the pandemic has changed the understanding of digital gaps and the role libraries are playing . Jessica it has become apparent that they can and should play a bigger role. Just today, we it is amazing the program has never thought to do that. The Largest Program that goes to libraries and schools and there is i am left and imlf. Why dont we Work Together . We managed to put it on paper so we are going to look for opportunities to make sure we work more in concert to connect libraries in more places. Patricia that is wonderful. [applause] as we were talking back stage we both said it is lifechanging because it is a different way of looking at the way we can play together in strong partnerships across line. That is going to make a significant change for libraries and our community. Thank you. Last summer, alas Public Policy and staff spoke with Library Directors who were planning to apply for ecf, Emergency Connectivity Fund. One a librarian was misty hawkins. Misty was a bit skeptical at first about that ecf and we have a clip. [video clip] like many others, i was very hesitant. I note that it can be a little overwhelming and it can be a little intimidating. So i was concerned initially, about ecf because of that process and being a Small Library director and being responsible for for the patrons. I appreciate the work ala has done for this program. I appreciate the advocacy efforts. I appreciate the fcc for giving us the opportunity to put faith in the libraries to do what we do best and that is serve our communities. [applause] so misty represents maybe some other libraries who are not quite sure about how to move forward but so appreciate the opportunity. The pandemic heightened awareness of digital gaps and provided new funding for pandemic relief. The fcc showed a great deal of flexibility. Enqueue. The change in is one example of how the fcc flexibility resulted in a permanent change to an existing program. Are there other learnings that we can apply and that can be transferred to the fcc programs moving forward . Jessica you mentioned the tribal libraries and that has been a real focus because coming out of the pandemic, one of the things we started doing is looking at data. Who is not applying echo who might be eligible . We came back again and again to tribal libraries. I spent some time in new mexico where tribal libraries have set up connections. The librarian is the coolest person on the entire reservation because she has brought connectivity in this remote location. I looked at this and we came back and started assessing our rules and for so long that fcc had an approach that required our Tribal Library to subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the state in order to participate. So we looked at the statute and found another statute an updated interpretation late last year so that means there is no more legal jurisdictional. So now we have to do some outreach. I believe there are more that qualify and i wants to make sure they know more. Its may not be on their radar but if we can Work Together and reach out to them, we are not just going to connect to connect the library, we are going to connect the community. [applause] patricia thank you. Last month i think you are part of a roundtable discussion at a high school in detroit am i right . Yes. You were talking about the left of a Broadband Access there and said we are going to use this pandemic and crisis to fix it. I have an inpatient optimism right now that we are going to close the Digital Divide. What makes you so optimistic . Jessica we have problems to solve. And i just think we owe ourselves and the next generation optimism that we have the strength to resolve and energy to do it. Sometimes i walk around my office or i used to, i would sort of bark out to people on my staff, you need to be an optimist. Which is completely the wrong tone. But i really believe it. If you are going to be an Public Service, be in Public Service, you owe it to the present and future to believe you can make positive change. Patricia terrific. Thank you. [applause] jumping back to our bedrock principle of access to information. Network neutrality i know is also a particular topic of interest to you and concern for Arbor Library community. Do you see the fcc and or Congress Taking this issue up again . Jessica i support network neutrality. I oppose the last administrations effort to roll its back and i want it to once again become the law of the land. I am committed to making that happen. Patricia thank you. You heard it here. [applause] librarians, we are also big readers. I have one last question for you. What are you reading right now . Jessica i am reading a book called wireless wars which is about National Security and wireless technology, which is terrific, a little serious. I am also reading crooked hallelujah which is about three generations of cherokee women and their experience which is really terrific. Patricia thank you so much. [applause] so as misty said in the last video clip, we so appreciate the fcc for recognizing the valuable role that libraries play in Digital Equity. Thank you so much for joining us today, for sharing your wisdom and commitment to general Digital Equity. Thank you so much. Jessica thank you. [applause] we will begin the hearing shortly, in just a moment, when they tell me they are ready to begin the live stream. The committee will come to order, without objection they committee and chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. I now recognize myself for an opening statement