Transcripts For CSPAN FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel 2

[applause] conference about identity com. Rosenworcel good afternoon. Thank you to everyone for being here today. You got me somewhere between senator and the Deputy Attorney general. So its a treat to be back at the state of the net conference and a special thank you to the Internet Education Foundation for having me and thank you for the good work you do to foster conversation about internet policy. Upfront i think i need a disclaimer. As a commissioner at the fcc speaking at the state of the net Conference Im going to defy some expectations today. Im not going to talk about Net Neutrality. I support Net Neutrality and i voted against last months this is an to last months decision to roll back those rules and i made a ruckus and there is no shortage of place where you can read my heated and sometimes fiery take on what happened. But today instead of talking about the substance of Net Neutrality i want to use it as a launching pad and i want to go big and discuss policymaking in the internet era. I want to talk about some shortcomings in our Civic Infrastructure because i think we need to make real changes if we want to give the public a fair shot at getting through to those who make decisions in washington. Yeah that is lofty stuff so let me start small. Let me start with three quick stories about three individuals. First story. Ketchikan is the largest city in southern alaska and by largest city, i mean its got 8000 residents. Ketchikan is nestled right at the entrance to alaskas Inside Passage which is the network of waterways which provide access to some of the states most idyllic scenery. Areas known for its thriving fishing industry and for having the World Largest collection of standing totem poles and the misty national monument. No surprise its a regular stop on the cruise ship circuit. The charm of this area brought carl up from the lower 48 when in 1995, he assumed the position of ketchikans chief admonition chief administrative officer. For more than two decades he has quietly helped run the city ensuring that residents get the service they need from local authority. He was surprised in december when the local Radio Station found his name on a comment in the fcc Public Record asking the agency to repeal Net Neutrality. As he told the station he deftly did not submit a comment and poking around a bit more the station found that just shy of 900 comments were submitted to the fcc from little old ketchikan. As another official in the city mused, its really unlikely that so many Public Comments were authored by the residents of this little alaskan inlets they look fake and something looks wrong. Second story. Jessica lives in new york and thats in upstate about midway between utica and syracuse. It has one Elementary School and one very active Boy Scout Troop and jessica is an assistant scoutmaster. Its a role she takes seriously. As part of her commitment to the troops she says she is very careful not to express political position to the scouts she oversees. So she was surprised and angry to find her identity had been stolen and used it to file a comment in the fcc record regarding Net Neutrality. She asked quite plainly how the hell is this possible . Third story. Lake bluff is located in northern illinois, a little more than an hour north of chicago. Its a pictureperfect midwestern smalltown complete with a Village Green and a little beach along the shores of lake michigan. In fact, during the First World War it was proclaimed the most patriotic town in america for the efforts of its residents to support our troops abroad. Donna made her home in lake bluff and in june of this year she filed a comment in the fcc record and it began hello, i would like to comment on internet freedom. She went on to ask the agency asked it to repeal its Net Neutrality calling them and exploitation of the open internet and this stunning this stunning because she died more than 12 years ago. Those are three brief tales and those stories are not unique because people from across the country from every political persuasion have found their names and addresses and identities stolen and used to file fake comments in the fcc Net Neutrality. They include senator jeff merkley, usa today communist edward, deceased actress patty duke, 13 yearold in Northern New York and a 96 yearold world war ii veteran in southern california. At last count, 2 million individuals have been the victims of theft with filings in our record that they never wrote, sent or authorized. These comments are not the only odd and unnerving thing in the fcc record. Nearly half a million come from russian email addresses just under 8 million comments were submitted from a male to mains attributed to fakemailgenerator. Com [laughter] over 1 million comments were designed to make it appear like unique submissions everywhere you look there is something strange. Something is not right. What is wrong here is not confined to the fcc. Let me offer a few more stories from other agencies to demonstrate. Back, the department of labor proposed a policy that would inquire Investment Advisors working with retirement accounts to act in the best interest of their clients. The fiduciary role, as it is is slated for full implementation next year in 2019. In the meantime the department of labor is gathering feedback on the likely impact of this role. On one hand youve got Insurance Companies and Brokerage Firms who contend that it could add new cost to make it harder to serve clients who have small nest eggs. On the other hand consumer groups point out that without this rule in place retirees could be saddled with purchasing Investment Products with high commissions that are not actually in their best interests. The backandforth the department of labor has been fierce. Among the comments you will find one from Robert Shubert of and it makes clear that he opposes the fiduciary role. He writes, i do not need, do not want an object to any federal interference in my Retirement Planning. But this filing was a fraud. Confronted with that Robert Schumer said he was disgusted people could post comments using his name but his experience is not unusual. A brief survey conducted by the wall street journal found that two and five comments involving the fiduciary rule involve stolen names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has made comments about payday lending. Last year they adopted new rules designed to curb abuse of the 50 billion shortterm loan industry. This year however they announced they will revisit and reconsider those rules. Lets be honest the backandforth here has been messy. So has the Public Record. Ashley Marie Morales of Fresno California was surprised to see a comment posted under her name. She offered a personal and a personal anecdote about how helpful a payday loan was when she had unexpected inexpensive car repairs. She knew instantly it was a fake because her family owns an auto body shop and its the one place where she doesnt have to pay. Her filing wasnt the only irregularity in the record. At last count there were more than 4000 comments like hers that had been submitted. The securities and Exchange Commission reviewing the fail of the Chicago Stock Exchange Investor Group with ties to china. The Public Record has some curious filings, including one from john on behalf of Global Investigative journalism network. It raised concerns about the proposed Ownership Structure and suggested it would facilitate money laundering. Which sounds bad. The only problem is that dave kaplan says that is a fraud, but you can still find it in the fcc record. Final story. The federal Energy Regulatory Commission Approved the Nexus Natural Gas pipeline last year. This is a 255 mile pipeline that will carry natural gas from the marcellus shale to users in places like ohio and michigan. While evaluating this pipeline ferc asked to the comments on its merit. Land owners and residents along the nexus Pipeline Route werent shy about offering their concerns. But mary england of rising sun , ohio was surprised to see that her husband glen sent a letter to ferc supporting the Pipeline Route in the buckeye state. Her husband died in 1998 and this was by no means the only filing in the record. Because others in ohio and michigan have complained to ferc that they did not write the pro pipeline letters posted in their names. Ok. That is a lot of stories. Lets review. We know that five agencies, the fcc, the department of labor, the sec and ferc have had problems with stolen think faked comments in the Public Record but i suspect they are not the only ones. The administrative procedure act is a law from 1946. As attorneys and all of these agencies know its the law that sets up the basic framework for rulemaking. When the Government Agency proposes new policies it has a duty to give interested persons an opportunity to voice their opinion. After considering these Public Comments agencies may adopt final rules and they do so when it includes a general statement for a basic purpose. That structure has worked well for decades. Its a rocksolid foundation for so many Agency Rulemaking that Seek Public Input for its decisions. Over time when we have identified deficiencies in this framework we have made adjustments and as a result in 1980 the regulatory flexibility act amended the administrative procedure act to make sure agencies consider the impact of the proposal on small business. And we have got other laws like the paperwork reduction act , which doesnt really reduce paperwork, but anyway an Unfunded Mandate which trains new comments in the concerns that what we are facing now does not reflect what is come before because its apparent the specific infrastructure we have for accepting Public Comment in the rulemaking process is not told for the digital age. As the conference of the United States knowledges, while the basic for rulemaking from 1946 has stayed the same, the technological landscape has evolved dramatically. No kidding. The problem may seem small but i think the impact is big. Administrative decisions made in washington effect so much of our daytoday lives. They involve everything from internet openness to Retirement Planning to the availability of loans and the Energy Sources to power our homes and businesses. So much of the decisionmaking that affects our future takes place not just here in congress , but in fact in the administrative state. The American Public deserves a fair shot at participating in those decisions. Expert agencies are duty bound to hear from everyone not just those who can afford to pay for expert lawyers and lobbyists. The framework from the administrative procedure staff is designed to serve the public by seeking their input but increasingly they are getting shut out. Our Agency Internet systems are illequipped to handle the mass automation and fraud that is corrupting our channels for Public Comment. Its only going to get worse. The mechanization and weaponization of the filing process has only just begun. We need to do something about it because ensuring the public has a say in what happens in Washington Matters because trust in Public Institutions matter. Last week edelman released its annual trust barometer and reported that only one third of Americans Trust the government. That is a 14 Percentage Points decline from last year. Fixing that decline is worth the effort, and we can start with finding ways to give all americans no matter who they are or where they live a fighting chance at making washington listen to what they say. We cant give into the easy cynicism that results when are public channels are flooded with comments from dead people stolen identities batches of filings and commentary that originated from russian email address is. We cant let this delusion further delegitimize washington erode publicd trust. No one said digital age democracy was going to be easy , but we have got to brace ourselves and strengthen our Civic Infrastructure to withstand what is already underway. This is true regulatory agencies and across our political landscape. Because if you look for them you will find uneasy parallels between regulatory proceedings and the barrage of posts on social media that was part of a conspicuous campaign to influence our last election. There is a concerted effort to exploit our openness. It deserves a concerted response. This has not yet happened. At the fcc, for instance anyone who is found their names stolen in the Net Neutrality record has been advised to file another statement to that effect in the public docket. Let me put this as gently as i can. This is not a scalable solution. The fcc has refused to work with state authorities like the attorney general of new york who found that tens of thousands of residents in his state as well as in california, georgia, missouri, ohio, pennsylvania and texas have had their identities stolen. This is not right. For starters i think it set up i think it is at odds for the basic spirit of corporative federalism. But more critically the steps to identities like this is often a violation of state law and for the record its also a violation of federal law. Section 1001 of title xviii makes it a felony for any person to knowingly or willfully make any materially false fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation in matters before the federal government. It makes the unwillingness of our regulators in washington to address the fraud we are at the fraud we already know exist especially chilling. Now for some good news. Earlier this month the Government Accountability office announced in response to an announcement he made with his colleagues they would be reviewing the extent and pervasiveness of fraud and american identities in the federal rule making process. Thats a start. Stay tuned. But its not enough. We need a lot more investigating from the department of justice, the federal bureau of investigation because we are looking at a systemic effort to corrupt the process by which the the public participates in some of the biggest decisions that are made in washington. If we want to build specific infrastructure to withstand we need to understand its origins and take out the rogues that are stealing identities cheating the public and destroying our trust. Plus, well we built this Civic Infrastructure we can take some pretty basic steps to improve rulemaking processes. Every agency should perform its own internal investigation. Every agency should consider simple security measures like to factor authentication that enhances security without decreasing public participation. Every agency can do something oldfashioned. They can hold public hearings. But the truth is we need to get started because thats what Good Governance and digital age democracy requires. Thank you. [applause] across the agencies that you mentioned, with all of those different phony comments being made on such disparate issues, is there any thinking on who is behind it . Did somebody by a botnet . Was it russia . Taking an issue aside at random, just to mess things up or is there a deeper conspiracy where it was people with an interest in the issues at hand finding a way to submit all those fraudulent comments . Com. Rosenworcel those are terrific questions. I think my point right now is that i dont have an answer. I think it is incumbent on agencies in washington to get to the bottom of it. Well have to build systems that can withstand this assault. In order to do so, we need to know where it is all coming from. I silenced you. Thank you for your presentation. My name is laura mike kelly. I work on a Research Project which is how members of congress are crowdsourcing extra capacity into our district. You might note that crowd law is happening around the world. Actually, the United States