And brought you as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. We are pleased to have join us this week on the communicators, the vicechairman of the energy and Commerce Committee, representative marsha blackburn, a republican from tennessee. Congressman blackburn, with everything going on in the house right now, if we could just start on the big picture here, what are the chances that there will be any telecom or techrelated or cyberrelated legislation passing in the house this year . Rep. Blackburn when you look at the big picture, i think that overall you will see the house settle down. We will choose a speaker, the problem that we have right now is that it is a growing pains problem. We are a big party with a big tent. You have moderate republicans, you have very conservative republicans. And having everyone agree on a leader and agreed to come to the table and work things out is going to be an important first step. I think you will see us kind of work through that and then you thee the issues economic issues, the debt ,eiling, and following that back to the next and bulk that people are saying something needs to be done when it comes to technology policy. That is an aria where our innovators are telling us that we want some things done whether it is copyright, patents, or whether it is fair pay, fairplay, or looking at some of the push that you are getting from the fcc via the Net Neutrality order. Begin with Net Neutrality, something that you have been very active on. Is it out of congresss hands at this point . Rep. Blackburn no. I think there are still things that congress can do. You have the Internet Freedom act that is out there. It is a bill that i have filed and it has been around three years now. That would negate the order and the actions of the fcc when it comes to Net Neutrality. Net neutrality, interestingly enough, is one of those policies that there was bipartisan opposition to, in the house. Fcc, movedency, the forward on its own to execute this order and to carry out a reclassification of Internet Services and move it into title ii, which allows them to apply the archaic telephone role to Internet Service. The more people whether they provider, the consumer, the more people know about the actions the fcc is taking, the less enamored they are with what was neutrality. I think one of the reasons for that is because when the term Net Neutrality started, it was to cover that last mile of service. And being certain that there was equal access provisions on that. Net neutrality has become putting government in line to precede your Internet Service provider and all other options. They are the ones that basically have the chokehold, and the position when it comes to spectrum andf that application of the broadband. Peter you are bill has been in the congress for three years, but it has not gone anywhere. Now that the fcc has acted, would you first the action this fall . Think the more i aggressive the sec becomes on the issue, the more people are saying that we need to do something to rein them in on this. Thattly, we had a letter 14 of a signed and sent to the fcc expressing our concerns about what they were doing via privacy and reclassification. We are also working on an amicus brief that we will file. Peter congressman, joining our conversation today is John Mckinnon of the wall street journal. John you mentioned the end of the are decisions that congress has to make, one of those is obvious the on spending. Is there something that you can do through that process to address your concerns about neutrality . Rep. Blackburn there are. And as we do appropriations and work through that process, there that arers riders placed on how many can be used that limits the action. That an agency can take. In times past, it can bend to the will of the house to restrain the use of funds the at the fcc for the implementation of the Net Neutrality order. That is the kind of action that i think that you will see. A way to kind of pull them back into line, so that they are not just jumping out and taking this authority that is not there for them to take. Certainly, when you look at the reclassification action that they have taken, and the way that they have moved forward on privacy, privacy is not the jurisdiction of the fcc. There is a federal Government Agency that does oversee privacy and it is called the federal trade commission. Fcc getgoing to see the into this push and shove and a little bite fcc about the utilization and protection of privacy rights with consumers. John there is also a Court Challenge of the Net Neutrality rules. How do you think that is going to play out, and if the rules are upheld by the court, do think that will increase the chances that congress will step in . Rep. Blackburn i think if they are upheld, yes. If you look at what the fcc has toe and going and going unilateral actions that they do not have the authority to go into, the ruling should come in our favor, and of course, this is something that is with the courts, and we have to wait and see what they are going to say in order to take our next action. Congress, tonk some degree, is waiting for the court to weigh in . Rep. Blackburn there is always going to be a little bit of that, even though we have bills that are filed and we have actions that are in process, and we continue to take actions and conductor oversight. Produce letters and file letters with the agency, so that we have that record of activity, then, of course, when you have a definitive delivered by the court, then you can tailor the action and a more appropriate way. John talk about what it would take for congress to pass legislation, rewriting the Communications Act of 1934, which is obvious the been around for a while, how hard would it be . Rep. Blackburn i think it would be a laborious process. There is no doubt about that. But, as you look at that act, what you have to do also, at first, is look at pulling back the Net Neutrality order, because Internet Services, which are information services, should not have been included in the 1934 act, which is telecommunication services. Those are very different entities. And that, i think is the first consideration and a removal of the Net Neutrality order, or, passing the Internet Freedom act, which would be a prohibition of the actions of that order are certainly an act that congress could take. When you look at those that are producing content, that is going to travel over the internet and talking with some of those content producers, they are very up front that they have confusion that is generated by the Net Neutrality order. There is confusion that is generated by the reclassification. And the way that innovators are expected to work with the fcc. They would appreciate seeing a simplification of how we move forward with this, because they are looking for a format and a platform to push content forward into the marketplace. Mentioned telecom overhaul and you call that a laborious task, but hasnt the energy and Commerce Committee been doing quite a bit of work toward an overhaul . Rep. Blackburn absolutely. Reforms of the fcc and reforms around the act, yes, indeed. But it is not something that will be as simple to page bill. You are not going to get everything done that would be a simple part of that process. You think about and look at some of the work that was done in some when we were doing work on some of these actions. Go back even that far and then look at the incremental work that has been done. Absolutely, and it is done in a thoughtful manner and with a great amount of diligence. The members and the staff are very attentive to this. But, my point is, it is not something that is simple and easy. It does take digging into the issues, because you have technologies that have advanced, you have Delivery Systems that are changed, and one of the things that we have learned as you look at transmission of cant do things that are going to be technology specific, and you have to begin to look at some of the utilization of the content that is traveling. When i say laborious, yes, it takes time and it takes a thoughtful approach and really youing into the issues that are not going to take actions that are going to be harmful or counterproductive. Peter the essence of those rules is that they subject the companies to what are called common carrier requirements, do you think that the whole idea of inmon carrier is outmoded some way, or should it be rewritten or reconceived to apply to more modern times . Rep. Blackburn this is one of those things where you would want to have a discussion. And you say, we need to do this, eight, b, c, d. I cannot give you an answer like that. Doing need to look at it and consider the fact that maybe it is one of those things that has outlived its usefulness might be the right way to say that. Certainly, the common carrier provisions are something that would be right if you will, for a discussion and a review and say, how could this be modernize . How can it be simpler . And how could it produce a more effective in product . I think another concern that people have right now is Cyber Security. This is an aria Work Congress has tried mightily to pass a decision this year, what is holding it up, and what is the outlook . Rep. Blackburn when you look at the security issues, you are exactly right. Welch Bill Blackburn which is the Data Security bill, that we have worked forward to. We have the language right. We are ready to move that forward. The exact told up, i dont know what it is. We would like to move it forward. Here is the problem that we are facing and what is in front of us. If you go back to 2005, you have the first data breach. That was the choice point. The data breach. Since that. Of time, you have the information of tens of millions of americans that has been exposed through data breaches. 2014 was termed the year of the breach. This is the type of current that costs our economy billions of dollars every year. And, it also costs our economy billions of jobs. Data breaches are thousands of jobs. Estimationbs is the of how many jobs that it costs. Here is what has happened. As the individuals become subjected to these breaches, and many people have, they have come to realize that it is not if you have your data breached, it is when is your data going to be breached. So having a federal standard and exercising some preemption and setting a. Of time, a framework of time that companies have to conduct that information and then to inform consumers and set penalties for enforcement, those are appropriate steps that should be taken and they are the stats that are covered in the Data Security legislation that we have worked on at energy and Commerce Committee, and are ready to see that legislation on the floor and have it moved to the floor. This is something that Consumers Want to see. Right now, companies can kind of hide behind well, you know, we have done the files here, we think the breach occurred there, there are 47 different state ans, and kind of run out amount of time before consumers breachd that there was a and the axis of the information. But we would like to do is have that adderall standard so that federal standard so that people do know what has transpired and there are set standards that Companies Know they have to provide just that of Consumer Information in this set of consumer protections, and with the fcc, there are this set of enforcements with penalties for a set amount. That is what is embodied in the bill. Mentioned 314 being the year of the breach, how is you mentioned 2014 been here for breach, how does 2015 look . Rep. Blackburn the problem is not getting any better. We have had significant breaches this year. They are far too commonplace. They are very troubling to consumers, whether it is Health Information that is being breached, or Financial Information that is being breached. One of the things that we do know is that there are bad actors that are housed in other places around the world, and maybe these are people that do not wish as well. It is their fulltime job they said theyre trying to hack into our companies. We know that our Critical Infrastructure is hit thousands of times every single week. Our Financial Services structures, some of the enterprises and systems that are there, some of the closed systems, some of the open source systems, we know that this is an existing problem and you need to have those rules of the road, if you will, that are going to lay this out, because we do not see a diminishment in the problem, we do see an increase in the problem. One of the reasons that i think we have to move forward and say, ok, we need to do something on Data Security, is because of the open source nature of the internet. And look at how the internet started, where you had four Different Computers in four separate locations with ornown operators are administrators for the systems, and everything was open source and everyone involved in the loop was a known entity. Then you had that assurance built into the network that you will not have an intrusion into that network. And today, what we know is because of bad actors, rogue websites, wrote financial wetnurse rogue financial networks, but you do not have that kind of security as to what actors are coming into your network. To play a role in this and in blocking some of these that actors. Certainly, there was an effort some years back with sopa and pipa do have provisions in there that would have encouraged and isps to block some of these rogue actors. We know that as these that actors seek interests into our systems, whether they are financial or health care or Critical Infrastructure, that what we have to do is to increase our surveillance and looking for these bad actors and andeslware antispyware and these algorithms that are embedding themselves in our network. My guess is that everybody in congress, house and senate, agrees that something needs to be done. So, what is the holdup on passing Cyber Security legislation . Rep. Blackburn i dont know what the holdup is. I guess it is the will of the body. My hope is that once we get through the issues with the speaker and resolve the issues that are there, the financial issues,the debts and that you will see this move forward. It certainly is an issue that is talked about when we have our town halls. And when consumers come and constituents come to the town halls. They will talk about the problems of experience from a breach. They also talk about the inconvenience that is forced on ,hem in protecting their data if they have experienced the breach. Another issue that is kind of a related issue, but, not the same, is the issue of privacy. And certainly to dig a little deeper on this, the last congress, we established a Privacy Working Group with the energy and Commerce Committee, and congressman welch and i share that. We looked at the privacy issue that surrounds the virtual marketplace. Look at those components that are so necessary for consumers to have the toolbox to protect their, what i call the virtual you. Themselves and their presence online, so they know that they are transacting their business and participating and in ecommerce which is convenient for them, that their data and Information Online is being protected. That it is not being pulled and used or it is not being used against their will or without their permission. John weve been talking up the problems that the internet is facing these days, but as ivans problems, how do you see the future of the internet shaping up, what gets you excited about the internet, and what are the new uses and applications that you see . Rep. Blackburn i think that it is just amazing to me. The amount of potential that is there. Lets flip to Health Informatics, if you will. As you look at a Delivery System , going intoare areas that are underserved, or have difficulty in accessing health care, being able to utilize the telemedicine concept. And being able to transmit Digital Imaging for xrays and for review of scans. Think about the convenience that is for an underserved or remote areas that does not have access to a specialist. Centersows those trauma and primary physician providers, nurse practitioners, to be able to work with a specialist miles away and then, get that patient to the appropriate place, to the appropriate care. Seek and think about that as a convenience item. Working think about with some of our federally qualified Health Centers when they are working with individuals and are able to collect and bring in information, utilizing an ipad or a tablet and then provide some certainty around that and give directions to the patient. Utilizing that Health Informatics and health software, and actually, in the 21st century bill, he embodied the software act which deals with these provisions. And would put the fda in the right lane when it comes to dealing with Health Care Informatics and health ca