Democratizing force. It is powerful in terms of being a ladder for social and economic mobility. But right now there are really significant discrepancies in the adoption and availability of a lot of these technologies such as broadband in lower income communities. So im concerned about that these communities are often the vulnerable populations. And that theyre often adversely affected by technology transitions. So the question very simply is, is what can we do, what should we be doing to ensure that reliable voice and Broadband Services are delivered to the public regardless of economic background or geography . Well, if i can just jump in a little bit. I think its really two questions. One question is the rural question. How can you get these facilities that are very expensive built in very rural areas . And that the fcc and a number of states have universal funds to help get that infrastructure built. The other question, the adoption question, is really a question that theres been a lot of study of. Whether its at ntia, the fcc, states, pew, many places. And there seems to be a real consensus that there are a couple of barriers to adoption. One is, you know, having a computer or a smartphone. Does a family have those . Education is important. There are, for whatever reason, a chunk of americans who believe the internet does not offer value to them. You know, an education effort with them is important. There are a lot of programs for adoption. The fcc is considering helping to fund or create an eray program for broadband adoption. Theres a lot going on that recognizes what youre illustrating, that there is an adoption issue in america. Youre saying research is showing that the issue, some of it has to do with the end users, the lack of appreciation or access to some of the to laptops or to smartphones. But then but some of your answer indicates that it is on us as well, that were not getting it to the end user in the way that we could be. Certainly in rural areas, it is a challenge to build networks where there are very, very few people. And thats where the availability gap would be. And is the shortfall again, im just looking for action steps to address this. Theres a lot of conversations im having with folks that are trying to make cheap laptops available for students and really exciting things going on. But on the getting the technology to that end user, give me your sort of unbiased appreciation of the universal service funds. Do we have the resources necessary to take on that end of the issue . If not, what would what is a more realistic approach . Well, the fcc is in the middle of reforming the usf fund to make it more efficient and more focused. So i think if they can get that operationalized and in the field, well really be able to see if theres enough money in that fund. Theres about 4. 5 billion in the High Cost Fund thats devoted to expanding availability. And can you just, for a senator thats sort of new, can you tell me whats some of the issues youre working on to make that fund more efficient . How best to target funding. How best to identify areas that really need the funding versus areas that can get by without it. The current fund is sort of an old fund that allocates money in kind of unusual ways. This is a much more modern, targeted fund with a cost model to focus the money. Unusual ways. It sounds like a euphemism. Well, the old fund sort of was built on a series of implicit subsidies that were not well quantified. And then the funds itself, particularly for the larger carriers, was based on statewide averaging so that you could have a state with dense areas that on average would seem like it didnt need funding, although there were parts of the state that could be very rural that did need funding. So were trying to target the funding much more accurately now. Okay. Im grateful. Thank you very much. Very good. I want to thank our witnesses. Thank senator pryor for holding this hearing and senator wicker and we will keep the record open for two weeks for questions. It was really interesting discussion with a lot more work to do. And the hearing is adjourned. Thank you to our witnesses. Cspans new book includes financial journalist Gretchen Morrison. What role will the government play in Housing Finance . If we want to talk about it and the populace agrees that its something we should subsidize, put it on the Balance Sheet and make it clear and evident and make everybody aware how much its costing. But when you deliver it through third party enterprises, fannie mae and freddie mac, and deliver the subsidies with private shareholders and executives who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves, that is not a very good way of subsidizing home ownership. Read more of our conversation with Gretchen Morrison and other features from our programs on sundays at 8 00. On friday, the Christian Science monitor hosted a reporters round table with john podesta. Heres a brief portion. How would a Hillary Clinton presidency look different from an Obama Presidency and a bill Clinton Presidency . Thats a topic i havent pondered. Each person that comes into Office Brings their own skills and the challenges are different. You know, we advocate the breakup of the soviet union. We tried to expand a democratic and more unified europe. Thats obviously being challenged. But i think the project was pushed forward. We had to deal with al qaeda and terrorism. But nothing in the way that president bush and president obama had to come to grips with in terms of that question. So i think that the challenges would be different. I think people bring their own personalities, their own talents to the job. I think that one thing that the three of them share is, i think, the purpose of the job, which is their primary duty is to ensure that everybody has opportunity in this country. Thats what motivated all three of them. Thats what and i think that if she does decide to run and she is elected president , shell get up every day, as president obama gets up every day, as president clinton got up every day and go into the oval office and think what can i do to help working middle class people. If you could use three adjectives to describe her presidency, what would they be . Disciplined. Tough. And determined. Watch the entire event with john podesta online at cspan. Org. Chelsea clinton spoke about here mother at a recent conference. In her remarks she talked about working with the former secretary of state on the Clinton Foundations no ceiling initiative, which tries to encourage women and girls from around the world to participate in current affairs. She also talked about some of the chance currently facing women today. This is 50 minutes. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome. Thank you all for joining me for the kickoff of the 2014 National Conference for College Women student leaders. [ applause ] im a member of aauws National Student advisory council. And im love the energy in the room. Im currently finishing a dual master at oregon state university. [ applause ] ive got to get used to this, awesome. So this will continue in the doctoral studies, focusing on education at the university of washington. [ applause ] it is with great pleasure that i introduce our featured speaker. Chelsea clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, working alongside her parents, president bill clinton and secretary Hillary Clinton, drives the vision and the work of the Clinton Foundation. Chelseas work at the Clinton Foundation emphasizes improving global and domestic health, creating Service Opportunities and empowering the next generation of leaders. Chelsea focuses especially on the Foundations Health program, including the Clinton Health access initiative, which strengthens health care and access to Life Saving Services in the developing world. The alliance for a healthier generation, which finds childhood obesity, and the Clinton Health matters initiative, which addresses preventable diseases in the United States. She also established and continues to lead the Clinton Foundation day of action program, which identifies and organizes meaningful Service Opportunities for foundation staff, friends, and partners and for the wider foundation community. To help advance the full participation of women and girls around the world, chelsea and secretary clinton colead the foundations new es initiative, no ceiling. The full participation project. As one of the strongest champions of the Clinton Global Initiative university, chelsea works to empower the next generation of change makers, to take action on some of the worlds most urgent challenges. In addition to this great work, chelsea is a special correspondent for nbc news, shares on the boards of the Clinton Health access initiative, the school of american ballet, common sense media, the africa center, and cornell medical college. Shes also the cochair and Advisory Board of the Many Institute at nyu. So without further ado, please give a round of applause for chelsea clinton. [ applause ] oh, goodness. Thank you for that introduction. Thank you for that enthusiastic welcome. Its always awesome to see so many energized women of all ages. And the few men who are here. I want to thank the university of maryland for hosting us. And aaw for convening all of us. [ applause ] and particularly the staff of auw and the university of maryland, who have already ensured that this meeting is going so well, and im sure will continue to go so well. I know big events like this are truly team sports and there are so many people who participate to ensure that these experiences are meaningful for us, whom we never see, but i think its important to acknowledge. One of my core areas of focus at the foundation is what were calling no seceiling, the full participation project. It is well known that my mother has been working on issues of women and girls rights and advancement of opportunities for truly now more than 45 years. I couldnt imagine a better role model or partner than my mom. This is deeply meaningful work to me, not only because it continues to advance a cause that is morally right, but also clearly in all of our interest, whether were women, girls, boys, or men. We have more data than ever before that investing in women and girls isnt just the right thing to do but the smart thing to do. Not only in our own country, but around the world. And yet we havent ever really collated that data. Ultimately, thats the goal of no ceiling. In 1995, when which mom went to beijing and said that womens rights are human rights, something i think she didnt know at the time would be treated as such a seminole event. While it seemed so selfevident, we clearly were each further than we are today to full participation. We have unequivocally made process. Here at home and in many places around the world in terms of greater legal enfranchisement for women. Greater Economic Opportunities for women. Cultural and social prohibition easing. And yet in no country, including our own, are women and girls truly equal at any point, whether at the starting line or even at the finish line. So through no ceiling, were looking across the world, working with traditional data partners like the urn and world bank, as well as less traditional partners, like google and facebook and the telecom companies, to really understand where do we stand . What are our legal rights . What is our economic participation, what are the social stigmas that still exist . How are we using technology . Are we using technology in the days in which technology at the moment is revolutionizing the world in terms of not only access to technology but also thinking, information, education . Or not . And then looking for kind of where we are, understanding where we made the most progress from 1995 until today, in trying to correlate that progress to what has made the most difference, so that we know, those of us who care about this and think it is the right and the smart thing to do, to harness and focus our energies going forward. What laws have changed that have really made a difference . What social media campaigns around the world have really made a difference. What religious efforts have really made a difference . Whether inspiring more women to run for public office, whether in stopping child marriage, or anything in between or beyond. So im here today in part to have a conversation, which im looking forward to, because theres clearly no shortage of energy or enthusiasm. But also here to recruit all of you, because we know that only if those of us who are already interested and already believe that investing in women and girls is important, that it is the smart thing to do, i think theres probably a strong selection bias in this room toward that, but only if we make it cool, make it unavoidable, and make it necessary for others to Pay Attention will this truly become a movement to ensure that in 20 years were having a different conversation than the one were still having today. Because im frequently asked these days, maybe not surprisingly, what i hope for the child that mark and i are thrilled to welcome into the world later this year. [ applause ] oh, thank you. You know, one of the things that i deeply hope for is that the conversations that he or she will be having with his or her friends in his or her communities on a campus like this one will be radically different than the ones were having today because the world will look very different. I cant think of anything that would enable the world to look more different than if women and girls were ultimately and unequivocally enfranchised. I think that we do know a lot about what works but we dont know enough. So we hope that our work through no ceiling will inform all of our passions, all of our energies, all of our focus, and appropriately when necessary our anger, to ensure that all of the children that many of us in this room will some day have, will be in a room like this, if theyre so lucky to raise their hands and to have been selected, talking about what concerns them and what they want to see different in the world. But women and girls, rights, participation and opportunities wont be on the table because it will be taken for grant it because everyone will be given the opportunity that he or she deserves. Thats what i hope and what were focused on working to achieve. I hope that many of you will participate with us in the full participation agenda, and i look forward to the conversation that were going to have. So thank you to the university of maryland. Thank you to aaw, and again, most crucially, thank you to all of you for caring enough to be here on a hot summer day. And even more for the work that youve done and perhaps more profoundly for the work that youll do. Thank you very much. [ applause ] i just want to start off by saying thank you for that powerful and moving speech that you just did. I literally have goose bumps, and im sure the audience feels the same way. So one more round of applause for chelsea. [ applause ] as you know, were here today in a room full of 900 plus talented and aspiring individuals here, many of us College Students, and so were talking about leadership and so im going to start with the fundamental question. What does leadership mean to you . [ inaudible ] it can be something very specific about something that you want to change in a recycling program, or it can be something quite comprehensive, like something you want to revolutionize in our health care system. But understanding how to translate that vision into a real action plan, and then having the mix of humility and courage to pursue it. Humility to be able to ask for help, because none of us know everything all the time. In fact, i think most of us know just a little bit most of the time. So to be able to ask for help to find the right partners along the way. And yet enough confidence in the importance of whatever that original motivation is that you stay the course, regardless of what obstacles arise. So leadership is having a vision, being able to translate that vision into an action plan. Being able to ask for help and having an enduring sense of purpose, so come what may your resiliency and your commitment carry you through to advance towards that vision. Thank you. [ applause ] something that resonated with me when you were talking about the resiliency piece, and i wanted to follow up with what challenges do you see that prevent women and girls from reaching leadership roles . Wow, a lot unfortunately. I guess i would pick three to highlight. The first is i think its really hard to imagine what you cant see. I think these hard for all of us in anything. Which is why i think its so important that those of you who are already by definition here today leaders continue to lead. Because youll never know how many other young people, particularly young girls youll inspire along the way. I think often one of the ceiling that we face is a ceiling of imagination. So one, i think its hard to imagine what you cant see. Two, i think that we need to do more to be honest ant what particular challenges girls do face. There are many reasons why there is a dropoff, a serious dropoff between first, second and third graders who in equal numbers, girls and boys, are performing well in math, are inspired to be engineers or astronauts, scientists, and then fourth, fifth and sixth grade, those numbers plummet, both in terms of achievement and ambition. We know there are lots of reasons that thats happening. So we need to be candid about those reasons, that the differences in the way teachers treat boy and girl students. That sometimes girls are more likely to learn in more interactive ways so need to be engaged more readily. We have a lot of data to back that up, so we need to have candid conversations and then can