Of ways that it can have an impact, both on the hiring and employee side, as well as on the owner side. On the hiring side, setting standards for hiring contracts with vendors can set a high bar for companies that are receiving the Public Airways to live up to those sorts of standards on the structure that can impact the ownership side. Perverting competition. He surely set off structures that allow for small women and minor minor owned businesses to create compete in the auctions. You may not have all the ideas but we are interested in finding out what other ideas can be brought forward and celebrate the chamber recently reinstating the Advisory Committee on diversity and digital empowerment. Those are the sorts of things we love to see at the fcc where stakeholders can come together and come up with other tactics to promote diversity. Thank you chairman, my time is up. , we hear from senator blackburn. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for being here to talk about this issue today. Mrs. Baker, i want to start with the first. Any issue you have heard me talk about is having an inventory of all the spectrum that is held by federal agencies. And, i was i would like for you to speak to the importance of why we ought to do this and we look at reupping the Spectrum Authority. Why it would be useful to have this if we look at the five team build out . Thank you for the question. It is important. I will go back saying the next spectrum we allocate needs to be banned. It is government spectrum. Two thirds of the midband is government spectrum. Any inventory would be helpful so we can know who is using the spectrum efficiently and who is not. That will help us as we use the relocation thumb that this committee so brilliantly passed it is so brilliant in relocating agencies. At think us to move forward, it is important to know what is there and what the value is and how it is being utilized so we know what is needed to reallocate it. Absolutely. I want to come to you now because she meant and the different federal agencies that kind of compete. Recently, we have seen what i would call a lot of sharp elbows between the dod and the fcc and the ntia and, lets see, the and other agencies. Why is it important for your recommendations to minimize this and how would an inventory help us to minimize to see differences between agencies in the turf battles that seem to be coming about over this spectrum. Thank you senator blackburn for that question. I would first mention that there is an inventory of federal spectrum uses. Ntia holds the government master file. We have ongoing work that we have mandated through the last ndaa for us to look exactly at that house. Various systems like that are holding that information and making changes and updates to those systems. I would just mention that there are a couple things that the file may not have. Things like where this might be used or the time at which the trim is used the spectrum is used. That would be information that is useful for reallocating spectrum and certain circumstances in finding out places where spectrum can be shared. I would go back to the recommendations we have in our report with respect to how we can avoid some of these between agencies in the future. It really goes to ordination among the agencies and and tia engaging with the agency and ntia engaging with the other agencies. I think the mou goes a long way as a great first step in terms of making the early coordination opportunities happen. One of the things you mentioned, strength spectrum, because we do have some agencies leaving spectrum unused for long periods of time. That is spectrum that could be shared. Dr. Basal, i am interested in your understanding of the ceos warning that she mentioned in your testimony. It seems like with your prior career experience that she would have helpful insight into how scoring may factor into a potential reauthorization. And what the spectrum Authorization Authority would look like. The subcommittee of energy and Congress Helped work on the raybons act. It was a big point of conversation, how this was going to end up being scored. In your view, what are the pros and cons of the 18 month reauthorization that is as opposed to going ahead into being a one year or four year we authorization . Thank you for the question. If the reauthorization for 18 months allows for the work to be done to have more direct scoring in a longer bill, that could be useful. We all appreciate that at the end of the day, we want Spectrum Authority to be there for a long time. Even if you extend authority for four years or 10 years, or is still any opportunity for congress to come have direct reallocation. Those reallocations will score positively. It will not score as highest they would, if they also include the authorization aspect. It would still have a positive score. It is a tradeoff and judgment as to whether or not a longerterm is necessary. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you senator blackburn. Next, we will hear from senator klobuchar. Thank you so much mr. Chairman and thank you for doing this really important hearing. I will start with you mr. Ruiz. I cochair the 911 caucus with senator byrd. An estimated 244 million million calls are made 201 centers annually. This Critical Public Service that we all rely on, relies on outdated technology. Some places take text messages. You can imagine someone in an emergency, why would they think to use text message . I am lead legislations to modernize americas 911 systems to hander text, pictures and video and other information sent by smartphone. Option revenue should be invested into Public Interest of subjectives. Dear green 911 infrastructure is in dire need of modernization . Yes and i would include the on the list of public objectives. I will go on and thank you for your support for the American Innovation choice online act. I appreciate the support of you and many others. This mrs. Baker, in your testimony, headed to the 5g benefit to the u. S. , putting improvements of Public Safety. How can 5g and other technology be leveraged to advance public communication yet thank you for your question and your leadership on 911. We are grateful that you have raised these issues for the next generation of 911 preand as far as the funds go, it is up to congress to spend them but that is certainly a word because it is ripped in places. The important thing in my job is to continue to bring people to the option auction so you can spend as you wish to improve Public Safety. In aws3, we created a bill for congress to spend these funds which are a great opportunity to enact your priorities. Thank you. Back to mr. Lewis, chairman wicker and i joined in introducing the precision act precision connectivity act. Then i dropped coverage. Chairman lohan has that incredible work on broadband. A lot of us care a lot about it. Especially when it comes to prison history. We also water levels so we do not you overuse water and we are seeing droughts. How can we make sure our farmers have access to modern internet capabilities and take full advantage of these new technologies and what role does spectrum play here . Spectrum policy can play an Important Role in promoting a variety of uses. Like precision in row areas, we have already seen precision, agriculture, and can make use of the cprs spectrum band. Under the third tier of a general access authority. This means they are hopefully working in concert with each other, under the standards of working in concert with the incumbent prioritization. This still makes great use for Rural Farmers and precision agriculture. The are also seeing wifi used in some areas through tv white spaces in order to promote precision agriculture. Setting up auctions into the future but making sure that sharing unlicensed and i sent officers are possible and licensed officers are possible. Last question. As we develop new technologies to deploy and maintain 5g, it is important to find Innovative Solutions that make the most of available spectrum. Especially the constraint on spectrum growth. In your testimony, you say this is important to meeting future spectrum needs. How can sharing techniques deliver more Consistent Service to consumers . The new technology, such as more creative boost and incentive auctions, but the database to manage sharing systems are newly innovated to create more value from spectrum and a way to find the uses of spectrum. Those will be a key feature Going Forward in making thrilled that we liked her as possible. Use spectrum as efficiently as possible. Thank you senator and thank you for the work you do every day. Next we will hear from senator moran. Thank you very much for your presence and your words and the wisdom you are imparting. I first want to to my colleagues on this and the full committee that i am supportive of an 18 month Auction Authority extension to the fcc. As probably the best path forward but i also would indicate, you said this and i think it is important, that i Want Congress to have a role in the determining of spectrum auctions and where the proceeds go. As you indicated, we have been left out. We also noticed on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that we were unable to get any credit for offsets as a result of the fact that congress had no where in that regard to how the proceeds were spent. I question my questions have generally been asked by my colleagues but i would turn to ask the department of reallocated spectrum does not always go smoothly . You seen that recently with the 5g deployment delay. One of the prime issues that was found in setting the ntia and fcc spectrum policies is there is an adequate coordination. He suggests a number of ways to improve coordination. Through those recommendations, any of them, account for the recently encountered cspan by deployment. If not, how would you recommend providing similar occurrences in the future in terms of Agency Coordination . It is hard to say exactly. With that issue in abc bands but the recommendations can go to some of these issues that came up. There was certainly opportunities early on for the faa to express concerns. Those are concerns that were not expressed so more and earlier coordination between the fcc and ntia. Heads up to the fcc to ntia that these proceedings would allow the faa and fcc to explore the issues and make sort of desperately issues to light. I think those recommendations will come up. It sounds like the usual communications that we hear regularly that fails to occur. I sponsored an amendment in you sica that would work to ensure the u. S. Is leading in interNational Standards. This is probably for you mr. Van hollen, including the National Intelligence commission. These had a lack of space for enjoyment to be reduced to their underpaid their underpaid. My amendment was negotiated in the final chips and science act agreements. You mentioned in your written terror written testimony that the lack of faith has hurt participation in federal bodies. Can you elaborate on how a lack of coordination hurts this and what congress can do to ensure u. S. Leadership . Thank you for that question. Our work looks specifically at negotiations around the 24 gigahertz band. What occurred there was that there was no technical basis for the u. S. Position that was brought to the international proceeding. That was what undermined the u. S. Position, at least for some. So, our recommendations were not only for the fcc and ntia, to improve their processes, but also other federal agencies involved to ensure they are working with fcc the end ntia the fcc and ntia to get into the kind of work that goes into those proceedings. Also made recommendations to update the general guidance document which governs the proceedings which is a state Department Document that gives various players what roles they should be playing. We thought both of both of those things should be given. Do you have a sense of whether the recommendations are being followed . We have not seen this. But the mou have. Would you remind me why it is important for us to plead to these International Agencies that may be that is a policy issue. Perhaps something that is beyond to apply on. Anyone . Think the issue we are talking about was the 24 gigahertz and the world radio conference. U. S. Took a position and then later, looking forward, the way this can be helped is if an tia ntia is on board for decisions. If the experts make a decision, maybe we need to allow them to have more expertise. When they make a decision, it needs a final and that is what congress intended we have certainly mentioned that this will help but once a decision has been made, whether it is reality or not, the fcc for the commercial five site there whether it is federal spectrum and ntia need to have the final say. They need to be the final arbiter. We cannot have agencies going behind them. All the discussions need to have above need to happen before these have taken place. I am an appropriate for ntia and if there is ways we can try to get their attention, i would be interested in doing so. Thank you. Next will hear from senator markey. Your questions. Thank you mr. Chairman. We are in a period of enormously rapid change. Psychologically, artificial intelligence, 5g. Zoom and all of this moving very rapidly. But, thank goodness because also, any developments. In how to more efficiently use the spectrum which we have. And to improve upon our competitors. Will you take this question and explain how the recent technological changes are making more spectrum available for our use . It is not just more but more efficient use of spectrum. Have a market now that was very different. The spectra market looks very different than a couple decades ago or even a decade ago. We have updated and finer tuned our instruments. Many of the fights we have seen between agencies could be solved with early planning and early engagements. But also, making sure that we are looking at certain standard for the equipment that is used. This needs to be done early. I think this is why looking to a longerterm option authority can send the signal from congress that it is needed and we want to avoid those types of problems in the future. And unlicensed users are also important. Using disruptors. They are change agents and experiment that and experiments. We have to make sure we carve a space for them in this world. I would like to talk as well about spectrum options which do raise significant amount of money. Less than in the past but still a ton of revenue. They are made available. Just looked over at a real me. During the pandemic, we saw that there was 1217 million children that did not have internet at home. We were able, and i led the effort, to put in 7 million for an emergency cost activity fund. So that kids who work from home can have it. That funding is starting to run out. So, could you look at this issue for us mr. Lewis, and talk about whether or not these revenues should be dedicated to ensuring that we have a permanent emergency Connectivity Fund. So that no child, especially black, brown, or immigrant children in the country are left behind. Thank you for tiffany the emergency connectivity on. I served on my local school board for two terms and we lived that experience, with students who were not connected in the home and the homework help is real with the disadvantages they have put their peers. I think there is a number of sources of funding that can be used to continue. We talked about the airways that are absolutely ideal where auction revenue can be used in setaside for directly in the front that can include some Educational Needs from the ecf. Of course, congress can always, because options do not come in a regular schedule, congress can always appropriate more money. But certainly, it is a critical of making sure everyone is connected for a high speed and quality connectivity. Are going to have kids 20 years from now looking back at their childhoods and saying they left me behind, i was not connected. And it will harm them. I just think, with the revenues in the race, we have to ensure we focus on answering everyone gets access. That is what the virtual Connectivity Fund is and i think that should get a part of any revenues. Net utility, Everyone Wants competition and wants to make sure this darwinian paranoia, inducing competition environment , and that is what the trailer to is all about as well. I introduced legislation that couple days ago which widened. We have a couple dozen of our colleagues who signed on to talk about how important that hlt is to ensuring we have a marketplace important Net Neutrality is to ensuring that we have a marketplace. Net neutrality is important to prevent harmful discrimination by providers and services being gatekeepers of the internet. For years now, we have had providers committing to adhere to those principles. But we still have a number of examples over the years we have not had clear Net Neutrality rules Expert Agency like the fcc. They dont have the authority to discover now. Restoring those rules and that authority i think is essential. I agree with you. Net neutrality means nondiscrimination. We cant allow determination on the net. I will continue with senator like many west virginians, i am concerned this tax increase will increase closing the Digital Divide as these companies will have fewer dollars to 2. 5 g and other spectral capabilities. Is it your understanding that enacting the 50 minimum tax on the tax and spend bill will raise taxes, thereby raising prices on already financially strapped consumers . It is. I am hoping for a technical correction so we can consider spectrum option holdings the same as other infrastructure holdings. It will raise taxes. It is retroactive on the over 200 million carriers have spent on spectrum as well as proactively i think they will have to come up with a tax to pay for what they actually already hold. We can harm the Di