Coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online or listen on the free radio app. Be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. This week on the communicators, our guest is representative frank lucas, republican of oklahoma, and the Top Republican on the science, tech, and space committee. Joining us as our guest reporter gopal ratnam of cq roll call. Thank you for being on the communicators this week. Congressman, what have we learned when it comes to technology in the last couple of months, and whats the role of congress in advancing that . Rep. Lucas i think we have come to finally appreciate as a nation how absolutely important it is that we maintain our technological edge
That we move forward and make sure its accessible to all americans across all landscapes. I cant imagine as a member of congress how we would have functioned in this pandemic without the ability to use a variety of conferencing and communication technologies, not just the traditional phone calls we use for our Republican House conferences but with zima and web acts and a whole variety of platforms to move information back and forth and that is just not in politics and just not in the legislative process but listening to my friends in the industry but its been an absolute necessity because many of them have only spent a minimal amount of time in the office in the last 90 days just as i have spent a minimal amount in my office and last 90 days. So, what is the role of congress in advancing that . Guest we are a facilitator. This is something that going back to the telecommunication acts of the 1930s and things that essentially if everyone in the country will have the best technology and
Cable television companies. Peter this week on the communicators, our guest is representative frank lucas, republican of oklahoma, and the Top Republican on the science, tech, and space committee. Joining us as our guest reporter gopal ratnam of cq roll call. Thank you for being on the communicators this week. Congressman, what have we learned when it comes to technology in the last couple of months, and whats the role of congress in advancing that . Rep. Lucas i think we have come to finally appreciate as a nation how absolutely important it is that we maintain our technological edge and that we move forward. We make sure it is accessible to all. I cant imagine as a member of congress how we would have functioned in this pandemic without the ability to use a variety of conferencing and communications technology. Not just the traditional phone calls that we use for our Republican House conference, but webex, and a whole variety of platforms to move information back and forth. Thats not
Advance. Everyone needs a chance to prosper. And broadband, the internet, modern communications is to us what pencil and tablet was to my greatgrandparents 100 years ago. Peter lets bring our guest reporter, gopal ratnam, from cq roll call into our conversation. Gopal thank you for having me, peter. And congressman lucas, thank you for taking this time to speak. I want to ask you about the proposal you have, that you put out in january, asking for an increase in spending on federal r d. Among the things that you called for is a boost in spending on Artificial Intelligence, biotech and quantum computing. But given the pandemic we are amidst now, 120,000 plus americans have died, is there anything that you would change in terms of areas of focus, areas of research where such federal spending to be applied . Could be applied . Rep. Lucas i think what we have seen in recent weeks demonstrates not just the need, but the magnitude of the resources that are necessary. When legislation was bei
Make sure its accessible to all americans across the landscape. I cant imagine as a member of congress how we would have functioned in this pandemic without the ability to use a variety of conferencing and communications technologies, not just the traditional phone calls we use for our Republican House conferences but zoom and webex and a whole variety of platforms to move information back and forth. Thats not just in politics. Not just in the legislative process. Listening to my friends and industry its been a necessity because many have spent a minimal amount of time in the office in the last 90 days just as i sped a minimal amount of time in my office in the last 90 days. Host so whats the role of congress in advancing that or is there a a role . Guest we are a facilitator. This is something that going all the way back to the telecommunication act of the 1930s, things that essentially everyone in the country is going to have the best technology and if its going to be widely availabl