The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington, d. C. , april 4, 2016. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable bill cassidy, a senator from the state of louisiana, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed, orrin g. Hatch, president pro tempore. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the Senate Majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell id like to welcome our colleagues back from their state work periods. The senate has gotten a lot done under e new majority and will continue well continue our work today. But first i want to remember the daily sacrifice of our Capitol Police in light of the inciden
Posted this week on the communicators a discussion of the fccs proposal to open up the settop box market to competition and what that might mean for consumers and businesses. Joining us are two guests on both sides of this issue. George ford is a chief economist and mark cooper is Research Director for the Consumer Federation of america. Mr. Cooper what do you think about what they have proposed . Guest competition the settop market. We want competition, competition, competition. We think consumers would have lower prices and more choices if we got bigger as competition to. Host george ford. Guest they asked the question whether the settop docsis competitive. Actually the first question this is their market for set top docsis and the answer really in terms of what is delivered over cable network, no because the settop boxes are a component of the network as opposed to delivering Cable Television service so its the cheapest way to do it in the most efficient way to do it. Host lets brin
Really hasnt, and we think consumers would have lower prices and more choices if we got vigorous competition into that space. Host george ford. Guest well, the fccs nprm asked the question whether the settop box is competitive, the first question x. Actually the first question is, is there a market for settop boxes, and in terms of whats delivered over the Cable Network, no, because the settop box is actually a component of the network. Thats the most efficient way to design and deliver Cable Television service, so its the cheapest way to do it, the most efficient way to do it, is so no market has developed. The companies would prefer a market if it was more efficient to do it that way. Host lets bring in lydia beyoud as well, she is with bloomberg bna where she coffers telecommunications. Thank you. So to follow up on both of your questions, chairman wheeler in introducing this proposed rule said he want withs to open up wants to open up whats been a closed market and make it more lik
Meeting of the longterm budget for not able to all of what theres a lot of pieces we can work on and hopefully we can break it into areas of interest for members on the hill to work on and i would say key is bipartisan. Each piece has to be addressed by the republicans and democrats together. I think the maya is right on target. Our history, we have never had a Budget Commission that has exceeded. That tradeoffs are too broad. Weve had pieces, however. As closer commission is probably everyones best example. Members of Congress Want to be bailed out. They wanted to have someone else make those painful decisions. We dont have that with most budget issues. One of the other examples of the property and plant and equipment for federal agencies, a proposal to the commission if it doesnt already exist to close Certain Agency field offices and properties. Thats an example of for our Something Like that might work but i think we tend to resort to much to this notion of a process fix that a con
Have more internet broadband customers than we have other customers. That is universal. Peter matt said, do you provide dfull spectrum that said, provide a full spectrum of cable tv options do you provide a full spectrum of cable tv options . Yes. A fiber rich kovacs coaxial design. We have full service on television, two way, home gateways, video on demand, local advertising. We do everything the large cable tv operators do, just better. Same do you face the regulatory issues that comcast would face . Yes, we do. Technically we do. There are certainly some exceptions that have been negotiated or created over time. I like to think we do not face the same scrutiny. One because we mind our peas and qs. P and peter is a profitable . Absolutely. Peter is cable tv profitable . It depends on how you define cable tv. I dont know that the television element on its own is highly profitable. The content costs have become high. For example, our basic Cable Tv Service the usual 100 channels cost a