The communicators. Madam chair, thanks for being with us. Guest thank you for having me. Host before we get into some of the issues, some of the telecommunications and technical issues that your committee deals with, i wanted to ask you abot s. T. E. M. Education. You come from a science background, science education. What is your committee doing when it comes to s. T. E. M. Education and what do you think congress should be doing . Guest let me start with the committee. The committee has passed out two major pieces of legislation that was bipartisan. A matteroffact passed on a consent calendar but it has a long way to go in the senate. It is extraordinarily important that we not only just spread the word but also put in instruments in the empire but, the education environment, to make sure that women and minorities are told about the important of s. T. E. M. Courses. Innovation is our future and if we dont have the people educated and trained and we see a lack of the brainpower now with affecting the emigration. H1b visas are topped out. We are seeing fewer and fewer students coming from india and from china, where we have had lots of support in that area. We just saw a recently, for example, the nobel laureates. None of them were johnson, jones or smith. That tells us much of our brainpower has been imported. We want to be in a position to furnish our own brainpower. The only way we are going to ever be able to do that is to educate women and minorities in the s. T. E. M. Fields. That comes in many categories. Weve even going to phrase recently called bluecollar s. T. E. M. , where no amount of phds or graduate degrees might even be necessary to have those skills, to be very innovative and to be a good workforce that is producing some of the innovation. Host joining us in a conversation today is covers technology for the washington post. Thanks for having on the show. I wanted to followup on the point you just made around s. T. E. M. Education and diversity. For the past five years weve seen Silicon ValleyTech Companies make promises to diversify their workforces but they repeatedly put up reports that show the numbers have changed that much. What do you think that companies to they be doing to address diversity in tech . Were just beginning to release the results of our second study. Way back when i first joined the committee congresswoman and i did legislation to ask for research as to why more women and minorities without going into the fields and remaining. We did find some interesting findings and still remain true today, that is the hostility that women sometimes find in maledominated professions from the past. It is no longer should be maledominated because, first of all, we have more women now than men, and with more minorities coming on to the forefront so should be inclusive. We need all the talent we can get, and we got to make sure that the opportunities for women in childbearing age and whatever other ages might have the opportunity to be into these fields. And like i just mentioned earlier, we are broadening the s. T. E. M. Education to include what we consider bluecollar s. T. E. M. , Workforce Readiness, Community Collegelevel education, and sometimes high school. We are about to lose our edge in innovation. We cannot afford to do that. We must the very forceful in making sure there are opportunities that young people are aware of, and especially women, that there are many opportunities. Because we are in the age of innovation. We cannot stay on the world stage without having people that are into with innovation. Weve got to mold those and guide that innovative thinking, creative thinking and critical thinking. Madam chair, your committee recently hosted a hearing on Artificial Intelligence and i wanted to ask you, as Artificial Intelligence is becoming more probably, how do you think the u. S. Approach distance Education Needs to evolve . Guest its getting to be more important than ever. Artificial intelligence, we are just beginning to crack the ice and looked into the area. Weve had some hearings to look at the type of research we need to do. I do not want to sit around and think that Artificial Intelligence is going to disappear. Weve got to be ready for that innovation and weve got to make sure the workforce is ready. And its critical. And while were doing a lot of focuses on many other things, that is our future. Thats our Workforce Readiness future. Host is it important that the u. S. Quoteunquote the china when it comes to ai . Guest its important that we keep pace, and hopefully sometime we will lead. But were not investing the same amount of time nor money into research to keep up with china. That is a concern that i have. We cannot dream or assume that we can keep up with those investments. We got to invest in the research and invest in the education. I wanted to follow up, last night at the democratic debate automation was a key issue that came up and one president ial candidate, and her gang, has been proposing a universal basic income to address the changes in work that i i may bring to this economy. What you think of those proposals for universal basic income . Guest thats an idea we need to entertain. Im not going to shut the door on any idea of that sort because we are challenged by our future. We in this country are losing ground. We cannot afford that. We have got to invest in order to have the returns on the investment. Just wanted to also ask you more broadly, tech issues or come up more and more on the debate stage last night. What you think of the proposals weve seen from lawmakers like senator warren to break up big tech . Guest thats yet to be explored. However, i will say that all of the ideas that are coming forth, we have seen been coming over the years, and many of these idea started at the development of the chip, the semiconductor, which was developed right in the backyard of where i represent. And so many of the innovative ideas are being put to work there. A good example is that texas was one of the first states to do Distance Learning with schools because we didnt have teachers going into some of the rural areas. That developed into distant medicine. So as a state with innovation we are constantly saying robots doing room service in hotels. We are also just recently starting to look at robots handling luggage at the dallasfort worth airport. We just started in may with ubs delivering from arizona and colorado ups packaging. When we see that happening right in our faces without any prior preparation necessarily, we know theres more to come, and we must be ready for it. Not only should wait to see that its coming, we ought to be a part of that development and weve got to take some responsibility to make sure we have the skills. We now see that Autonomous Vehicle travel is probably right here on the horizon. We need to focus more and getting people who are customer driving the trucks behind some computer or some technology to help to drive them, we find the driving of those trucks. It is not too soon. As a matter of fact four years ago i started started talking trying to do legislation to start to train truck drivers. It failed. We were never able to get it sold that we could get the support to get enabling legislation passed those killed in the city. Some ideas this is about what happened. We see that it is going to happen. We cannot we started this evolution of innovation with technologies and Artificial Intelligence with our own research. Now we are letting the rest of the world passed us by. We cannot afford that. We have got the people that are capable of getting the education and training, and we could take responsibility to make sure they are trained. Weve got to make sure with adequate training areas, and we really have got to make sure that we are encouraging young minds to think more critically, to make better choices in choosing with a major in. And perhaps even making a choice of coming to Community College for Workforce Development that may be going to a Fouryear College at the beginning. But weve got to do some innovation and her own thinking and her own guides to make sure that we remain as a part of the cutting edge. I cant say remain the cutting edge because were just about to lose that adage, but we cant afford to do it. Weve got to beef it up. Host you referenced Texas Instruments and the chip and the silicon chip, but what about your district today . How hightech is it . Guest my district is pretty high hightech. We are trying to be ready to face that hightech as a part of it. Our Community Colleges are stepping up. We just had a large grant, the Work Force Development presented it a couple weeks ago from google here this will continue, but what i am more concerned about whether or not were receptive enough to start to emphasize from the time when people start school, the critical thinking, the guidance, we need more counselors to try to make sure that we are not missing out on talent that could become very natural. Host what is the concerns thats been expressed over several years of hearings in congress is that congress is not tech savvy. Whats your take . Guest well, any idea like that at least part of it is true. But we have got to be more focused on our future. We cant be more focused we cannot be even more focused on her future than being focused on innovation. That is what is driving the world. Lots of goods and lots of services. We have gotten five dollars for every dollar weve invested, and that is just the beginning. Were still talking but even more research but weve got to be much more realistic in involving a lot more young people into thinking. It is not just the exclusive highminded. Weve got to include all of our minds in order to meet the challenge. I wanted to ask, you talked about s. T. E. M. Education and efforts to stay focus on innovation and the future in congress, but as this politically divided moment in washington, as impeachment really heats up, do you think that theres bipartisan will in congress to pass some of these measures that you have mentioned . Guest let me just say that in the science, space and Technology Committee this year, most of 95 of the legislation that is, out of that committee has been very bipartisan. We have focused on that. It should not be partisan. Technology is not partisan. Technology doesnt see what color, what gender, other than inclusiveness. We are continuing to Work Together as a committee. We have a very robust committee, very bright, some new minds and some returning members. But we of new energy, new interest, and we are covering areas of interest. I cant say were getting the attention we really deserve, t we are doing hard work and its hard work that is going to matter in the future. On that point i knew there was recently a hearing on deep fakes, videos that are edited with Artificial Intelligence to make it look like people are doing or saying things that never happened. That seemed to be an area where there was a lot of bipartisan concern. As we get closer and closer to the 2020 election, do you think the Tech Companies are doing enough to address disinformatio disinformation . Guest that is difficult to tell. I think that we need to be more knowledgeable so that we also can be involved in knowing what we need to look for so that we will know ourselves when its off course. That is the challenge. Its a challenge because we have not been on this road before, but there are many of the roads that are going to be coming along that we have not been before that weve got to make sure we step up to the plate. And it has to be bipartisan. You know, the constitution is not partisan. The responsibility to this nation is not partisan. Weve allowed ourselves to fall into a lot of partisan some and i hope will see much of that begin to come to an end as we focus on what we really need to focus on for our future, and that is innovation and thinking and working together. We are not in a fight with each other. We are in competition with the rest of the world, and we want to be relevant. Host there is some talk though that the social media companies, twitter, facebook, some of these platforms, insight partisanship. Guest i think thats very true, and i think thats because we allow it. Weve got to be more aggressive in making sure theres responsibility there. I think im beginning to see some of those questions and some of that responsibility beginning to show. On that point about responsibility wanted to ask you about what you think the Tech Companies responsibility is when it comes to political content. Weve seen in recent weeks that facebook has announced it doesnt want to act as a referee when it comes to content politicians post on its site. Weve seen twitter hold content from politicians to different standard, not taking it down when it might otherwise violate their policies. This is been a contentious issue with democrats recently. So do you think facebook and twitter should take action when the president uses their platforms to spread falsehood . Guest i do. I know that theres, gets to be a pretty close edge, freedom of speech, but at the same time i think we ought to have freedom of responsibility. It should be as equal and as possible and not biased. Sometimes i think many of these platforms are very aware that much of this material is extorted and unfair because it is and a vibrant afraid of speech of speech, they just let it go. We have excepted which im not sure we should, that some channels are going to be toward one party or the other. I guess thats a democracy, but i think thats one of the reasons we need a lot of young, bright people coming along that will have these skills and technology who can challenge us as a nation to see whether that is real freedom of speech of whether its a distortion, both freedom and the speech. Host representative johnson, recent ipsos cspan poll showed Election Security is a major issue for the majority of voters and this is something your committee has looked at as well. Guest yes, we have, and i lived that. In this country weve always had a question as to whether or not theres real freedom and expression of ones vote. And that is critical to a democracy, and that is one of the things i feel very, very strongly about, and its not from anything thats necessary happen in the past. Its whats happening now with new technology. Host do you feel that this country is ready for the 2020 election when it comes to the technology and voting machine . Guest i cant tell you that i feel that confident that we are. I hope that we all work to get there, and hope that we really are all working to make sure that everyone has a fair chance to have their votes counted accurately without a lot of interference that have not been expected. The interesting thing about getting into all of this technology is that it does test whether or not we are focusing on the right interpretations of our constitution. Freedom of speech is one thing, and fairness when the net freedom of speech, accuracy, might have a challenge. Representative johnson, i just wanted to ask you about what the executive branch might be able to do to address Election Security. There was a recent Senate Intelligence report that said that the executive branch to do more to call out and raise awareness about misinformation ahead of the election. Do you agree with that . Guest yes, i agree with that. Also agree it is also been that executive branch has been questioned about their fairness. So youve got to start off with a clear platform to convince people that you really are looking for fairness. I do think its possible if weve got people in place that also feel that its possible, people in place, looking forward for a way to get around fairness. That brings into play character. Youve got to want to be honest to be honest. Host madam chair, when it comes to 5g, is this country ready for that new technology, for that new speed . Guest im not sure that i can answer that a yes or no. I think whether we are ready or not with me at these technologies, were going to experience them. I think our readiness will depend on whether or not we have the skills to protect the people and just to make sure that we can be honest and upfront of what we really are dealing with. I do think that technology has no boundaries. Its going to be the people who are guiding it to decide when we get beyond the morality of the technology. We cant continue to let things go without some degree of checking to be sure that we are reaching a fair balance. But now whether or not we can just get out there and stop technology, to me thats like saying four is ago, some people in this body, we need to look at some publicly responsibility for training the workforce because technology and innovation is going to alter it, and then the response was like, lets stop it. We cant stop it. Weve got to learn to deal with it with fairness and honesty and integrity. Host when you talk about that checks and balances system, what kind of a Regulatory Framework do you see . Guest we will have to have some Regulatory Framework i believe and regulations i believe indiscipline. What kind of platform winded, im not sure im in a position to tell you, but i do know this. With Good Research we can figure it out. I really strongly believe in good basic research to help us guide our way to the future because we are going to need it. I wanted to ask as you focus on innovation, as there is a a growing pressure on big tech in washington and more calls for privacy regulation and for content moderation regulation, do you worry that could have a negative impact on innovation and startups moving forward . Guest i think thats a part of the environment. Very honestly, im not so sure how much privacy we can depend on in getting it done. I do think there should be respect for privacy. Everybody wants privacy, but at the same time the majority of people are participating in many these technologies that removes travesty. That is a challenge we face and that is one that we cannot run away from. Weve got to be a part of the decision making. Weve got to be a part of protecting the public, a