Pennsylvania and is chair of the energy and commerce subcommittee on communications and technology. Congressman doyle, that subcommittee is really key to telecom policy, isnt it . Guest it sure is but it is the Key Committee in congress that deals with telling mitigation policies and a lot of interesting type of issues with more to come. Host we will explore some of those in this next half hour but i want to start with some news that came out this week which is the sec declaring while way and is et corporations to security threats which what is your view of that . I think there is some validity to that and that is one of the reasons why you saw the bill we passed in the energy and Commerce Committee with greg and myself which is, now were just waiting for the appropriators to put some money in it because we estimated it will take one, 2 million to assist the Smaller Companies that fought that equipment to make that whole so we can remove the equipment and put the other equipment in. We have been generally supportive of that and we are hopeful that the appropriators will put the sufficient funds in the bill so that can happen. Host here to help all of us explore the issues that your subcommittee is facing is chris roderigo with the hill and covers technology. Thank you for having me. Guest hello, chris. Just before getting into the policy specifics i was curious to know how the coronavirus pandemic has shifted the priorities of you and your subcommittee. Guest yeah, well, its obviously made it much more difficult to schedule hearings and to do our normal course of business. We had a hearing last week on disinformation and im sure that something we will talk about later in the program. We dont, at this time as i am speaking, know when our next hearing will be scheduled. There are six committees in the energy and commerce and there is also a limited amount of floor time as we move into the august recess and leadership wanting to get certain pieces of legislation to the floor so those will take precedent in depending on whos committee or subcommittee they are in. Its normal operations and maybe more difficult but we are learning this Technology Using zoom and web acts and other medias to be able to conduct our hearings and so far we have been able to do it without too many glitches. Do you see potential to use digital know not moving forward on the based on the experiences . Guest i am kind of old school but i like that were in the hearing room with our colleagues and its especially difficult where we have contentious hearings to make sure that people want to be recognized whether it is a debate going on and when i think is a healthy debate when it is being done on zoom with a bunch of brains and you are not sure who is yelling to know it is them talking and so it has its purpose and obviously, given the situation we are in right now, its pretty able that we are to continue to duck conduct our business. My staff all works remotely from their homes here in pittsburgh and in washington dc and we able to get our work done and respond to our constituents and we have to cut our committee worked on two to make sure that we are getting product to the store that is important to the American People so this has been critical and i think the other thing this pandemic has illustrated is the importance of broadband. When you think about it, right now, people are really dependent on not only does for their work but how are educating our students and groceries in medicine and so much of what we depend on in everyday life we would not be able to do it if we did not have productivity like this and there is a lot of people in the country they dont so that is one of the challenges we have to make sure that we fix that problem and look at infrastructure. Host congressman doyle, Congress Sometimes moves a little slower than events in real life and how have you been able, as you say, move some product to the floor. Guest again, we would like to do things through regular order and we talked about this a lot when House Democrats first put back the majority in the house and i think that to the extent that situation allows us and that is how we like to do business to have our hearings and subcommittee go to full committee and then the floor. As we have seen recently this isnt always possible, especially when we are trying to get our work done before the august recess and we still have a number of appropriation bills to get to the floor these last two weeks of july. We have the heroes act that is passed the house of representatives is still waiting on Mitch Mcconnell to open his mouth and Say Something that he wants to sit down and negotiate and receive proposals by mr. Baldwin and senator wicker but we dont see numbers because apparently over in the senate and in the administration they are not willing to talk money yet. My hope is that during this twoweek recess when we are still doing things virtually and markups i know are committees are scheduled to do our cups, not this next week but the following week, virtually that there are some discussions going on so that we get those back last two weeks we have something to vote on relative to another package, whether its takes the form of what we have in the heroes package or in a different direction but we need to get something done before the august recess and i think that is what weighing heavily on our leadership and whatever bills we need to move to make that happen and those will be expedited, probably not go through the process that we are normally would take. Host what are you hearing from the zooms in the web acts of the world and how you can best assist them . Guest i think this has been a valuable tool, quite frankly. I think we just got their primary election on june 2 and this was a very strange time to be running and i had a competitive race and normally, you do the door to Door Campaign and have debates and rallies and everything goes to zoom at Community Meetings move to zoom, debates on that like we are doing right here with my local television stations. We are done with this format. Its become an invaluable tool for Small Businesses and for the conduct of business in the country during a pandemic when so many of us are working out of our homes because it is not safe to work in large numbers inside enclosed areas. So, you know, we want the technology to work and we want to be safe and secure and we know for official hearings markups that we get web acts technology, as opposed to zoom because our technical folks thanks theres more security there but this technology will keep Getting Better and i think we will use it more, maybe not so much in the hearings and markups in the United States congress but i thank you will see business continue to be conducted this way and im just not quite sure that a lot of businesses will ever go back to the way they used to do things. Once we get through this pandemic and hopefully have a backseat and it is safe and it works so that we can get back to some degree of normalcy. One issue you hinted at before is broadband. Its taken on more with people relying on the internet. The accessible affordable internet for all act was moving forward act and obviously investment of one or 2 billion with underserved areas as well as portable broadband offerings for anyone that receives that funding. Do you think that potentially being independent legislation from the moving forward act, given the opposition from the president and Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell. Welk. Guest , there will be a negotiation and there was a lot of comment on the floor about which broadband is going in for transportation and the necessity to the large infrastructure bill and the concrete when we talk about infra structure were just not talking about roads and bridges. When you think about it, broadband is the infrastructure of the future. This will be the basis for the 21st century economy. It is critical that we, not just put money to get broadband to underserved areas but we are talking about upgrading the entire system to increase the speeds and efficiency. We are talking about using it to close the homework gap. We dont know if kids will go back to school in the fall and we hope they do and im sure parents hope they are going to school to but we all know and just Distance Learning will be a real thing and we still have a lot of people in this country they dont have access to broadband or the equipment and we have to close that homework gap. Part of what we did in this package is to do that too. We want to update our 911 service and that is important. There are some of the things and parts of moving this economy forward in the direction that congress is taking that is digital now and the United States should be at the forefront of that. The investment in the broadband package and if you know jim clyburn, normally does work in the space and step forward and be someone that has worked closely with myself on this package. [inaudible] part of the infrastructure package we just voted on and we dont know. We know that we still have to negotiate with our Senate Counterparts and still have to appropriate money and there has to be some agreement about how much money is on the table for broadband and the republicans on how we get legislation passed. We cant work when the other side doesnt open their mouth and Say Something. Were anxious to hear from Mitch Mcconnell and the president and we know the senator has there is no money [inaudible] so my hope is over the next two weeks while we are at home doing these hearings virtually that negotiations starts out that you can start something before we leave in august to get something on the table. I think its very important. There seem to be to particular areas that have come out a broadband and how to increase the concern during this pandemic which is telehealth and closing the homework gap. On this tele appropriated 20 million to do telehealth work. Earlier this month or rather last month now you and your energy and commerce chair, representative and sent a letter to fcc chair, chairman pi asking how it might have been distributed. Have you gotten a response on that yet . Guest we are concerned about the transparency of this program and we want to get more information as to how these grants are being sent out in our helpful organizations and we want transparency on how that process works and who is getting these grants. The concern has been that there hasnt been that transparency so we have written to chairman pie and has been asking him to make sure that this is a program that not only run efficiently but transparency and weve requested information on healthcare institutions with funding and basically what is the criteria being used to judge who gets an award and who doesnt get an award. We are still waiting to get that information. Other further steps you are considering taking to maybe have more oversight over that fcc process . Guest if we are not getting cooperation and if we dont think the process is transparent and not working sufficiently that i think it will smother the scrutiny of the committee. That is something we will look into. Our hope is that we can get some answers from the chairman and make sure the programs run in weight that is transparent. There are other legislation proposed on telehealth, including a bill in the senate that would make the changes in the care act permanent which would allow the health for geographical limitations using telehealth. [inaudible] guest you know, im not intimately familiar with the what the senate has done so i cant give you a definite answer on that and obviously we want to expand telehealth benefits across the country and i just have to take a closer look before i could give you a good answer on that. Beyond the obvious current reduction in risk from using telehealth what do you see as the potential benefits for expanding telehealth . Guest i look at my state of pennsylvania and i was in pittsburgh and a lot of people think of pennsylvania as the adelphia and pittsburgh but its in between philadelphia and pittsburgh is all whole bunch of farmland and dairy farms and the very rural state if you know it well and a lot of times these folks find themselves hundreds of miles away from certain types of healthcare. In pittsburgh were blessed with the largest Academic Medical Center in the state of pennsylvania and then we have another there so we have many things available at our fingertips here in pittsburgh but if you look and central pennsylvania those facilities arent available, especially some types of healthcare and so this is where telehealth really closes the gap where the best and brightest surgeons and researchers matt and hospitals in pittsburgh and facilities in philadelphia basically they can consult, look at xrays, its almost like bringing that for people who drive to hunter miles for an appointment to talk to someone. Its important and in more rural parts of the country is very important. Speaking of rural areas, the billiondollar funding that the fcc has to distribute to Rural Communities for broadband [inaudible] it set for october 22, have there been any discussions or committee about moving a date as to the democratic agencies have mentioned that they might do Data Collection first . Guest well, i think we want to have good data so that we have a good result. It doesnt make a lot of sense to me, we note the mapping is horrendous and inaccurate and why do we want to spend all this money before we have good maps and good data. Any of us on the committee and some of the members of the fcc have expressed a desire to not put the cart before the horse and lets get this mapping issue solved first and then make sure that the money gets spent in the most efficient way that we are putting it where it really needs so i share that concern. Host congressman doyle, it seems that for years people have complained about the mapping. Why has this been an issue . Guest for the life of me, as long as i have been on the committee and i Found Committee for quite some time. We have had this discussion. It is mindboggling that, you know, given the technology and the ability that we have two dates that we can have accurate mapping so that we are making sure that we spend these precious dollars that just arent growing on trees that we are getting to the point where we need employment and, you know quite frankly, a lot of the carriers have for whatever reasons, you know, they claim they have service where they dont have service. We all know how that has been going on for years but the last hearing on the last time we talked about this in the legislation it was almost unanimous bipartisan that this is a completely broken system and needs to be fixed. Since democrats and republicans on the committee both agree about this why in the world because the fcc want to push forward this before we get this problem fixed . Thats basically what we have said to the chairman that we really need to get this done right it seems to me like were throwing 20 Million Dollars out the window if we did this. Another major broadband issue is the homework gap. This is something you worked on for a while and have there been more energy you feel and congress to move legislation on this issue since the beginning of the pandemic . Guest i hope so. As it moves out of the house of representatives the bill will include this and this is a very important issue to House Democrats and i believe there are many that [inaudible] the issue here comes around dollars. We agree on a lot of things in congress, democrats and rob wiggins, until it gets to the point where how do we pay for it and thats where the talks always seem to break down. Obviously we have a much more aggressive 9 billion out of 100 billion into closing that homework gap and we think its very important to the future of the country that people are getting educated, especially in times like this or schools are being shut down and when we have the connected society and unconnected society are some families have to go to a library or drive to a mcdonalds to catch a wifi spot whether for their kids to do their homework. Thats just not fair that we have those disparities could its important to us and we are going to push for maximum amount of funding with negotiations. Host chairman doyle, is creating or using broadband as an infrastructure tool, is there bipartisan support for that, first off . Guest i think people are starting to understand how important it is. The pandemic has brought a lot of this, the light that people see the importance of broadband a lot more in their everyday lives and in their conduct of business and maybe they did prior to the pandemic but i said at the beginning of the show that broadband is the infrastructure of the future. When we talk about what investments we will make as a country to ensure our preeminence in the world in this Global Economy that we are in should be painfully obvious at this point that, you know, having the best connectivity, the best networks is critical to our success in the Global Economy and its pretty cool to the success of our students who are trying to learn and pretty cool for our Healthcare Industry and just about every facet of the economy you can think of is being touched by broadband. Think about our political discourse in this country which, maybe get to that part on misinformation but the role that is displayed in our democracy and the threat it currently poses that many of us feel toward democracy is something that it doesnt change with these platforms that have really been on giving people what they want to hear that causes so Much Division in this country and i hope these people that run these platforms and see the countries they created in step up and do something about it and that is why on the last hearing we focus on misinformation. I want to shift host i just wanted to very quickly follow up, chris. Congressman, is there a fear that that neutrality and regulating broadband and the internet as a utility could a part of this package . Guest i am a big supporter of t