Feel its impacts for some time to come. The energy and Commerce Committee has been conducting oversight of the trauma administrations response to this crisis in this subcommittee is charged with overseeing the ftcs response is the primary federal agency tasked with overseeing our nations telecommute occasions infrastructure and charged with administrating the universal Service Program at no point has Broadband Service in the work done by the fcc but more important to americans as it is right now. For many of us highspeed broadband has become the means by which we work, live and stay healthy. In the last seven months the internet has become the lifeline we use to buy groceries, see doctors and interact with the outside world. Zoom has become a verb and americans all over the country are connecting over video chat for virtual worship, family reunions and so much more. In so many ways broadband has become the glue holding our society together as our nation and the world weathers this storm. But the Digital Divide is growing has more americans struggle to pay their bills and stay connected. Youre struggling with services that are too expensive, too slow and replace expensive limits on their online activities. For tens of millions of americans who cannot afford broadband before the pandemic the Digital Divide is only getting greater. Schools around the country are in the midst of restarting and students are clicking into virtual classrooms but for over 12 Million Students who lack Broadband Access before the pandemic connectivity is piecemeal at best. Low income students are struggling to learn is what was once a homework path becomes a schooling gap. For these kids a lack broadband is no longer preventing them from going and doing homework but preventing them from accessing the most powerful tool for mobility that we have. In pittsburgh schools have been delayed due to supply Chain Shortages and getting laptops and hotspots shipped to students and something that is happening around the country. For some students in pennsylvania devices wont arrive until november and while i applaud the heroic work being done by our local schools to get students connected our approach like vaccines taken around the country is piecemeal at best. Local schools are hosting fundraisers for parents and asking foundations and corporations for help enclosing the funding gaps. Schools dont know how kids will get connected or stay connected throughout the school year we cannot depend, as a nation, on the generosity of private companies to get us through this crisis. Leading a National Plan and a coordinated neural resources not of which this administration or this ftc has seen fit to provide. Instead we have a government of sleep at the wheel as our nation and our People Struggle in too many people are being left behind. To be clear we are in this position now because of mismanagement and misplaced priorities by this and administration and the fcc over the last four years. While covid19 is a new threat many of these issues are not and instead of addressing these challenges and so many others this fcc has been dead set on removing consumer protections, enabling increased validation and hollowing out programs to connect low income americans. We need to do better. This fcc needs to do better and you have the tools and resources to do so much more. On behalf of the tens of millions of americans being left behind i hope you will and with that, i will yield the remainder of my time to congresswoman. You need to unmute. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I really appreciate you having this hearing today. Fcc oversight is one of the prince will duties of this committee and we have much to discuss today. As cochair of the veterans caucus i have a firm belief that we are at a transformation moment in the u. S. The policies we are pursuing today will have a Lasting Impact on our economy and standing internationally. In the race to 5g and beyond the stakes are incredibly high. To ensure innovation that occur here in the u. S. We need an aggressive and concerted effort. That is why i am working on legislation to establish a wireless leadership agenda in this will help ensure we have a workforce ready to build the network as the future, promote innovation through our [inaudible] and encourage effective use and u. S. Leadership on the global stage and close the Digital Divide. I look forward to working with this committee and the witnesses here today on the with that i would like to think our witnesses for appearing today and look forward to their questions. Thank you. I yield back. The gentle lady yields back. The chair now recognizes the ringing member of the subcommittee on communications and technology for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the commissioners for appearing before us today, we really appreciate it. Since the last time you joined us the Communications Landscape drastically changed and even before we had a deal, the deal cause problems and as a result of the pandemic the communications has been one of the fastest fields in the economy for decades. Despite the challenges of the pandemic has highlighted i have been pleased to see the overwhelming response for the industry to address these problems in a way that prioritizes consumers. Chairman pai keep americans connected pledge is a perfect example of this dedication. Voluntary committed to keeping all americans connected regardless of the ability to pay the bill. By working with, not against, the industry and in the publics best interest the ftc was able to secure connectivity for countless american families, despite widespread loss of income across the country. Without the need for heavyhanded regulation. Contradicting initial fears of sticker shock when the pledge expired Service Providers have instead started the process of using their Services Back to normalcy, reflecting our study re entrance into the job market. On top of tv americans connected to their schools, jobs and the internet the fcc successfully distributed 200 million that congress appropriated through the cares act to make sure countless americans could utilize telehealth to get the care they desperately needed. In my district this allowed a Behavioral Health divider provider to go from scene 467 patients remotely to over 16000 and let me repeat that, 467 patients remotely to over 16000. Its an expansion of telehealth may have seemed impossible in a few years ago but now millions of americans can see their doctors safely from their own homes. It is not just the fcc Quick Reaction that is kept it running smoothly but the groundwork for Telecommunications Infrastructure is well before the covid19 pandemic. Misguided efforts [inaudible] the same way we regulated monopolies over 86 years ago the fccs light touch regulatory approach has allowed broadband providers to focus on building out infrastructure, providing services to consumers and offering voluntary programs and Community Service efforts. This investment in Agile Network management has allowed our Communications Network to vote up during these times, despite the heavy traffic our constituents had to bear over the past few months. Despite these successes, the partisan hearing today we should be here to talk about the ways to close the divide and how congress can help them achieve that mission. Unfortunately, this partisan approach has become a [inaudible] they unanimously passed the thomas vehicle bill that has worked for the house and passed countless other bills to improve Broadband Access. In fact, 96 of the committee under their term and water received a bipartisan vote. Today i vote we could still have a productive conversation about the work the sec has done and the way to close the Digital Divide. Finally, i do want to thank chairman walden, republican leader for all his years of work and leadership on these issues. This may be his last fcc oversight hearing and his work on communications for technology for many of the topics of discussion that i am sure we will hear about today. With that again thank you for all your hard work through all the years. I think our commissioners for the testimony today and mr. Chairman, i yield back. Before i do i do offer for the record three documents for the record and i believe that they will all be accepted at the end of the hearing. Without objection, so order ordered. Thank you. The gentleman yields back in the chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you, chairman doyle. Today we are examining four years of lost opportunities at the fcc cc during the Trump Administration. The actions in a time and actions of this fcc has had a Significant Impact in the lives of americans, often not for the better. We are likely to hear from the Majority Commission about the socalled compass men but to me and reads more like an industry wish list and pandering to the Trump Administration and does not seem to care much about consumers. Here are just a couple of the most egregious examples of what the real begin led fcc did. First, obliteration of Net Neutrality regulations that protect the free fair and open internet and abdication of their responsibility to the federal trade commission. Second, near complete deregulation of media ownership rules allowing big media conglomerates to eat up small and local stations. Third, illuminating environmental travel reviews and undermining local authority production to give companies the upper hand and even as we all know you cant stream on your way to universal broadband deployment and forth, using official government process to allow President Trump to get back at twitter for correctly labeling one of his tweets as false. In these examples are concerning and thankfully the court has stepped in to halt some of them but im equally concerned about what the fcc under President Trump has ignored over the past four years. Rather than address the Digital Divide created by the lack of affordable broadband the real begin led fcc proposed drastic cuts to the Lifeline Program and at the same time we know they use fundamentally flawed data to make their decisions to close the divide rate under this unprecedented pandemic is broadband has been vital the spread or the chairman has promoted or has not, i should say, has not promoted action to sniffing italy help the millions of families falling through the digital cracks, most importantly the fcc under trump has not extended the e rate program to cover the digital classrooms and students and teachers homes. Students, as we know are huddled around fast food parking lots to get wifi connection and just yesterday the fcc took action on the rate but somehow forgot to let kids with internet or help kids with Internet Connectivity at home for many are attending school and doing homework these days and rather than expanding the Lifeline Program so low income americans could work for or attend doctors appointment from home the real begin led fcc asked companies for a voluntary pledge to not cut off customers while allowing charges to pile up. That pledge ended in august. Ftc has delayed work on Network Resiliency despite the democratic commissioners sitting on the recommendations of two fcc reports for two years now that would improve the resiliency of the medications network. Those improvements are certainly needed right now as the west coast faces devastating and destructive wildfires while the west and east coast hurricane sally. It is a lot of missed opportunities and even the broadband deployment auction announced by the fcc based on inaccurate data without proper maps much of the money may be wasted and consumers left underserved. I think we have to do better than this. Looking ahead i believe these are some of the primary mitigation policies that we must Work Together to address and first, we must make sure highspeed broadband is open, available and affordable to everyone but we must ensure our Communications Networks are resilient and industry roundtables that are just not enough and third we have to secure our Communications Equipment supply chain from Companies Like huawei and remained digital to regard against a threat and forth we must have a coherent spectrum strategy and stop the interagency squabbles that the Trump Administration in fifth, we need to ensure that the modern television and radio industry still reflects our core media principles and those are local, diversity and competition. Six, we must hold social media platforms accountable to the public, not demagogues and discourage the misinformation, determination and violence that undermines our society. There is a lot that needs to be done and i look forward to continuing our work on these issues and hopefully we will hear some response to this from the witnesses that are here today and with that with chairman doyle i yield back. The gentleman yields back and they now recognize mr. Walden the Ranking Member of the full committee but let me say i think all of us have been watching and what is going on interstate in california and washington and our thoughts and prayers are with your constituents and the people in california. We shared some photos with me over the weekend as he was taking a tour in his district and its really sad to see but anyway greg, youve got five minutes and the time is yours. Thank you, mr. Chairman could thank you for your prayers for my constituents and others in oregon and those affected by the terrible fires. Thank you for the hearing today i dont know if it is my last hearing or not but ive always had a passion for tillich medications issues and i chaired the subcommittee and i appreciate it. As a publican leader of the committee, former chairman and the subcommittee and i take this oversight role seriously but i have to say they got to fact check the title of this hearing, mr. Chairman. I think they probably would find it false. The title of the hearing makes it yet another partisan attack on President Trump and on short on facts and a long nasty quote and as fires were devastating communities the debit size democrats could rise above their partisan to close the digital bite and that to be our common goal. Fortunately why democrats in this committee that the fcc an independent agency has done a lot to ensure america is better connected and in fact the ftc under chairman pai leadership has done a lot right here i have a list of achievements that spans many pages which has to be put in the record and there are too many to detail and just the five minutes i have. It expands pages and the ftc has done so much for patients and doctors during the pandemic to close the Digital Divide and promote innovation and protect consumers by stopping illegal robo calls and just to name a few. These are opportunities missed so more can be done and we should do it together but chairman pai announced these plans to end these burdensome regulations for diploma and resiliency. This allowed our network to withstand stress tests while socialists in europe to micromanage their networks under partisan government regulation like democrats have advocated and meanwhile we could have been working to expand Broadband Access for low income and minority consumers and the committee wasted five months focusing instead on and i quote, making sure big corporations dont use the power to undermine and silencer small competitors or political opposition so im pretty sure that did not happen. At least not by broadband providers. Net neutrality has fully exposed as a political head fake. In the first two years theyd ticked off many accomplishments and we reauthorize the federal Communications Commission for the first time in more than two decades and we required the commission increase spectrum availability which the commission has far exceeded over under chairman pai leadership with the unprecedented [inaudible] we require the commissioner to approve Public Safety can indications and they did. The adopted rules on vertical 911 location and implement team carry and implementing the other way that was used by our First Responders in oregon. During covid19 all democrats focused on attacking the president and putting politics before progress the ftc was putting consumers first. Chairman Pai Commission has taken more than 15 major actions to combat robo calls, streamlined the Lifeline Program smart low income consumers can have access to phone service and made over a billion dollars available to help rural consumers have access to highSpeed Internet with the intention of putting 20 billion out the door through world Digital Opportunity funds. Where there are still challenges, and there are, they require congressional action and rubbing ends have put forward serious proposal