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 proposals to address these issues and we would like to work with you across the aisle as we have in the past and in fact we sent an urgent letter in july mr. Chairman and hold a hearing to the Digital Divide and meanwhile the commission with chairman pai leadership is a busy year acting to keep americans connected and the courts upheld the majority with the Wireless Infrastructure to bring our infrastructure signing regulation through the 5g era. The largest is on track to begin in less than three months and 5g deployment is well underway. The broadband data act is starting its work to update the maps and push out significant funding for Rural Broadband deployments. Commissioner and i were talking yesterday about how many decades have come bite with bad maps and how much we need to get that done and spent the money before they did the maps and we are still fighting over maps and we can make progress there and lets get it done. We are celebrating successes for the past four years and by talking about efforts to close the Digital Divide and by thinking my energy and Commerce Committee alum, commissioner mike oreilly for his many years of Public Service and recall, youve conquered gas for answers and youve given them and youve always been straightforward and we appreciate your leadership with every city and i wish you well when your future endeavors and a yield back. The gentleman yields back in the chair would like to remind all members that pursuant to Committee Rules members written Opening Statements shall be made part of the record. I would like to deduce our witnesses for todays hearing. First we have the honorable majeed hi, chairman of the federal Communications Commission but welcome, the honorable mike oreilly and f ctc commission are welcome, michael, brendan carr and welcome brendan. Honorable jessica welcome. The previous told them the Prior Administration did. In the last four years in the Prior Administration the United States added fewer than 7,00 7,0 deaths since 2016 the u. S. Has added more than 87,000 with over 46,000 of them added in 2019 alone. When i became the chair maam, the u. S. Had no commercial deployment and today according to google we have over 7,000 covering over 250 million americans. Covered by the network with a speed of ten megabits per second. By 2018 that figure was 3 and according local broadband has increased by 99 in 2016. During the last two years the Prior Administration overall Broadband Network investments declined. Under this fcc theyve gone up of annual record set for new deployment in each of the past two years. From 2015 to 2019 the number of americans without access to 25 megabits per second this Broadband Service will and the number of Rural Americans with access to 250 megabits per second more than tripled in 2016 to 2018 and prices have fallen for the most popular broadband offered about 20 according to the survey data. Six broadband speeds have increased since 2016 turning to universal service under the last administration, taxpayer dollars were used to put equipment in the nations network. This fcc put an end to that. Under the last administration the rules helped a 400 million. This fcc raised the cap to 802 million available this year alone. Under the last administration, there wasnt a single significant broadband initiative. This fcc established a tribal broadband factor, increased for operations and the firstever chance to get for free. Under the last administration the language for perhaps a decade. They hold the option with the rural Digital Opportunity to bring broadband to 10 million unserved americans. Turning to the city and bipartisanship the prior term and the fcc considered an average of 2. 7 under my leadership. Its down by almost two thirds, to 11. 5 . The fcc has delivered a lot of value for the American People. That is a notable contrast with the subcommittee. Example number one when we we appeaweappear before this body n december 5, 2019 everyone seems to agree on the need for the legislation to fund a National Priority with Rural Broadband. 287 days later the fcc set up the option and this congress has enacted nothing. Example number two on december 2, 2019, i called on congress to repeal the option mandate and everyone seems to agree that its doomed to fail if the fcc is compelled to Waste Resources on it. 290 days later the fcc has indeed wasted resources but this congress has enacted nothing. Example number three everyone seems to agree that the obama fcc broadband maps are locked. August 1, 2019 the ordered to correct an. 411 days later the fcc has repeatedly requested funding and has enacted nothing. Time doesnt permit further examples but i do look forward to answering your question and i hope that it has other ways we can Work Together. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The gentleman yields back. Thank you, commissioner riley. You are recognized for five minutes and i also want to thank you for your service to the commission and i wish you well in your future endeavors. The microphone is yours. Thank you mr. Tran. Appreciated the opportunity to conduct further oversight of the communication. Instant of restating my testimony i thought that it would be more appropriate to make a few points and allow members to get to their questions quickly. Number one, more commercial spectrum. Eventually deploy six g. And beyond. Much has been made over the last seven years as a result of my advocacy. The nation is still short by about 300 to 500 megahertz according to experts and that is excluding the three dot five gigahertz band this means that it is important to push federal departments and agencies to be more efficient regardless. Number two, expanding Broadband Availability to all americans that seek to remain a priority and exceptional work is being done including senator wicker to expedite the buildup. More thoughts will be required to solve their remaining service gaps. The fcc has a track record and expertise in maximizing the efficiency of its subsidy and i would caution to create new federal programs and regulatory body to address this matter. Scarce federal funding should go to those truly unserved areas rather than Broadband Service that exist into the efforts should be needed to avoid duplication of the programs and other federal funding streams. Number three, fixes are needed to address the Lifeline Programs minimum standard. Systemic waste, fraud and abuse, lack of cost thereby those that buy the service and an excess of minimum standards and absence of a workable hardline budget. Without the improvements the political pressures will continue and are out of line with the Digital Transformation of the society and the fierce competition. Fundamental reforms havent been achieved of my time in the commission and the outdated regulatory tools and th tool sae in place. Congress has the power to fundamentally rewrite to reflect todays different marketplace. And i strongly encourage you to consider doing so. Number five fcc proces, fcc prom deserves greater attention and action. If the Commission Fails to meet the subcommittees expectation in terms of responsiveness, direct attention is necessary. Number letters and occasional hearings are helpful but can only do so much. It would be helpful to declare in legislation what you want the commission to do and more importantly what explicitly you do not want the commission to do. In closing i thank the members for their hospitality over the years as i look forward to my next chapter in my career. I welcome any questions you may have. Thank you so much. Thank you, commissioner. The gem comman gentleman yieldsd recognizes the chair for five minutes, sir. Spent thank you chairman, distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the chance to testify. Since we last appeared before te the subcommittee, the country has been seized by a pandemic that seriously altered american lives. In an instance of reading posts that is to be carried out in person moved onto the internet from Distance Learning to work to accessing healthcare. The fcc recognized southern shift the pandemic caused and immediately responded. First we ensure the pandemic related Financial Stress isnt cut off service when americans needed it most. The term and keep america connected pledge opened up free hotspots and kept families online for job descriptions and cleared the way to donate tablets so kids can learn from home and Supportive Services vital. We also work closely with providers to launch new programs to connect lowincome families with highspeed services. Second, we track the search to the traffic and we are necessary expanding the capacity including through the spectrums. Third, we expedited support for the total programs. Just days after congress provided funding for the act when he stood up an emergency total health program. All told, improved support for 539 Healthcare Providers. I have seen firsthand the difference this initiative is made. Two weeks ago in ohio, the Ranking Member and i visited provider of Mental Health services and saw an immediate 20 fold increase. The demand with nearly 100,000 in support from the fccs program. In michigan i joined congresswoman at the hospital. They saw videos spike from about 400 per month to over 30,000 a month. Sec funding allowed them to ramp up the infrastructure. Ikeep the responses like these and then in the coming months. Now the increase in the traffic seemed americas networks that are exceptionally well. Other advanced economies were not so fortunate. The networks trained to maintain quality and speed including in europe the networks performed because of the private sectors unprecedented levels of investment from 2018 for instance the wireless providers invested over 70 more per subscriber than their counterparts in europe they build up more miles of fiber than ever before the industry invested a recor recordbreaking 29. 1 billion in the networks number one in the world in four times the per capita investment china has seen a number of communities benefiting from highspeed increased to four fold into some of the summons by chance. Its been fostered by the work to modernize our infrastructure roles. Weve accelerated the construction of small cells by building up commonsense reforms adopted by the states. We streamlined the process for swapping out utility poles to an wireless equipment and weve expedited reviews for the wireless bills that are essential for the covid19 response and weve taken a step that will upgrade the thousand towers including in Rural America. The work to modernize the infrastructure roles enable the private sector to make america home to the strongest platform in the world. Its quiet today not just in places like new york or San Francisco but in Defiance County ohio and sioux falls south dakota. I am proud of the result to the reforms in fcc staff. Finally, i want to take a moment to recognize and express my gratitude to the Committee Republican leader since he announced his retirement this may be his last hearing as we heard. He has had one of the most consequential runs in congress among his many legislative competence, the middleclass tax relief and jobs act provided reforms necessary for america to lead the world in four g. And extend that into five g. His work updated not only as an important piece of legislation but a fitting tribute to his friend and lifelong advocate for expanding connectivity. His work and communications issuein communicationsissues sts time in congress having run a Radio Station in oregon and he carried this experience is forwarded to congress demonstrating a longstanding support for broadcasters and the value they bring to their local communities, so thank you to the congressman for your service to this country. Thank you, chairman, Ranking Member i look forward to your questions. Thank you, commissioner the gentleman yields back into the chair recognizes the commissioner for her Opening Statement. Good morning from a german blog, Ranking Member walden, Ranking Member and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Let me start with a picture. There are little girls on the sidewalk outside in california. They sit against the curb shoulder to shoulder each with a laptop in hand but they were not there for lunch, they were on the concrete by a fast food joint for an online class. If you dont have internet at home so they were using the free wireless at the restaurant to go to school. This picture which was everywhere on social media is like a fire under the federal Communications Commission. Thats because it is our responsibility to bring advanced communications to one everywhere in this country no matter who they are or where they live and that mission has more urgency than ever before as we struggle with a virus tha that is indeedt of schools, filled up the hospitals have crashed our economy. Its also the hard truth of the Digital Divide in this country is big and we need to address it. We need a National Policy of 100 in other words we need 100 of us can do to broadband just like with electricity and water. Thats because no individual, no outs and no community would have a fair shot without it. We are not there yet. You see in this picture and in the nearly 17 million kids just like those two little girls who fall into the homework gap and cant do their schoolwork because they have no internet at home. We need to stop looking the other way. The fcc should be using the program right now to help these kids can do during this crisis so that no child is left offline and then first things first we need a plan for broadband for all four Rural America, urban america and everything in between. We need a plan that tackles the broadband deployment and adoption because we will never overcome the nations Digital Divide without focusing. This just is not edible on the same methodology that you call for us to stop using the broadband data act. Despite not having fixed the date of the fcc is poised to hand out billions in federal support next month based on facts do we know are wrong. We cant afford to delay the data even further because it will never be sure that we are targeting our universal service to the right places. Second, we need a plan to keep all americans connected. Connected. At the start of pandemic trends occur to commitment to not cut off consumers during this crisis and this was good but that commitment ended this summer so what comes next . They need to applying the lifeline. We also have to update the Disaster Response because we need to stay connected in weather events that the ongoing wildfires and who became to do unthinkable damage to the communities. Third we need a plan to secure the future. If we want to be a Global Leader in the next generation of wireless we need a whole of government approach to the five g. Service. The National Spectrum strategy is more than a euro for giving federal authorities are fighting in public about access to the spectrum band. At the same time we need to remove the insecure chinese equipment and the Network Today and take steps to support open Radio Access Network in the future. Fourth and finally we need a plan to sustain local media and stand up for the first amendment. Local news is vital. But despite the increased demand for the news right now, the economics underlying the industry are changing. Cato meet these new challenges,i believe we need to study the rules and identify how to better support local media and diversity. But one thing w we should do is compromise our values including those in the first amendment. Nowhere is this clearer than the recent executive order concerning section 230 of the communications act. I know social media can be frustrating. But in the executive order that speaks to turn to if sec into the president s Speech Police isnt the answer. Thank you and i look forward to answering any questions you might have. Thank you, gentle lady ddelta. The chair now recognizes the commissioner stark for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Chairman doyle, Ranking Member, trampled on, Ranking Member walden and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Our longstanding Digital Divide has evolved into a monstrous divide. When this pandemic firsthand, i highlighted the Critical Role the broadband would play in our response and called for a number of ways in which the Commission Must advance a connectivity stimulus to increase access to Broadband Service over the last six months some of those proposals have been adopted, but much more remains to be done. The need for affordable broadband is particularly great among generic and communities of color and remain significantly less likely to have a broadband connection in their counterpart by a wide margin. Margin. These families disproportionately rely on public wifi offered by Public Library and fast food restaurants. The fcc has a role to play. We should start by assessing the Lifeline Program that is designed to connect to the most vulnerable americans. We must better promote this Critical Program during the pandemic. The proposition that 144 members of congress agreed to. We also need to take a fresh look at the e. Rate program, like millions of families. I have a young learner that is in her room right now virtually at school. Millions of families need connectivity that allows members to telework and fellow educator. More than 15 Million Students still lack broadband at home. We have got to do more for our students. The recent work has been on the issue of rural access an important one for me but the numbers undeniably show more than three times the number of households in urban communities remain unconnected even before the Pandemic Research showed broadband prices were too high for more than 18 million households would otherwise have service in their neighborhoods. We must address the issue of affordability. These issues demand the commissions unwavering focus. Unfortunately, there are those who during a Political Year was use their weapons against their perceived adversaries during this year. The president s executive order on section 230 and the subsequent petition for rulemaking claimed to champion free speech, but they are really about working the Pivotal Moment for the president s political future. They should reject the proposal that focuses on our main mission right now. Ive made my own investments to respond to these issues working with the board of experts i would announce my first honoree of the Digital Opportunity for equity recognition. Those from rural areas to urbann cores students to seniors, the collective scope of their accomplishments are impressive. Nationwide efforts that cover all 50 states, hundreds of Community Hotspots and that is over 600,000 students and broadband, connection to 16,000 Public Housing units, thousands of miles of connectivity, over 160 libraries and support for over 400 tribal communities. Im honored to recognize the 22 people organizations and Companies Working to connect all americans reliable, equitable and affordable Broadband Services. The fight for equity isnt limited to the services. In the movement for justice, the Commission Must do its part to advance policies that center on the most marginalized and create opportunity to ensure we have a far more diverse voice at the table. Thats why i was proud to announce the chairman this week the fccs early career Staff Diversity Initiative under this program the commission offer for use to the students that may be unable to afford to live per semester and increase the recruitment for internship and honors attorneys and engineers from historically black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions. We can and should take steps to proactively assure the generation of policy advocacy and communication sectors. Thank you for inviting me here today and i look forward to your questions. The gentleman yields back. Weve concluded our Opening Statements and we will now move on to member questions. Each member will have five minutes to ask questions of the witnesses and i will start by recognizing myself for five minutes. Mr. Chernenko mulls those admonitions you talked about in your Opening Statement with the exception because covid prevented us from dealing with that. You need to save that speech for the Senate Republicans next time wyoure over in the senate. Mr. Chairman, i want to ask i would like you to answer my question with a simple yes or no. There isnt going to be any trick questions so please give me that courtesy so i wanted ie to appear rudely interrupting you and asking you to say yes or no. I have a lot of questions id like to get through so i would appreciate your cooperation. Let me start by asking as they face one of the worst crisis in the nations history do you feel so far youve done everything in the commissions power to help americans who are struggling to deal with the impact of this pandemic yes or no . Yes. Have you done everything in the commissions power to help the tens of millions of americans who cannot afford highspeed Internet Access that is so essential to all of our lives right now . Yes. Thank you. Have you done everything in the commissions power to help the millions of students across the country who are struggling to get into virtual classrooms because they lack Internet Access . [inaudible] thank you. You have said you asked congress for additional funds to help connect students as a part of the care sector. Can you give me the dollar figure that you requested, you dont have to say yes or no to this one. Im looking for the dollar figure. I cant remember the dollar figure tha but we did ask for authorization. The number you requested this 50 million to connect more than 12 million that lack Internet Access they asked for additional funding to cover some of the costs in june for the keep america connect back. I dont believe you asked for any additional funds. I understand during the Senate Hearing you told senators blumenthal and shaft but they were limited by law about how the funds are restricted to classroom use the mone of moneyt correct . That is correct. And section 254 of the communication act does give the authority to designate Additional Special services that support schools, libraries and health care providers, not just classrooms, periodically and adapting to changes in technology are essential to education and to periodically adapt to changes in technology. Org essential to education isnt that correct . That is the correct reading of section 254. And 2010 as a part of the fccs report and order, the commission established a Pilot Program to distribute wireless hotspots used by offcampus students and library patrons. I believe the vote will approve that order and then commissioner of proving on conquering it isnt that correct . That is correct. Was the program deemed illegal or unauthorized use of this already . No, not at all. Its totally authorized and will be possible today. So my understanding is the fcc has used its authority in the past to establish a program for offcampus students and the program will was not overturned by the courts and when given the opportunity to access Additional Resources you requested 4 per student without Internet Access and no funds to help connect lowincome americans through lifeline. You have before you do means and opportunity to help millions of people in one of the nations greatest moments of need, and i really encourage you to step up to the moment history has presented you. Commissioner, one more with the remainder of my time. What did you make of all of this . We have a crisis. We have 17 Million Students who are locked out of the virtual classroom. The homework gap they suffer from is becoming an education gap and its going to be a longterm opportunity gap. The fcc has tools right now in the program to help solve this crisis. We need to meet this moment and do it. Thank you, commissioner. I see my time is expiring so i will yield back and recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee on communications and technology for five minutes to ask questions. Thank you mr. Chernenko and again thanks to the commissioners for being with us today. If i could start my questions with you first thank you very much for coming out o to the fih district in ohio in the last couple of weeks to see whats happening out there and ask you both mentioned about having visited the Behavioral Health organizatioorganization into set these absolutely incredible increase in 467 uses of total health over 16,000 in a short period of time during the pandemic. The fcc i applaud for how quickly you were able to provide funds in such a short amount of time. In what ways is the commission learning from the program to ensure the success of the connection to the Pilot Program . Thank you for the question. These help to support the ad earlier that day we met with a small businessmallbusiness prot used an immediate spectrum to expand capacity in homes including with school kids are learning right now. There are Lessons Learned in this program we can build on including the licensing and reimbursement, hhs has been a great job clearing up some of the red tape and theres a recent memorandum of understanding to the fcc and hhs that i think will be moved into the connective copilot and friendly as 26 bills that are in this committee right now that were introduced by you and other members that would help close the Digital Divide immediately accelerate those bills. Bills. Those would languish here i think that would be more progress we could make. So streamlining and finding a way to get things done is so important especially what we have seen during the covid19. Commissioner reilly, first i rit to thank you again for your willingness to return to the district twice first to acknowledge what is going on the ground so i appreciate your service on the commission. Should be very proud of all that you have accomplished during this time. Commissioner, they played a significant role in championing the unlicensed spectrum and recognized long ago the demand for wifi. Now with covid19, the demand is greater. And more than i think any of us could imagine when you factor in the tele health, work, precision agriculture and im interested in making sure that we maximize the benefit of the licensed services. A thank you for your leadership on these issues. They are so important. The commission has done great work and we hope that we will have more work on this, but six gigahertz theres a couple of portions that still need to be addressed and we need to increase the power lead for the aspect for the portion that has been out there a while weve taken the lead on the internet of things so critical that we need to address that before the end of this year paid thank you very much. Chairman, again, thank you for the time you offered especially early this year when you got to work as we were there. We plan to begin the rural Digital Opportunity fund that will provide 20 billion for broadband deployment. What other ways can we inject investment into the Rural Broadband connection o where we have access out there . I think that there are a number of different ways. For example, we have offered 82 enable them to increase the 25 megabits per second to expand their network and weve also made some to the providers to advance. One of the things that exist four years ago this week was dayton, ohio, the rural event it was the broadband i Something Congress would do very well to help increase the Resources Available to close the Digital Divide once and for all. As we look at the rtos, do you have any estimate of how Many Americans will need broadband under this . 10. 4 million who may be eligible for broadband under the program. And again its so important because again as all come as you come the commissioners have been to the district to see firsthand whats out in our area, it is important that we get that not just in the fifth Congressional District across the country, and we appreciate your willingness and work on it. And my time is expired and i will yield back. Okay. Thank you. The gentleman yields back and now the chair recognizes mr. Colon, the full committee chair, for his five minutes of questions. Is the chairman of their . The chair will recognize mr. Mcnerney for his five minutes of questions. I think the i thank the chairman. Every school in my district is starting at 100 disability learning. In addition to the stress of wildfires and the many challenges of shifting to Distance Learning, the burden of addressing connectivity gaps its fallen entirely on our schools. The commissioner you recently heard firsthand from the educational leaders in my district about how hard they are working to connect students. Despite the shortterm solutions, theyve scrambled to adopt their all voiced concern about the need for longterm solutions. One county superintendent said we need to be looking at longterm solutions for when we are through with covid. Our students for me to be connected, families still need to be connected, and they need to not worry about whether they are going to pay for their Internet Service or put food on the table. The commissioner, what steps should the fcc have taken prior to the pandemic to lessen the burden that has fallen on schools and with longterm solutions would they be looking at now . We have to recognize the homework gap is one of the coolest parts of the nations Digital Divide. Every child deserves to have the Internet Connection they need for school. They now needed because [inaudible] but when we get past these days and this pandemic is over they are still going to need it for their nightly schoolwork we have a crisis on our hands with millions and millions of students who dont have full access to the education that they need. Thank you, commissioner. Over the last month, my district has been coated in smok smoke d nearly every part of the state ravished by wildfires. Worrying about fire is spreading quickly as the norm in my district. I would expect the agency overseeing the nations Communications Network to do Everything Possible to keep connected during wildfires when its a matter of life and death of an announcement about voluntary industry form is not enough. I am extremely disappointed that there hasnt been any real action from the agency. In fact, during the last oversight hearing, the chairman committed to me that he would hold the wildfire hearing in northern boulevard. Four months passed before we heard from him at which point he said he hoped he could do it but wouldnt be able to. My constituents deserve more than broken promises. Commissioner, what more should the fcc be doing to ensure people stay connected to bring wildfires . [inaudible] weather events are now happening with the extraordinary frequency coming and its not just the wildfires but hurricanes, they do reach storm 4g derecho storm. The only required reporting about the voice telephony outages. We need to reinvigorate the framework and have a National Conversation about the backup power because so many of us rely on ibm Wireless Services that require electricity to keep us connected. Thank you, again. Commissioner starks, under the keep america connected to pledge, the company is also connected to notify consumers about the promises the papermaking in the pledge, or could the Companies Agree to get positive press from their consumers, from their customers . Thank you for the question, congressman. I dont believe in the one part of the pledge that they notify consumers about. One congressional thing that i started to have concerns about his the keep america connected to pledge obligated those companies not to disconnect consumers while they were during the pledge, but those bills are still accruing, so i do have some concern about Everyday Americans begin discussions between groceries and paying bills and making sure that these providers are keeping folks connected to the. Chairman, im worried about many people had no idea about the promise in the pledge and those that did encounter problems when they try to take advantage. During the briefings with our committee in midmay, you told me the fcc received 2200 related complaints from consumers including 500 about the pledge. The pledge is more than a month after that, so im sure that the complaint numbers of ground. It should take a congressional a congressional inquiry and request for the American Public to uncover these problems when every aspect depends on connectivity. Chairman, please answer with a yes or no, will you commit to publicly post all consumer complaints about internet and phone service during the pandemic while protecting the individual, will you make that commitment, yes or no . I will certainly consider that in the aggregate. Of its own accomplishment we initiated the pledge with all of these initiatives. The gentlemans time is expired. The gentleman yields back into the chair recognizes mr. Walden for his five minutes of question. Thank you mr. Charan and again, thank you to all of the commissioners for your testimony today and work every day. I wanted for the committees purpose and the commissioners, we did the work when i was the chairman of the subcommittee to implement burst of minutes to get up and running. We did regular oversight over it and over the weekend, i received this , i dont know if you can see this, but it is a photograph of gates organ providing communications for First Responders in the fires that are so tragically affecting congressman schraders district in oregon. But every once in a while we need to pause and say our work is actually playing out on the ground. While we all know that theres more to do to boost the Digital Divide and broadcast ownership and all these things. Its important to note a lot of good people are working hard every day to implement what congress has enacted. Republicans had 26 bills in miscommunications agenda that we would likbut wewould like to sed in the committee. Weve got a lot of ideas. I know the administration has moved forward to make more spectrum available, and while the fcc is an independent agency, the trumpet administration announceveteranse 100 megahertz critical spectrum in the 34, 50 to 3550 megahertz span available to the fcc to auction commercial 5g deployment by the industry. The is a simple yes or no question for the commissioners following my chairman and leadership. Yes or no do you oppose a nationalized network . Is. Commissioner . Yes. Yes. The administrations earlier proposal, yes. Mr. Sparks . I think my earlier statement being bandied about is that as with the socialist countries do. I think that we have a very vibrant option all done on the private sector side. Last year you stated the private salsale of the typical idea but then announced plan to the public option but it reiterates the need for legislation and we need legislation to provide certainty needed for the rapid rollout unfortunately congress was never able to come together on legislation like that. Is the option still on track to begin at the end of the year despite all of the other work weve done to address this pandemic issue . It is very much as though. [inaudible] knock on what we have won the legal challenges this far and our staff is fully engaged on track at the start of the option. I appreciate that. And lets go back to this homer to cap. What have you done and because the fcc done on your leadership to help get Broadband Access to the families that need this . In addition to keep americans connectethe keepamericans connes critical for getting broadband, but we also relied on the rules to allow Service Providers to offer tools to accept some of the connectivity tools and in addition to that as the chairman pointed out, i asked for funding initially to ge get a foot in te door so to speak at the Congress Gave 15 billion to the department of education to make sure the schools in the governors new funding was eligible and now you are seeing governors in oklahoma and alabama to delaware use that funding for education technology. Moving forward, we look forward to working on the initiative that we have done a lot and its within the contours of the statute to come up with money out of thin air but in the real world its where we have focused on the tools we have. Theyvweve done a lot to promoe learning. Of the earlier discussion about the 50 million in the request what you are saying is they sent 16 billion to the department of education for these issues and you partnered with them to help get kids connected. Absolutely. Weve done a lot of outreach numbers and now we are seeing more forward thinking governors and officials use that money for education technology. Thank you again to all of you. Going forward i hope our paths continue to cross the than but u in the meantime and mr. Chairman, i will yield back. The chair wouldve meant we didnt move because of the Senate Republicans and because many of us didnt want to give 10 billion away to the foreign satellite companies. I would also note the senate refused to spend any of that money on the next gen 911 despite what you just said mr. Chairman, or mr. Ranking member. The chair now recognizes mr. Loebsack for five minutes. Thank you mr. Cherry and committee for having me come to think you commissioners for being here. As members of the committee, its been an honor and privilege to bring a voice into this gram and before the commission ended to these oversight hearings. This may be my last subcommittee hearing. I hope its not, but i really enjoyed my time on the subcommittee. But im going to end up leaving i think with a whole lot of frustration especially when it comes to things like improving Rural Broadband and something ive worked on for quite a long time as many of you know the broadband infrastructure has been a bipartisan priority and i have some great partners on this committee not only the leadership of chairman palawan and doyle also most recentl buty my partners that introduced the broadband could act. So it has been that bipartisanship but i have frustrations i want to bring before the committee and the commission today the broadband data act wasnt the first bill i worked with my colleagues on. It has been evident and clear all of you recognize that and yet we still havent fit us to the maps. Its like just where the damn mask. It really should be that easy but we still dont have the data for building a broadband and too many people lack access to internet and the crisis of course has brought to the floor. Its become even clearer through this pandemic. As we look towards the future where more people might be increasingly doing remote work, my daughter up in seattle is now completely working from home. The company told everybody to do that. And they want to relocate from big cities to rural areas people need to know that when they relocate that they will have good access to good and affordable broadband, regardless of where they move to. So why has it taken so long . Why has the fcc been unable to tackle this challenge and why cant someone with useful information about where broadband is and what the cost and quality of service of the broadband is. So, with the remaining time i have, i want to ask the commissioner, personally i want to say i appreciate you pressing on this topic and testimony. So my first question goes to you. What has gone wrong and how does the fcc do better in the future, that is the first question. What is your answer . Thank you, congressman. I appreciate how many years youve worked Getting Better data about the nations broadband. I know its important for iowa and its important for everyone. And in a town where there is a little consensus on anything, there is consensus that we need better data. And heres the truth. Its hard. Its not easy. We are going to have to figure out with the levels of granular accuracy where the service is because we have to reach 100 of the country. But we did it before with rural interpretation. This is a challenge that we have right now because we have to do that again. And the truth is we just havent made enough progress. Weve put it off for another day. We keep claiming that we need additional fun and additional time. Its just not good enough. We are never going to manage the problems. We have to make Getting Better data job number one. In your view the fcc has made that commitment. Okay. How do we ensure that the internet is more affordable and consumers know that they are getting a fair deal when they sign up for broadband wha but cn the fcc do so we can get this done . Again that is the huge question on everybodys mind, but it isnt just a rural issue. That is such a good point. When we talk about the Digital Divide in recent years we talked almost exclusively about the infrastructure and deployment, but the truth is that there are three to four times as many households as bourbon and suburban america. Without developing the equal of resource and policy attention for adoption and deployment. As part of that equation is affordability. The fcc has refused to discuss the in its annual broadband report and its time we changed that. Thinks to the commissioner and the chair and Ranking Member i will yield back my time. The gentleman yield back and now it gives the chair pleasure to yield to a fellow fan you are recognized for five minutes, thank you mr. Chairman. I never give up. The steelers look good also the last week. Anyway, the question for the chair man under the leadership, the commission made a significant amount of spending available for commercial use. While the Democratic National broadband play 2010 all for the commission to make 500 megahertz of spectrum available in the next ten years, your commission alone has made over 300 megahertz available for the licensed use in over 20 gigahertz available for unlicensed use. The commission is also on its way to making 530 megahertz available for 4g and for more unlicensed spectrum than any other commission. Pursuant to that, i wanted to follow up on the july 30 letter regarding the three dot 55 gigahertz been. In my area is clearly operates as a stateoftheart digital policy and that was to detract on the coast storms with much greater accuracy and a similar system. With the heightened activity in the gulf coast already this year including the current hurricane sally, the systems are clearly important for saving lives, protecting property and curbing the cost to rebuild. If you commit to keeping these Public Safety doppler system in mind as you advance changes. Thank you for the question, congressman. We certainly can and will keep that in mind. There may be availability for the gigahertz band and they will make sure we accommodate that concern to the extent that we can. Thank you very much. I will yield the remainder [inaudible] let me go ahead and mr. Chairman, one area that is increasing concern for me contraband cell phones in prison not to be confused with present payphones regarding inmate cal calls. Recently my staff was able to find cases in 47 states where illegally used cell phones were used by prisoners to facilitate crimes on the outside. This includes a case in oklahoma where prisoners were using cell phones speak to a case in tallahassee in my state, an inmate coordinated with a convicted felon detained pedophile to endanger [inaudible] the fcc is reviewing ways despite david could to fight this that ive been seeking a bipartisan solution to the problem [inaudible] do you believe that an increase in Civil Penalties on inmates and the facilitators would help reduce the incidence of behind bars contraband in the case is related to crime . I appreciate the question, congressman. Firsthand threat at a the correctional facilities they visited. It could be useful, though that wouldnt be within the jurisdiction under the current law. What they have done is to ask some of the different stakeholders in this area to identify Different Solutions specifically with the data on the programs that have worked and those tha that dont and wew issues but to get back to the meaningful information on that report, to address the serious Public Safety problem but i thai think many people might not be aware of. Okay. Very good. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And i will always be the Eternal Optimist when it comes to district five. Okay. The chair was going to recognize texas. Is he on . Okay i dont think so. The chair will recognize mr. Mceachern for five minutes. [inaudible] there we go. Can you hear me . We can hear you. You have five minutes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, i would like to thank you for your fine leadership in calling this hearing today. With the emergence of the global pandemic, weve seen through the eyes of students, families and Small Businesses the serious repercussions of the Digital Divide wrong side in a an increasinglanincreasingly digit. While there are many variables in the Digital Divide, like my colleague mr. Loebsack, i went to pull up the inaccurate [inaudible] first of all i cannot thank you all enough [inaudible] for the fcc to do something regarding masks. For years [inaudible] those facts are inaccurate and until july of 2020, congressionacongressional actioe the digital obtaining data. I think we can all agree that its overdue but its necessary. Excuse me, mr. Chairman. However, the fcc has chosen to move forward in this new round of the job opportunity funds for over 16 billion of taxpayer money for the same into the clear standard Going Forward in closing the Digital Divide im sure the providers have already begun in the assumption that these would happen. I am curious, however without. Commissioner, do you believe before or after [inaudible] we will never be able to solve the Digital Divide. Fullstop the information. Right now that information is flawed in fact the industry worked together and said it is an error rate of two and five and yet we are going to use that data to get a 16 billion a week before the election. That represents 80 of our funds for the next ten years. If you ask me, we are careening for disaster of waste, fraud and abuse and getting out billions and billions of dollars before the election when we know that our data is wrong. I think that is a problem. Commissioner rosenberg. Just what you said. If theres a will theres a way. With the c. A. R. E. S. Act funding the staff works to get 200 million of funds and with respect its important we correct the record. I have yielded back. I would ask all witnesses to please address questions that are addressed to you and not make statements if youre not asked the question. The chair yields five minutes to mr. Long for his questions. Thank you mr. Chairman. Would like to acknowledge the chairmans commitment to connect americans for future generations smart spectrum policy and a commitment to make 5g a reality. Number one for my question first of all thank you for your service for a decade of service you have seen the failures of the Obama Biden Administration and those on the testimony commissioner stated extending the policies from the past we need to do more and for once i agree with the commissioner on the obama biden policy what is the commission done to those underserved areas quick. And we all agree they are locked in need to be improved i take issue Going Forward those are areas we know for sure are not being served today and then to be advanced for that purpose i appreciate the point but how ten. 4 million americans can be served and thats great news for those that are not served today and need to be addressed. Is that a problem . Absolutely when i said as much. One thing that goes hand in hand that other agencies have new data points and we are not looking at that yet but there are is coordination among agencies. Now to have everyone on the panel answer this with the fcc to make more spectrum available and then that governmentsponsored network we cannot out china china lets rely on the free markets to get it done to agree that more spectrum. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I think i made one heard from everyone what about 5g . Congressman yes. Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes as well. Does everybody agree see band is the best spectrum at this time . Yes. I think so but not the only spectrum we have. I agree the need is for 5g to have more amid band spectrum but that is the important piece. Should be start that off on the see band . Yes congressman i would like to wait for legislation before doing so. Yes. I know if i have all of them. I do not support the position underlying of congress i yield the remainder of my time. I ask all panelist and members to check your button to make sure you are muted to minimize background noise the gentleman from texas is recognized for five minutes for questions. This is a great hearing we have been in this pandemic for six months its terrible to see the administration the Digital Divide is critical to everything from Virtual Learning or telehealth they are only as strong as the weakest signal to make sure we have that connection at home. Last week the ceo of at t of every american to broadband they still dont reach everyone in private dollars alone but that program can help bridge the gap. I tried to address this that was later past to help struggling low income americans. Unfortunately the Senate Majority leader doesnt seem to care that is blatant partisanship because people need to get online. And low income and minority communities will hold them back. Of how this program to the been used the proposals but the fcc did nothing but that they were never even finalized. So commissioner how do they do this at the home Broadband Services . In this crisis if you dont have a broadband connection households dont have a fair shot. These things are now essential even to reach out to get assistance. The dialtone of the digital age is broadband we need to make sure every household has a fair shot to get connected. We have to re center the program for this crisis to make sure everyone can get online its essential to maintain a semblance of modern life. Thank you commissioner. I know for a lot of people issues like rape they dont like to talk about things that we know that part of the issue is economic to close the gap people have to have a good education and access to things like broadband so we have got to continue to have these discussions. Commissioner looking back at these four years what could have been done to adopt Broadband Adoption and should be be collecting data . Yes. This administration has focused on the rural access issue that those that are in urban areas since the Research Shows 18 million specifically cannot afford broadband at home. They are making clear decisions to focus on broadband or groceries. All this is essential as well. Is there anything specific to make it more likely people that have broadband . Yes. We need to see what it means and what is the price point for americans to afford the home connection . Comcast is a ninedollar program. Something in the low teens to give real quality access to americans and then make sure that providers will be interested in talking about 20 million customers so i know providers are interested in that. And thank you for the invitation to our cbc function. Your time is expired mr. Florez five minutes. And be it unmute yourself. My button wasnt working. I need to yield to minutes to the gentleman from louisiana. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to thank the fcc commissioners for coming here for what we need to talk about access is available for good smart policy but that 5g build up and that billions of private investment spent to help get us the Better Technology and going through the c. A. R. E. S. Act to help bridge the role divide. But look at what was said in the past we are having a hearing using the internet i remember when chairman pai and other leaders said Net Neutrality would have devastated the internet would stifle the billions of investment to give us this opportunity it was the right decision. But when they said we need to stop the government takeover literally members of congress had fcc commissioner saying it would be the end of the internet. 2017. Senator sanders literally said under this misguided proposal the internet as we have come to know it would cease to exist. And then here we are. And because of this Great Innovation in america so what we said before and then hear about china and huawai and now we are confronting the challenges if you want to address that with the tweets you get one word at a time even more hyperbolic and with the record for startups and by contrast europe which is suffering proactively goes to youtube and netflix because they have a heavyhanded that neutrality regulations. And then members like you paul those ridiculous claims to account. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you mr. Florez for your time. Thank you for yielding back i was hoping to have a little bit more left i want to apologize for the political overtones of the hearing. The commissioner wasted his time i Net Neutrality while advancing broadband could have been done in the opening comments of chairman pai those that are not directly related and do not have enough support to become law. They believe they have little recourse except to agree to the demands and conditions whether or not they are relevant. The legislation would mitigate the situation by putting a timeframe. Do you share my concerns how this has been used by the fcc to push policy and agenda unrelated to what is before the commission . Those ideas the shot clock, making sure conditions are relevant to be more proconsumer transactions. My time is expired i hope somebody yields time to mr. Cardin. Now i will enforce the shot clock and let you go over one minute because of earlier. The only person that is proposing nationalizing 5g is donald trump have a conversation with him and his chief of staff as of today proposed nationalizing 5g. So tell them that something that you not on dont agree with and also he is also with the Speech Police. You are recognized for five minutes. In the midst of a pandemic Internet Access is a lifeline back on the first to admit the sec has worked with a longterm progress we need her rohrig efforts that would be back and rolling back the neutrality rules and those that families need to rely on and those six major bipartisan bills out of the house and that the fcc eliminated. And also passing that c. A. R. E. S. Act and the hebrews act including funding on he rose act and broadband and with affordable programs. And that is a large infrastructure bill. Hold on mr. Chairman. Every one check to make sure they have their mute button on. Get it together members. Walked down the halls of the senate. During the pandemic my wife taught local students and ive seen her teacher my home they dont have Proper Technology or sufficient access to learn properly and they are falling to the cracks the devastating longlasting effects of educational progress in communities of color. Compounding those matters a young Student Living in rural tennessee because of her lack of access to internet she is dropping out of Community College the first of her family to do so. 100,000 fewer High School Seniors completed financial aid. And we have to step up big time. Commissioner thank you for your plea to access for students and teachers for Distance Learning. Want to clarify what can be done by the sec under with Distance Learning that hasnt been done . Thank you for your discussio discussion. This is a National Crisis with the homework at. Remote learning should be available to everyone. The sec should take the ereg program right now and then to make sure every school can do things like wireless routers to help students get connected at home. And we did a Program Just Like this on a pilot basis in 2011 we can do it again. And the bills stuck on the senate to pass the hebrews act or similar bills and the sliding scale means more money is available for those of higher percentages and this is incredibly important right now into theoretical matter because we are listing those rules to allow libraries to offer offcampus that has significant merits and we should take it up. I urge all commissioners we are in crisis. Its time to meet the moment. Incremental progress wont work we need to step up. I yield back. Your time is up you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you commissioners. This is the last meeting of the subcommittee for the year and thank you to my colleagues it is an honor to work with you to ensure america is connected and then to educate 5g and Broadband Access all the incredibly important things working on day in and day out to make sure americans continue i am pleased to see her moving forward with efforts with those necessary steps the 5g is available including getting that ready for auction so quickly for auction this month and then to be available for the next generation of Cellular Networks does seem is doing what it can to close the Digital Divide. Thank you for that and listening to experts and to move that regulatory underbrush with that 5g infrastructure which is critical with the race around the world. Commissioner come as china continues to undermine our Network Leading in next Gen Technology how important is that we keep this on trap one on track . I would like to have done it earlier but it will be set up by december. We adopted the 5g upgrade order to make it easier to upgrade infrastructure with more capacity and incentive how does this help consumers who are using more maple one mobile data . We will need macro towers not just micro towers. The commissioner led the effort so i can refer to him. Commissioner . Hes right we need to upgrade thousands of towers up at 5g and this will enable us to do that we saw this in indiana we have to press forward in this make a difference. How will that help make broadband more available as a lifeline who need this capacity more than ever . To make sure the program is they are . This reform and others will enable the quick upgrade of service to get connected to Lifeline Programs together. Is one of the 26 infrastructure bills that other republican members of the committee have proposed during the pandemic hr 7334 the broadband deployment streaming act so what has the sec done to improve the coordination in response to the covid19 response because so much needs to go against federal governmen government. This has been a longstanding project. As a heavy lifter me have coordination with our partners and we can add to that. Thank you for your service you are a true leaders on this issue and we wish you all the best they are all tailored to boost any company to have lower cost and more services that could be the case with 5g that is consistent with what you have been touting. Your time is expired. Also ms. Brooks you been a great member of this committee thank you for your service and wish you well in your future endeavors. Thank you chairman doyle. I have a question mentioning a town in my district suburban in Middlesex County of 14000 peopl people, 20 minutes from the shore. A number of folks get internet provided from their Cable Company and before the pandemic hit we started to hear that the companys prices were doubling and the service was increasingly unreliable. This is happening all over the country but instead of trying to make it more affordable and protecting consumers im afraid the sec has focused on advancing corporate interest. Commissioner rosenworcel has the ftc done anything at all to address affordability in the last four years and what could have been done that they can afford it . Regrettably the answer is now. We havent done enough to address credibility. The Digital Divide has two components one that affects Rural America and then the adoption problem is about affordability. With the broadband reports we ignore affordability and adoption we will never solve the Digital Divide unless we do what you described. Thank you. Commissioner come i heard stories of multiple kids are not keeping up with multiple feeds and they said 25 or 30 as fast enough to be considered broadband but that doesnt seem right to me. Do you think that is sufficient . As you said when entire families are stuck at home telework and tele education i dont believe that 253 is enough. I have met with folks across the spectrum and ecosystem to president s and students and administrators they told me the standard is not meeting the bandwidth needs of the families they are dealing with. Also we dont believe 253 is future proof that the standard were building to and that will be a mistake and in ten years we will say 253 is insufficient. I know some numbers have already talked about this but i have said many Times Congress should provide federal funds right now during the pandemic. But the senate refuses to bring up the act the American People are looking to the f c c that maybe emphasize a little more has the teethree used it to the full capacity to connect people during the pandemic . Yes. Mr. Chairman and affordability is important we have 50 million americans filing for unemployment and only 20 percent eligible naturally signed up for the program we need to make sure it meets the moment. And those that administer the program and with Food Insecurity and then to have a connection and that those people are notified that those were battling during the pandemic and then the 1000 minutes is very accurate can one outdated and needs to be addressed for those millions of americans. We will not recess for votes make your vote and come back. Thank you for clarifying that. I think this is much better if we did this in person and its hard to stomach with all due respect the fcc needs to show some heroism at this point to have a hearing up close and personal it would be much better to have some giveandtake and then to give commissioner carr the opportunities so let me yield to set the record straight i was disappointed to see the Previous Exchange to spend 15 billion on information provided the masks are correct i was disappointed to see that. I wanted to make sure that was clarified. The other critical piece the Congress Took away the Funding Source and denied the funding to do the it work we worried about this 411 days ago. Thank you for clarifying that. The act was never intended to be successful it was a messaging issue and we know that. Chairman pai working with the Rural Broadband extension that was doing away with that hurtful Net Neutrality they had a tremendous amount of overall space that was up and functioning i couldnt have functioned during the shutdown just shortly before this happened. Coming from the west of michigan to the east i just want to report that to you off the premises is that Something Congress needs to authorize . Its literate limited to the learning initiative to make sure that 16 billion and now we see governors and the mayor of washington dc use that funding for that purpose. We cannot use it for that purpose the language is clear im familiar with it and is done as a Pilot Program to wrongs dont make a right i would happily implement but we cannot use that provision. Why is that message still being given out . It was used wrongfully and we are looking for all avenues and what they want to work on as well. Are you trying to make it look like a political thing we all want conductivity and were not there yet we are expanding that direction we need to achieve it and especially as we see more and more people flee cities we need more of this in the rural areas i yield back. I am standing in for the chair as he votes. Representative your recognized. Chairman and Ranking Member continuing to average homes through the nonwestern United States the work of the fcc to ensure connectivity has never been more critical i mean every american citizen. The idea that that capacity is lower in some areas is wrong and that we have disparity throughout the process we need to look into the future and to have the same ability as any other area in america. And the broadband data act and to implement though work by the fcc but access to Telehealth Services and this is a severe injustice. Its troubling to get over this hurdle. And i was proud to introduced the adoption and opportunity act which requires the fcc with the stakeholders to develop the adoption rates in the Program Support with underserved individuals can you each comment on those contributions to the development of these best practices for states and localities. I thought your legislation one is properly framed with the approach that we talk about to make sure there is access and then following that they have the skills they need to safely navigate their community and i would mention that publicprivate partnerships wrapped up in that legislation up close and personal that was a tremendous approach and advancements but if we do this in washington and those that compel us to work at the state and local federal level to make this happen with this experience around the country to make sure everyone gets connected with that supply chain and then equipment and those in my district and the total cost with equipment and with those open access Radio Networks to examine the potential for domestically produced is be prepared to appropriate funding. That i will say this i couldnt hear the answers that are going on. Thank you very much this is an important part of her future. The chair now recognizes for five minutes thank you for ending the ill legal robo calls changing with technology and the efforts we made are showing real results. I commend the commission for working towards our goal to establish 988 as a National Suicide hotline. Unfortunately montana has the highest suicide rate in the country that it highlights the need to get it up and running as soon as possible and to pass the senate bill the National Suicide hotline designation act i was pleased to see the commissioners expanding telehealth at the beginning of the pandemic and what steps we can take to make sure montana is eligible for find distributions thank you for your leadership with the recipients and those that are providing service to montana and getting into the specific facilities and in that particular state or area and to meet the need in that area. With that 430 million additional dollars i would hope that montana and other states. And that Mental Health crisis to prioritize that and especially looking and working in the rural region with a coded pandemic and to receive care. With anybody making that for telehealth but rural ones. This gives rule tribes for free. And then to be critical for telehealth and those providers use the spectrum for free to connect Healthcare Provider and the patient wherever they live we want them to get access wherever they live. And jobs and the crisis is highlighted those who work from anywhere and commissioner or riley and to expedite the streamlining act and those on federal property its one of infrastructure bills by republicans on this committee what are the top challenges you face with fees and federal property and on the other side on the process and to process applications in a timely manner. The commissioner has moved forward. I yield back. Thank you mr. Chairman 700 wildfires are burning throughout california with the second and Third Largest with the fires on the west coast i introduce the emergency reporting act and to issue reports and make policy recommendations so commissioner do you believe the fcc response hasnt and then inconsistent to establish that baseline . Yes and yes. This requires the f c c to alert 911 to take action. Do you see a need for 911 to have Situational Awareness and what helps the most . We call 911 with a disaster or the unthinkable at last updated the policy and we have to figure out how to be up to date right now. They are having alarming reports that the emergency alerts are not getting to consumers a Public Safety official revealed 100 percent of those tactics did not go through with the accuracy and reliability. Absolutely we can do more we have updated alerts that are geo targeted. And then we can fix that Going Forward we all went like recipients in the automatic increases take effect to disrupt service for many beneficiaries and then rushing to have that Lifeline Program to make informed decisions with those regular consequences for consumers . I cannot agree more. Where americans are struggling and then forced to have a copay and that would be devastation all. Absolutely. Commissioner should the f c c consider Economic Conditions during the pandemic and requiring copayments . And those that value that service and then that lifeline connecting to healthcare and job and family spirit providing 200 million to support telehealth and those to expand services and significant concerns are raised about the general lack of transparency. Of that Telehealth Program are there additional safeguards for congress to consider . Yes. Going forward programs like this provide relief to every state. With the rising levels of coronavirus. I yield back. To makeg funding available. Unfortunately not all commissioners agreed. The commissioner actually stated we rushed billions of dollars out the door and what feels like a broadband publicity stunt without taking a broad view of what the nation needs so here is my question first of all do you view the 20. 4 billion going toward broadband the appointment as a publicity stunt, and what are you doing, what steps are you taking to make sure that this is going to areas that will actually connect americans to broadband . It isnt a publicity stunt at all. Unlike the stimulus targeting underserved parts of the country with reverse option to ensure Financial Stability every day therefore a and i also appreciate your support for moving ahead now. When youve heard from some to do nothing on phase one essentially what that i it is ss unless they know every part. To me people on the wrong side of the divide. Thank you very much. And commissioner rose and i want to use one of the techniques here and i need a yes or no answer do you think that its in the Public Interest at this moment in time to get the first phase of this broadband funding that can connect more americans out the door . Okay thank you very much. Commissioner oreilly, as one of 26 infrastructure bills introduced by Committee Republicans, i introduced the wireless broadband competition act to remove the requirement to prepare an environmental or Historic Preservation review for the locations and wireless facilities. So, commissioner oreilly, would eliminating this requirement for this type of review that wireless capability is already co located, would eliminating that help children get connected more quickly . Absolutely yes and i endorse your belt. I would like to commend you for the hard work youve done to ensure america remains a world leader in communications and technology and for your work to cut the red tape of the fcc and make the government work more efficiently for americans and american businesses. My colleagues have spoken out length about your work to help American Companies lead. But id like to talk about another spectrum where u. S. Companies are already the Gold Standard and that is radar systems. As the Commission Works to make it available, how do you ensure the changes you are making continued enabling a leading American Companies to have reliable access to that spectrum to test their products that result in major u. S. Export and u. S. Jobs . Thats a great question, congressman. We have nothing in the pipeline so we started from scratch and now to be repurposed at the same time we recognize theres important interests including radar that we need to accommodate so ive worked closely indoor team has worked closely with other federal agencies to make sure that as we transition from the spectrum or share with 5g enabled services that they are making sure the radar systems, some of which of course defend our country and are very important purposes will be able to be maintained. So, the balance of interests as well as any other and weve been able to do that so far. Mr. Tran, thanks. I yield back. The chair recognizes the gentle lady from california for five minutes. Thank you, chairman doyle. And to all the commissioners, thank you for being with us today. I want to share a story with you and it is a real life story. Let me describe what my district is going through. You know about the fires that limited my district 77,000 evacuees. Over 1,000, connections lost, people are desperate. Nothing is working for them thank god for the First Responders, law enforcement, all the teams, federal, state, local and work that they did. You are missing an action. Where have you been . Why dont you come to californ california . Why dont you meet with people in these Resource Centers and meet with those that cannot connect to anything . You have to be able to understand what they are going through. Now in march, actually in 2009, 11 years ago california asked the fcc to share power outage data states are the ones that respond to disasters. For every single stakeholder. It reminds me of a long ago traded agreement. What im hearin i am hearing isa gentlemans agreement to talk and talk. You havent taken action. This information could save lives. So, commissioner, are there any technical, legal for any reasons that the fcc can start sharing outage information with aids knowing the critical importance of this. As long as it is done confidentially there is no reason we cant share it with our state counterparts. What are you going to do, are you going to keep talking about it or take action . I appreciate the question, congresswoman. I appreciate the plight of those in your district suffering for the wildfires. As you mentioned 4g gave me a yes or no because i have other things i want to bring up. Arent you going to take action on this and if so, when . We put out an npr that we know and speak to when . I cant give a specific timeframe that we plan to move forward today. If you held elected office, they would do you out of a town hall meeting because this is about peoples lives and im not saying this to be disrespectful to you. We are in bad shape, and its about a agencies working in understanding was taking place in peoples lives otherwise the fcc doesnt mean a damn thing to people. Unless you take action so that the actions can walk into peoples lives. I dont offense and urgency on these issues, and im sorry to say that, and its a great source of frustration. Now mr. Chairman, about 48 hours ago, happily after i first wrote to you 1,231 days ago about the rt and radio sputnik, you did something about it. So i thank you for that. But its about 46 days before the election. So its late, but i thank you for doing it. Have you contacted the Intelligence Community to a to a prize benefit, that is my only question on that. I know weve been working with federal 4g very important that they do. You need to get on the phone with the Intelligence Community and inform them of this decision because its the Intelligence Community that encourages these outfits as being complicit in putting out propaganda to the American People. So this isnt some small potatoes. The gentle ladys time is expired. Thank you mr. Chairman. I will submit my other questions for the record and ask that all of the communications be placed in the committees record. Thank you. The gentle lady yelled back and the chair recognizes the gentleman from houston texas. They took a beating in kansas city and i was just expressing my sympathy. I think that the chair man is happy about that result but dont hold that against that. Welcome. We appreciate the time. You have done a lot in the past couple of years on Broadband Access, but you havent seen anything at all because of covid19. A few examples why we know a way of life has because of this virus. As the commissioners said, both Public Schools in my district are working now online. Theyve been in school for three weeks. They are transitioning to combination online and that is determined by the parents. They took a vote and about half said go to school and half said i want to keep them at home. That demanded a lot of access to broadband. Also one of my neighbors working from home and they have been cleared to work from home until 2001. That is a lost more stress on broadband and also able to stress for telemedicine. A lost has happened during this crisis. For example, the local hospital [inaudible] they told me they had savings in 2005 and invested that in telemedicine for the entire system. You want to go see a doctor, but across the town, he said it wouldnt bite. The doctors thought that it was quack medicine. Its frustrating because about 15 years, 83 of the visits were solstill to the clinics. 17 went to telemedicine. Ten days in march that flipped. 83 going to telemedicine and only 15 going to see their doctors. Again, that is a big burden on the Broadband Network. And i want to join chairman alone. He said there will be a Broadband Access Service Across america it is a central to the development of highspeed service to americans living in high served and underserved areas. We all know that access to broadband and Technology Kids mostly in poor neighborhoods, communities, minorities they will lose access and fall behind. So my question for you, mr. Chairman is what steps have you taken for things like the National Communications administration to analyze their data Going Forward its not just you, it is the team, correct . That is right and if i may, i know that this might be your last house hearing. Its been a pleasure to work with you and during your terms in office, lest we want to wish you the very best in the time to come. [inaudible] able to do more than i can, but we have indeed worked with other stakeholders including a big level to make sure we are getting the budget information and working with state agencies on where they have programs that may already be underway so it is a joint effort we are in this together and the end goal is to make sure we have the most accurate that we can. Ive read some comments about this and getting the network built up. Im hopeful that the coordination is going well. My past experience hasnt been that way. Im hoping that it will improve Going Forward. We have to make sure other agencies that when our data improves the reliability and do not know their own path, that we actually have some coordination. In the past it hasnt gone that way and we will just have to see Going Forward. Im about out of time. This comes from my heart, houston texas, and the heart of the chair man doyle. It comes from the great wisdom of philips. He says [inaudible] it doesnt take long to call the roll. [laughter] i yield back. The gentleman yields back and i just want you to know that im going to miss talking sports with you and pass legislation with you. You have been a great member of the committee. We all wish you well in whatever you do in the future and i know next time [inaudible] the chair now recognizes for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman for holding this important hearing. Ive been vocal about ownership rules since i was first elected because i care about the voices and local stories and news being accessible to all americans. We are dealing with several crises at once, wildfires raging in my home state of california and across the west come a pandemic, Police Brutality and Racial Injustice and racial violence. Voices and media are more important than ever. The landscape in which we digest news may be changing, but for many folks in my district, over the air is still how they see local news, local weather and emergency alerts. Some broadcasters do an outstanding job covering communities, but more often than not, they have a presence in the communities in which they are broadcasting. The chipping away of the ownership rules has led to the consideration of broadcasters like sinclair which has greatly expanded its reach and power to bring a onesizefitsall biased package throughout america. We are exposed to so much content from different platform mediums all over the world. Broadcasters are our connection into the communities now more than ever we need local voices to come through from news, stories, music to get us through these times and keep us informed. Commissioner, we have seen ownership rules rollback consistently in the last four years. Can you talk about the effect this has on communities like mine in los angeles . Sure. Thank you for asking the question because local news is so vital for our democracy. We need it in order to make decisions about our lives and about our families and about our communities. The challenge is that we have allowed so much concentration to increase and at the same time, we have seen radical decreases in a number of jobs in journalism and that has real consequences. We need local news and facts to make decisions about our lives and our country. Commissioner, one of my colleagues mentioned her comment oof a 24 billiondollar publiciy stunt. Can you concisely remind us what you meant by that . We havent improved our data and using data that they know is wrong they will be giving out 16 billion a week before the election and that her face and 80 of the funds for broadband for the next ten years. I agree with you it is a stunned and very expensive one. Another issue i want to address is the Lifeline Program. Its been dropping 10. 4 million subscribers and now its down to 60 million in march of 2020. Commissioners would do you think are the biggest reason for the program declining even while the percentage living in poverty has stayed consistent, can you comment . I would say from front to back wevback we needed an ageno cut them off from the communications [inaudible] now were in a crisis and shame on us we should be doing everything we can to rebuild this program and make sure more households can stay connected. Stumbled out of the starting block and has continued now only team states have snap connected as an automated data source so as an annual review of lifeline applications are a lot slower and a lot of folks make mistakes and rejection error rate is significantly higher so weve got to do better making sure the more vulnerable act as a Lifeline Service for those who need it. Hopefully the commission can take some better leadership on that. I want to turn now to a more positive unanimous step that has been taken. It all sounds very technical but can you explain what this decision means particularly in the new normal Virtual World that we are in today . Lets look briefly because the germans time is expired. I think the decision is big for consumers especially the millions of americans who cant to be to afford and cant rely on public wifi. I visited a number of homeless shelters where i heard from folks relying. Thank you mr. Chairman and everybody, thank you for sort of being here i guess. I want to make a mention it really is amazing how well all the networks have held up during this, something we never saw coming. Kind of interesting if this would have happened five years earlier, im not sure we would have been able to follow through and govern frankly like this as well. So to all of you coming you get credit for that and i appreciate your hard work. Mr. Chairman, i know this has been an interesting hearing, but we talked a lot about [inaudible] we cant hear you. We can see you but we cant hear you. Perhaps we could go to someone else and given a chance to get this service pack because no one can hear his questions. Who was next up . Why dont we do you and then try to get back. Will be joined with what he was saying. Thank you for the commission. There is no way that we could have govern how do we not try to deploy to get broadband out. Its almost real time its fascinating and congrats for that. A little bit of extra time im disappointed trying to figure out what actually is the title for this hearing. It could be four years of lost opportunity, it could be promises made, promises kept protecting america from future generations, how about commissioners of oreilly and farewell thank you. Or how to continue to show america how we are, terrible hearing. We are better than that. Thats the Communications Subcommittee there there is soh that we do together and social legislation that they passed together im just really disappointed it could be my last hearing also. The those of you that cant say its the kind of feel the same thing. I would like to highlight the benefits and we did communication throughout our whole career and i think that the Ranking Member raised first met in the truck out there in the wildfires. The fcc has their own role in connectivity even in the state of illinois, and im not a big fan of Illinois State government right now but theyve put money in. We are putting money in and giving a lot better than we ever have in the past. I think this pandemic has proven that we are better. We are not perfect and we will never be perfect, but i wanted to get a question out because it may come out in the second. Can you talk about where we are apt because i do think that is going to be a key to connectivity in a lot of areas as we move forward. Thank you for your leadership on this. Those ideas i think what further accelerate the u. S. Leadership. In 2015 and 2016 we are at a serious risk of getting blown away by china and other countries. Congress stepped up early on and we stepped up with Infrastructure Modernization efforts and now another infrastructure bill is accelerating and we are seeing does not just in big cities but in counties in ohio and sioux falls, south dakota. Those are better marks of the progress we are making from the modernized infrastructure rules. Primarily a u. S. Issue for many now is being accepted by the european community, Great Britain disengaged. They are the lowcost provider. With the last minute i have, anything else you may want to say. Thank you for your kind words. Its been a pleasure to work with you and if you like to resolve servants trying to make the service work in those counties. In terms outlined well from the steps weve taken i would take the opportunity to personally note ive been deeply involved here and abroad and working with our partners and other nations to ensure a shared network and personally visited bahrain, malaysia, india and have spoken about thof the need for the shad framework and how we are starting to see the fruits of the labor antheir labor and a sd understanding about the risk of the equipment and services subject to the Chinese Communist Party Surveillance or jurisdiction and i am hopeful that with those partnerships and our exploration of the networks we will be able to see a much stronger and more secure network then we would have. Terror states weve both been on the committee a long time to i dont have the Pilot Program. I told the pittsburgh owner i could just as well as the guy there could. Anyway, thank you, john. The chair now recognizes Debbie Dingell for five minutes. Thank you, chairman doyle and all of the commissioners for being here today. I do have to say go blue. As i start my comments, i do want to say that it was great to speak with the commission at the university of michigan we talked about what publichealth is doing and we also heard of some taliban is imitating neckline and hes taken decades and weve really got to work on a number of these things. What i really am concerned about and my other colleagues have expressed his what its doing to the consumers. The Digital Divide has been greatly exasperated in this process if we continue to see. This week i worked with elected mayors and officials and people are getting goals from Cable Companies that they are going over data. People are scared and they got to work on all of these, so i would urge the fcc to use all tools availablofthe tools availy can right now. We need to do a better job for the American People. But now i want to move to some questions related to the efforts to reallocate spectrum in the rollout of 5g. Lets start by picking up where they left off in december. The 5. 9 spectrum ban is known as the safety spectrum since it has been dedicated to its Transportation System application. It is harmonized globally. As the fcc conducted a study to evaluate the impact that reallocating would have on the United States maintaining Global Competitiveness in the emerging sector of advanced technology and please be brief in your response. All could agree on the need to repurpose given the material we are studying the appropriate way forward. They studied the effect of jobs and the sector that could be lost in michigan, ohio and other parts of the country due to reallocating the 5. 9 spectrum ban . First and foremost the Automotive Industry hasnt used the spectrum to the fullest extent. As you know there have been issues. In a recent letter to the office of engineering and technology, the proposed exclusion zones be implemented in the 5. 9 spectrum ban to protect federal operations including the dod and the department of Energy Systems prior to finalizing an order. Has the fcc conducted a study to assess the impact that reallocating the 5. 5. 9 then wod have on the National Security interest. That is one of the factors we would take into account. I had the chance to speak about the impacts. I care deeply just in case you didnt know. Be provided temporary access to the spectrum ban to help serve during the pandemic. Does the fcc have data to show that this effort is the need for broadband and did the fcc consider whether granting us access to the lower 5. 9 spectrum ban would cause harmful interference to the obligations in the 5. 9 the reports made available to you about how theyve used it very quickly to increase the networks and other small providers like that so im excited about the cases to close the Digital Divide especially for lowincome and Rural Americans that otherwise wouldnt get access at all. I would like to request unanimous consent to submit for the record a letter sent yesterday to this committee from a coalition of Transportation Industry stakeholders who expressed significant concerns with efforts underway to reallocate spectrum in the 5. 9 away from a expedition. Constitution. Without objections ordered. The gentle ladies time is expired. Lets try it again. How is it a now, is it bette . We can hear you. If i lose you i was a basically god doesnt want me to do this and we can move on to thank you all for being here. About the great to see you all in person again when we can. Thank you mr. Chairman for holding the hearing. We talked about a lot the need to make the spectrum available in china determined to get ahead of the United States on every form of technology. I was pleased the white house and the dod agreed to make 100 megahertz of may depend spectrum available and that the fcc plays decide on the agenda so thank you for that. If we are going to stay ahead of china how fast do you plan to bring the 100 megahertz spectrum to market. We committed the notification in june. I would hope our friends on either side of the aisle recognize the good work of the commission on this issue. We simply cannot allow china and other bad actors to infiltrate the systems and s system and son wide bipartisan agreement on that. Yet even on this crucial bipartisan issue of House Democrats did not have the funding in the heroes act to help small carriers remove so mr. Chairman, what have you done or plan to do to help ensure that the networks are secure . We have done a lot, congressman on the equipment and services weve done an inventory of existing equipment and have a list of carriers that have equipment and weve also we alse the next generation to develop a form on monday. The critical thing now is for congress to give us funding to enable the recipient of the fund to rebuild the equipment thats problematic and replace it with more secure equipment something ive been pushing congress to do for several months. We need that money in the areas where smaller carriers might not otherwise have the wherewithal to remove the apartment. Thank you and i think on that issue education in the public is important. I know you are trying to do the best you can. Like why is it that tick tock is a concern if i told you by the way the nsa was monitoring some application everybody used, people would go crazy but for some reason, the concerns of the Chinese Government for most people to send as confirming so i think information is going to be key for that. The congress and fcc to critical steps to crack down on the robo calls but was also made something almost every american could get behind except for the colors themselves i guess. Since the implementation to put an end to these unlawful calls weve seen a substantial decline. In may of 2020 they were down 60 compared to 2019. And additionally they proposed a record 225 milliondollar fine for 1 billion calls. The data shows that this has been successful, but im curious to know how the bad actors are adjusting to the new rules and if we need to build on the success of something even stronger. So, commissioner of these bad actors finding new ways to get around the rules to place the calls . Absolutely they will continue to do so and i think what you are seeing is the fact that we have moved away from penalizing and going after the bad actors. They will continue to figure out how to manipulate the system and how to figure out to conduct fraud and its our job to keep up with that and make sure the system works for the best and we go after the colts to protect the american citizens. I think all of you whether we agree on everything or not for your hard work in a very much appreciate it and especially if theres anything further that they need to do to give you the power to continue to crack down on it and success let us know. I will yield back and apologize for the earlier malfunction. The gentleman yield back. No problem. The chair will recognize the gentleman from vermont for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to say a special thank you at the end of the session to the five commissioners its been a pleasure to work with all of you these past few years and i look forward to working with you in the future. I want to take this opportunity to convey to you whats going on in vermont. Vermont like montana and iowa and all of Rural America has been an extraordinary challenge with access and availability of internet. And we agree on this committee that america must have high Speed Internet for health, work, education and we also agree that it doesnt have it. About 70,000 households in vermont dont need the federal standard of broadband. We also have incredible challenges with affordability. And i think that there are really two fundamental questions the fcc faces and congress faces. One, while we make the decision the workers made in the 1930s that we have to have broadband throughout Rural America much like they decided we had to have electricity everywhere. That was a social decision, not an economic decision. And we have to make that decision and other policies to implement it will follow. And second, will our congress do like our predecessor and a set of opportunities for the electrification districts now for broadband which are simpler to the Communication Union districts which we have in vermont. With that raises the question of the role of government. The private sector can be efficient and also cruel. If the private sector wanted to and have an incentive to extend broadband throughout rural vermont, they would have, but its not here. What we have done in vermont was with the republican governor and democratic legislator is established Communication Union districts where towns come together for 1, 15 or 20 amps ae district and the goal is for those districts to provide broadband to the citizen live within it. And its a model that works in parts of vermont already. And its very similar to the districts that have worked so well for many folks in rural areas. I want to ask a couple of questions first for the commissioner. You have been making the point about deployment and adoption and you joined me at a roundtable from the northeast kingdom to vermont and one of the participants was a teacher or parent sitting in a car, not in a curb outside a fast food place. Its a little colder here in vermont in order to get access to the internet and one of the stories she told us not only how difficult it is to get access but how the little girl said we have run out of internet because she couldnt afford it. What role do you see the union districts, communication districts playing in the deployment of broadband in rural parts of america to deal with deployment and adoption . Thank you for your commentary. And i cannot get out of my mind the idea that students ran out of internet. It really speaks to the crisis we are in right now. If they cant go to class because they reached a data cap or dont have service. Weve got to fix that. And i think we need all ideas on the table like you suggested. Weve got to go back and look at the Rural Electrification act and what we did to bring [inaudible] i cannot hear her, mr. Chairman. Commissioner, we are not able to hear you. Can you hear me now . Yes. Theres a commercial like that. Right, ive heard that one. With electrification before, we can do it again when it comes to broadband. And weve got to follow those models weve used in the past and make them viable in the future. A little more deregulation isnt going to solve the problem and thats been the approach today, and i think that its reached its limit. We need to go back and look at what we did what you suggested. Thank you. I see that my time is up, so i will yield back. The chair recognizes mr. Lujan for five minutes. You need to un mute. Thank you mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record of the report for the American Library association entitled a case study of two tribally owned Fiber Networks and the role of libraries making it happen. Without objection so ordered. Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated many longstanding inequities in the country including the Digital Divide. According to the fcc, more than 60 of the mexicans living on tribal land and more than 50 in the Rural Communities. This divide especially during this pandemic undermines businesss ability to thrive, workers ability in patients ability to see their doctors. One way we can bridge the divide this by connecting schools, libraries and communities to. We need to incorporate the experience of so many people across the country who can tell us what Service Looks Like and why the maps. After all the best broadband will be built in washington. It will be built by us and i agree with you. I agree that its good to be built by golf of those living in the parts of the country where there is ntheres no connectioni often say my constituents know the difference between fast internet, slow internet and no internet thats why it worked to include provisions to help consumers and local, tribal and state governments to meaningfully participate in the collection of the broadband data by empowering them to challenge the fault coverage maps. Can you quickly build on your statemenstatement, your testimoo discuss why its so important that th they implement a robust challenge process to determine whether the coverage maps are accurate . The best part of the propaganda they act might in fact be what you are bringing up. The fact that we ask every day americans do you have bars on your phone and service on your street because all of us know where service is and where it is not so weve got to take that knowledge and use it to inform the official data that we have. Im pretty confident that if we use the knowledge of Everyday Americans across the country we will get maps that are far more accurate than we have right now. I appreciate that. Commissioner is my understanding that the fcc is required to vote on an item implementing key pieces of th the body and the ft including the challenge process on one day. Yes or no is the fcc on track to do this . I believe we are not, congressman. Theres a lot of interest in this space and widely understand information needs to be disseminated to the commissioners before it is disseminated publicly, can you make those documents available to this committee as soon as you disseminate them to the commissioners said that we know all thof the commissioners havet information . Certainly we always publish the meetings in advance. My concern is that they are not on track to meet its requirements on the process for monday and its important that that information not just to get to the commissioners that they know what they are going to be voting on the committee has a lot of interest in that space flight with pertaining to that you can share those documents with the committee a committee s theyve been disseminated to the commissioner saicommissioners ty have been shared. Do you believe that they have done the necessary work to collect accurate data to make Smart Investments to close the Digital Divide . Ive taken issue with those that go out under the data and i dont believe that anybody in this room knows it and then of course under the Mobility Fund prospect of it. If they expanded thwith the expd connectivity is the important need to fix forms of widely understand the commission is looking at this, this needs to be done and it can be fixed immediately. The last question as the fcc done everything it can to connect to the tribal communities during this pandemic . Congressmen, the answer is no. There will be more access as a result, and i hope that that will make a meaningful difference in the future, but we have a lot more work to do. The gentlemans time is expired. Has expired. The chair recognizes mr. Butterfield for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you to the witnesses for the testimony. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your leadership, youve been nothing but and i continue to work with you in the years to come. In the wake of covid19, disparities and Maternal Health outcomes are deepening. This is particularly true in the Rural Communities like the ones that i represented among those that continue to suffer disproportionately high rates of maternal and infant mortality. Earlier this year i led it later joined by 27 other members recommending that the fcc reserve connected Program Resources for the connected care projects. I introduced a bipartisan, bicameral data mapping to save lives act, thats kind of a mouthful, along with representatives. This legislation to use data mapping to identify areas of the country where high rates of four Maternal Health overlap with the lack of Broadband Access. I believe doing so will give us a better understanding of where we should be allocating resources. Do you agree that the fcc should use its programs to address mortality . The United States is the only industrialized country with a rising level of brutality and we know Telemedicine Solutions could help. Women of color that are suffering right now, we need to do more, and i think that rfid projects need a way to start. Have a better understanding of where the high rates of poor Maternal Health and a lack of Broadband Access overlap, how would aid us in combating the maternal crisis . The privilege of spending some time with the doctors at the university of arkansas and ive also spent time with maternal experts at the mayo clinic and they both are developing programs. The more that we can connect mothers got the more we connect pregnant women, the more likely they will be able to follow up with appointment. The connection between broadband, telemedicine and Maternal Health is real. I think we should use our Pilot Project just as you said comingn every single state. Thank you. Commissioner oreilly, closing the Digital Divide is to ensure all americans have the access they need for Distance Learning but to let health and a host of other essential activities that increasingly require the broadband connection. However due to the patient requirements, qualified broadband providers are discouraged from participating in the programs that increased Broadband Access or lowincome consumers. My opportunities would retire this outdated restriction. Let me ask this to you agree or disagree that eliminating the requirements to make more . I agree and i support your legislation. I had a blog that went through the different arguments presented on not only why in my conversations with so many different providers and why you discouraged participation and the participation in upcoming options there they are not willing to edge out circumstances to build out areas that really needed and i commed it to the committees attention and i think its important that we fix this Going Forward. Thinthank you, commissioner. Finally, to commissioner sanchez, its good to see you at the a while since weve chatted thank you for your extraordinary work. You have been a vocal proponent of this approach to protect the telecommunication supply chain from highrisk vendors. In answering the Network Security act to expedite the replacement of all such equipment from our networks. Finally in the 20 seconds we have left to do you agree or disagree that we should do everything we can to replace such government as quickly as possible . Yes, thank you, congressman. And the commission revitalized [inaudible] posing a national threat, National Security threat and so i agree we need to fund it now. Dozens of small carriers to make sure that we remove it including i have forwarded the idea that we should use the taxpayer money, u. S. Money potentially going to replace. This has expired, the chair now recognizes you for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman for convening this oversight hearing today and thank you to all of the commissioners for joining us virtually. Today i wish i had time to discuss issues such as how in the midst of a pandemic the fcc plans to address the act and the status of the Communication Networks. However, given the time constraints i will go directly into my line of questioning. Did you know the Trump Administration is seeking to hold out the u. S. Census and a couple of weeks. This effort was recently blocked by a federal judge but im very concerned about the effect where only about half of the residents have responded so far. Many of these areas lack Broadband Access falling on the wrong side of the Digital Divide. Some of my constituents need to be connected to utilize the library however some of the system locations were still closed and have limited service is due to the pandemic. Commissioner, how would an incomplete census count impact the case to bring connectivity in these areas we have a constitutional duty to get accurate help of everyone in this country. So the problem is when we have citizenship questions they are trying to shut it down early, we are impeding the ability to get an accurate count. This is the nations First Digital census and we know we have a Digital Divide in this country and if we are relying strictly on the internet, then we are going to leave people out. So, its never been more important that we figure out how to reach those people where they are even do we have the public crisis. We have hired 120,000 fewer people to actually work on the census this time around because we are relying on the center at first mode, but in districts like yours and elsewhere where the Digital Divide is rearing its head, we have a problem if we need to make sure that it continues until we count every one last week the committee passed my bill, the enhancing broadcast diversity data act. This bill was drafted to collect data to better understand. So despite the statutory obligation to collect diversity the commission has failed to do so. We should be collecting at approved by omb we have not focused on this because of a dispute on confidentiality. Thank you so much commissioner. Last week we witnessed another attempt by donald trump to use the sec as his personal Speech Police this is the latest intimidation by donald trump to dampen the criticism through the executive order. Its for the Public Comment on section 230. Commissioner, what are your thoughts and the next steps of section 230 conversation . Its absolutely critical and intra goal to democracy. And to be focused on this there is a robust debate but let me be clear we should reject the petition rejecting the president s motives they are not retaliation when this will impact the president s political future. We dont have to play this game we should get back to our focus which is helping to close internet inequality. Your time has expired. Ms. Rogers you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. I appreciate everything the commission has done to help communities and Emergency Responders during the wildfires out west is disappointing the majority hasnt worked with us to restore Communication Networks in areas hit the wireless resiliency act to help the committee would follow the commissions lead with the spectrum policy. Greater transparency is necessary for policyholders to make informed decisions so those resources are used in the best way possible the government spectrum valuation act and while i hope to focus my questioning on this bipartisan effort the majority is dead set to continue their pursuit on the take over the internet if the obama fcc 2015 regulatory order was reversed and this is not based on fact if it comes to fruition our network would have polled collapsed under the increase of demand during this pandemic. They have held up and thrived during this unprecedented increase. Meanwhile networks in europe have buckled under the added pressure. Chairman pai do you believe your restoring order is why the us networks can handle the increased Network Traffic . No question with increased usage up 35 percent would they be able to stand up . You may have because the Regulatory Reform we took before anybody heard of coronavirus. Im proud of the decisions we took to get rid of that arcane regulation and setting records for Fiber Deployment in 2018 and 2019 more americans getting access. So affordability and pricing has gone down and independent study has shown that. And then to say we are better off prior to 2017. And with those renewed efforts to establish a national 5g network. Would be preferable to the Network Within a free market is illadvised and to impose utilities style regulation has our ability to deploy 5g to empower the Chinese Communist party. I have heard a lot of talk about the desire for the us to lead on 5g i hope we can drop that misguided push to deploy a nexgen networks. Free enterprise is central to america with the best teleCommunications Network in the world. We have unleashed a decade of innovation and have done the same to champion the free market and American Ingenuity we cannot be the chinese at their own game and with that i yield back. The layperson was to nationalize 5g is the president. I think the rest of us agree with ms. Rogers. The chair ask unanimous consen consent, a case study from a policy perspective between members and the fcc and 51 stakeholders, comments is by no America Open Technology institute. New America Open Technology institute, and another one and tax reform and us chamber of commerce and a letter from Douglas County commissioner, a letter from the minor me on and lie at the minority listing chairman pai accomplishments. Without objection so ordered. Thank you for your participation today its good to see you all. I wish you well pursuant to Committee Rules there are ten Business Days to be submitted questions for the record to be answered by witnesses that have appeared please respond promptly with that we are adjourned. Thank you mr. Chairman. Take care kansas radio statios hosted this event
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