No, i is partnering with a thousand Community Centers to create wifienabled lift zones to sunt so student be ready for anything. Comst support cspan as a Public Service along with these her television providers, giving you a front if row seat to democracy. Next, a look at a telecommunication regulations and the rollout infrastructure with Michigan Republican congressman tim tim wahlburg. He spoke during a tech policyth. [inaudible conversations] if i could have etchs if everyone could take their seats. Finish im very glad to introduce congressman tim walberg from michigan. He serves on the house energy and policyom committee, cochair of the [inaudible] and a great friend to thendustry trying to t find ways to help us break through the barriers, streamline the permitting, feed the ability to build the network and help reduce the cost that comes with delay and sometimes [inaudible] and so we appreciate what youre doing. But b before we start our conversation, if you dont mind, tell everyone herelbout a your district, the people, the place you represent, how you got into Public Service and then we can go from well, chip, its good to be back with you. Frankly, id just be happy if we just ended right now with that opening introduction. And you could go back to enjoying the fruits of your labors out there or something. You know, its good to be back withit you. I w the same year you retired. If i went out the hard way, defeated for my reelection. After serving one whole long term, they threw the me out. Thats how much trouble i could get in in one term, i guess. Itsst one of those e peenses where you say the people make you say thewhere people make decisions. You represent them and they decide what to dot the best year for republicans. 2006 wasnt that strong the east. I came in with 13 republicans for my first term and then went out right away but then came back in 2010. Things h had changed a bit, and term limits actually function. They hadfu limited me and then they decided to limit the guy who beat me and put me back in. Since then ive had the privilege of staying in. Thiss eighth term in congress. Serving on emergency and Commerce Committee fits very well well with my district. Right now its the entire southern border off michigan. Im there to keep out all buck with eyes [laughter] buckeyes. And if youre a buckeye, orgv ould always move across the lewin and be where the national champion, undefeated wolverines are. [laughter] i not that use it while i i can, you know . [laughter] and then the hoosiers. And im not all that hot about keeping hoosiers out of my district, but notre dame has beenen a challenge because i was haraised by a father who was a g ten guy. I was raised on the south side of chicago. Chicago a we used to call it, you know . And he said, tim, its okay, im a christian, youre a christian. Its okay to hate two things. Whats that, dad . New york yankees and notre dame. [laughter] so now with plenty of people district which was fred uptons old district, the southern portion, i have had t acquiesce to the fact that a there are baptist pastors with notre dame paraphernalia in their office. Whats that about . But were growing with the task. But that is, literally, the Energy District of the ate. I like to think because of Energy Providers like nbc and others that put broadband on the map, in fact, broadband i c k and a half before covid shut us down. I didnt have bro tipton, michigan. In fact, the suburbs of tipton, michigan. Its okay, most people dont know where thats at either. But i love, leeing out in the country but, man, if i had not if had broadband for all of the zooms meetings that we had, committee meetings, markups online from my house, it wouldnt have funked. So i got a quick primer into the expansive nature and ability of what broadband can bring to and, of course, now being able to talk with myarmers also, so its very diverse. But energy and communication are major components of my district. So im delighted at what you do in all of the industry and the impact that you make, and its only going to■n expand. When i talk to those farmers and i get irritated with them, say dont use that expression im ft no dumb farmers out there. If youre going to make it in the Agriculture Community today and having to have capabilities that come from satellite, the internet, broadband capabilities for your farms, for your combine, for your tractors in doing the type ofming that you do today, its important that we keep moving this forward. So to be a member of the Rural Broadband caucus, cochairman of that, but also and beyond caucum just catching up to 5g. The beyond im still going to learn that. But we have to haveha that. And then being on energy and commerce, Telecom Subcommittee and also the education and work forc committee. I sit on that committee as well. All of that is touched by what you do, so its good to be with you, chip. Congressman, thank you. Talk a little bit, congress, like the country, is a divided place. I havent noticed that. [laughter] youre talking not simply, but our conference. The divisions, i guess, are the fractures are everywhere. Yeah. But on broadband, its one place that we seem to have united as a country, around, you know, both the private public investment, connecting all parts of the country, rural america, the areas. Talk a little bit about the priorities of the broadband caucus, your priorities. You have an act to make sure that the investments on the public side go to the right places, andt the plan act. If you dont mind, talk about the caucus, some of the work priorities and and your any legislation you think will help make the investment more effective. Yeah. Its broadband with is not partisan. We all need it. Democrat constituencies want it wherever they might be. Republican constituent■k i i tht wherever we might be. Rural or, you are banger suburban, we all need if it. And when i get into my old district that sounded ann arbor on three sides, a hug to Debbie Dingell on three sides, but that area wasas9 not republican. Dexter, chelsea, suburbs, they didnt have broadband many cases. So education educational issues were educational issues were a concern when covid hit. So that was a progressive democrat area. But then just going a few miles south of that in monroe county, for instance, heavy agricultural. They need to do this well for all they do with their custom farming. So the plan if act, which i hopa tells me that my bill isnt coming up today for a vote. Itll be put off. I think theres some budget issues going on, whatever. [laughter] who would have thought . But i guess its the been moved back a couple, three weeks. But that really says what we in a bipartisanas in the Rural Broadband caucus, bipartisan caucus recognize, the pact that we cant waste the funds that have been put in there. A lot of investment has gone in. Were grateful fore, that. And then weve seen, you know, some of the mapping and things that have been terribly wrong, and w s fixed. And weve come in our committee to discuss the idea that,s yeah, while we want to upwith those areas upgrade those areas half broadband now with newer technology, there still plenty of us that dont have any. We need to so thats why we need the plan for broadband act where we do that the in a a consistent fashion that makes sense and we dont waste whats going if on. Then you think about a hundred different programs being administered by 15 different agencies across the spectrum. Weve got to consolidate that so that we dont waste time, we dont waste energy we d resourct deployment as quickly as possible. So thats where our caucus come■ together, and i hope we can continue to work that a way. Now, earlier in the session the energy and Commerce Committee passed the american broadband deployment act a trying to move barriers, streamline permitting, industry cross the Railroad Tracks and be able to close the Digital Divide finish. Okay, its over. This is, yeah, this is where we thats the beauty of broadband, youre never in the dark. [laughter] talk a little bit about the american broadband deployment act. The principles behind it, the mission. Our membership has worke to create a broadbandready city, a broadband city checklist that really kindis of fundamental principles of how you can respond to a permit within 30 days. How can you have andav streamlie permit process . How can you have innovative, least disruptive ways of microtrenching where you dont disrupt the roads, the infrastructure, the rightofway, all the a different types of things and how we can whatever disruptions our industry does as quickly asly possible. But some of those best practices that if we can have ahis in your district or in mississippi or in urban suburban areas that really will help the investment go further, faster and at a lower cost. Talk a littler, bit about the tm glad we were able to patz out of committee. It did nots come out in a bipartisan fashion, thats the my democrat colleagues feel like we ought to move much more slowly when we deal with Environmental Concerns. I think republicans want to make sure local governments are taken care of, but i think we did that in that act, and so were going toe have to keep, toward a solution because its kind of like, you know, eisenhower putting in theecessiy of making sure that if we ever did have to defend our own country on its own soil, we could get from east to west, north to as a readily as possible. Well, or internet, with what were doing right now, we have to have the same type of impact. And so we h things in the ground, we have to get things on the poles, we have to get satellites in the atmosphere. We have to move forward as quickly as possible. Lets use it. Lets make sure we dont destroy the environment. Im a conservative. I believe contributes ought to be good stewards. We shouldnt destroy things but we shouldnt be capable of using the best benefit of people certainly broadband, the capabilities we have that are expanding our world. Allowing us to lead if we dont stifle our own creativity, innovation, ingenuity and capabilities by dragging our feetet i think with ai capabilities we can forget whats best indeed with Environmental Concerns andn surrounded by water on three sides, beautiful, beautiful, youre all welcome to come. We can deal with environmental issues, deal with the marshland. John dingell and and i workd heavily on the march lands in lake erie and we use them for bimetal purposes,me with broadb. We just need to get off our own turf mentality and say how canr. Lets make sure locals and states have their ability to get the information quickly asn■ unt you want to do. Lets look at the apartment, find out how to been done in other places, best practices and get iti think well all be bettf for it. You mentioned your on the Education Workforce committee. Earlier today we announced encompasses establish a center for ai come Public Policy responsibility. A lot of the leaders, thought leaders that industry, government and academics that were talking to on the panel talked about how i can really provide workforce training, on education, on individualized tutoring and Educational Opportunities the matter where you are, no matter what your income is to really give educational opportunity, all the potential good that can come to an individual and to account a. Talk to his obit of how you see and i and Education Workforce and the work you are doing. Ai is scary. It can ruin thing■s b it also can make things more successful in a quicker fashion without redoing everything all over again. And i can provide for students in a classroom who wants to get into the information industry, the capabilities expanding research to the point they come up already prepared from the greatest innovation opportunities. We can find means by which we can train new workers in the field, our students in the classroom using case histories and putting them in settings whereby they can experience it before the actual have to climb eighthour. Its amazing what we can produ if we, i know we have to contl it and think thats work of the past to a light touch. We cant let it control us, but when i talk with people in the industry iner is almost the next best thing since sliced bread because it is cut down our time in Getting Solutions and developing things, exponentially, and yes, it scares us how much information we can get, and thats why we wa element in, the reason that says that sounds interesting but it doesnt compute in my mind that its actually true. Thats were i think we can see the danger of ai become the value of ai as capabilities than bring to the table as well. And so in education worce looking at this we have to find means by which we can ramp up the speed by which we train people. We have to get to our parents and let them knob ,ou feel likea failure as a parent if your child doesnt go to university of michigan, national champion, undefeated school. [laughing] they can get into an industry going to our communityt c to Partnership Programs and hopefully we get the shortterm help expand so wean ed your industry on to the job of the field as quick as possible with far■ more information and training capabilities than weve ever had before. It excites me to think about the facttt that t computer i carry around with an apple on the back of it has so much capabilities, but when you add ai to it inng things that we t can expand and when china pushing us, pushing us, pushing us, and they havent come over us yet, we have to find means by which we stay ahead. 5g, 6g and beyond, and everything, every component part it. As we talk about education and workforce and ai and the exciting possibilities that come with it, we had an earlier panel today about the broadband workforce, think fiber splices, alw tower, every part of how we build and deploy all of the advanced networks of every technology has acute shortages right now of the workforce. 200,000 fewer workers are needed in the matterld right now as we build out the networks. So anyway that our members can work with you and collision with other broadband industry■ associations workforce as we have historic level of public funding and private funding to connect every american. Theres a lot of good jobs, 100,000 jobs fore the deploymed speedy heading to the airport this morning, chip, early, i got to a bend in the road heading out to civilization for myy house, and there was three mec, Midwest Energy and interest Communication Trust already some problem. As far as i know i still have my broadband but they were out there working. I was thinking wow, this is situation where it used to say plumbers, electricians. You always wanted them. T you always need them. Well, now you need these communicationsple. They have the buckets so they were prepared. They were digging around the pole for some reason, probably looking for some splicing problem but nonetheless the are people that are highly trained, and im sure some of those they were making six figures easilyy doing work that they love to do, and people love to experience the results of their work. I was sitting h fred upton and its great legacy of energy and Commerce Committee and what he has done for michigan, the university of michigan, you know, we you prair the national championship. Coach harbaugh to finally get there. Is also there with all of the next generation internet, really important and the research networks, Early Research networks of the internet. And as we try to build up our ai center, we want to work with the mississippi, the university of arizona, other Regional University hubs both on the research, the curriculum, the btef the workforce training of all of the different applications a ai. We would love to work with the university of michigan or any of the other to me to be institutions in your state and district. Were seeing some of you already happen. The president of Adrian College in my district, was on a plane hitting somewhere and Vice President of google was sitting next to him. They keptut what the real world of i. T. Needed that resulted in something that was written up in the New York Times a few months back calleds like google who will come now, set up the program for the i. T. In thel world, what we need they want when your student comes to work for us, and we will train your teachers, your professors to teach in that course. And that is expanding now where even major universities are joining Smaller Community colleges and private schools, private colleges to prepare people for real world experiences. And when you have a google or an apple or a General Motors or a dow chemical who will come and say hey, i will foot the bill, put the course f together so tht when your student graduates and comes and is by me, day one they understand what they need to do. So in your industry, i cant believe that there wouldnt be higher ed institutions, and even getting back now when youre thinking about early college, programs at High School Level and tryino for junior and seniors in high school in the professions. And these are professions. Our former governor at michigan tried to change the term from Skilled Trades toss professional trade because they are. So that type of thing of bringing your resources in and putting real courses in differe, i think that has to be what takes place. Well, i p look forward to working with you on a number of different issues. One last issue thats important to our membership, and it was part of the house deployment act, anden that was a way to streamline and see the ability for Broadband Companies to the point under the Railroad Tracks, or over the Railroad Tracks, or alongside the