I want to welcome you to the subcommittee. I appreciate the commissioners appearing to offer their testimony today. And we appreciate that we have been able to hear from you in advance of this hearing. Beencc has not reauthorized since 1990 and its current appropriation is 430 million. It is charged with the administration of Communications Act. Reexamine the Core Functions and restore a culture of humility that was lacking under the regulatory class left by chairman wheeler. The fcc plays a vital role in our increasingly Technology Dependent society. The subcommittee has released a draft for consideration. I would be remiss by not discussing Net Neutrality. The commissions decision to classify the internet as a public utility was a power grab laced with the irony of suffocating the most innovative part of our economy with in 1930s era law. This gave new meaning to the term progressive. Reply comments to the commissions are due august 18. We hope you are keeping that wed whacker handy. It has a lot of work to do. Title ii reclassification has created a 5. 6 reduction in isp network investment, will lead to rate regulation and has generated tremendous uncertainty. I know there is disagreement. While my colleagues on the other side of the aisle had nothing to do it this, internet giants amazon, facebook, and google recently joined with websites such as pornhub and dark money groups for a day of action to claim republicans will break the net. Me be clear, republicans have always supported a free and open internet. Lets not have any misunderstanding on that issue. We must move past the partisan rhetoric. The Ranking Member said in 2010 this is a job for congress in referring to the Net Neutrality rules and i agree. Other issues included administration of the Lifeline Program, media ownership rules and process reform. The gao released another report article of the Lifeline Program on june 29. Said over 6000 deceased individuals were enrolled after their death, and numerous carriers improved eligibility based on fictitious documentation. Outdated media ownership rules and process reform issues also concerned the committee. Broadcast ownership rules released last august was divorced from the realities of todays media marketplace. Finally processed reform has been an issue of bipartisan concern for some time. Bipartisan bills have passed the house five of the last six years. Chairman pal youve taken positives steps including release of a fact sheet for any proposal to be considered at an open meeting and releasing the text of the documents to the public in advance of a vote at an open meeting. However, more must be done to promote and sustain a culture of transparency at the commission on several other issues. Noted in the majority memorandum. I look forward to todays hearing and at this time i yield the balance of my time to mr. Lance. Thank you chairman black burn and welcome to the fcc kirgss. Fcc commissioner. Internet is a great equalizer provides a open platform to embour innovation and free speech as well as other invention and histories by reclassifying Internet Services under depression area title 29s common carrier rults in 2015 the fcc needlessly risked this great economic engine. Fch title 2 ohms the door to burdensome regulations that harm competition threaten the investment and broad band needed to close the Digital Divide. And holdback innovation such as 5g. I applaud chairman pal for phishing a proceeding to rf the misguided reclassification p misguided reclassification. Its important for consumers not to conflate the harmful title ii reclassification with the Net Neutrality principles as some would suggest. There is strong support among the American People for a light touch approach to internet regulation. And a strong kwon sense us on strong consensus on both sides of the aisle for Net Neutrality principles. These ideas do not need to be mutually exclusive. It is my hope that the commission and congress can finally resolve the open internet issues, and that we can Work Together in a bipartisan capacity. Thank you madam chair. And now we recognize the Ranking Member mr. Doyle for five minutes. Thanks chairman for holding this long overdue hearing today and thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us. Its my sincere hope we can make this a more regular occurrence. Ive spent my time in congress and on this committee as a strong advocate of competition innovation and opportunity. , these are the pillars of a successful marketplace. And the driving force of our economy. When we act to weaken them we weaken our own economy and our country. In the time that you have been head of this agency we have seen an agenda that is anticonsumer, antiSmall Business and anticompetition antiinnovation and antiopportunity. Right out of the gate the commission took a range of actions including pulling back an investigation of anticompetitive zero rating practices and a mere Progress Report on updates to a program to bring broad band to schools and libraries. The commission reinstated the uhf discount for what seems to be no other reason than to enable an unprecedented merger between sin clear and tribune that would give the combined entity a foothold in nearly 80 of american households. The commission eviscerated competition for Business Data Services in this country. Your order concluded that a market is competitive if it is served by one provider with the possibility of another one might enter at some point. I dont even see how this makes sense. The commission ended a program that enables poor people to get access to broad band literally pulling service away from people who had already signed up. The commission is in the process of eliminating the fccs open Internet Order. Which as of this morning 12. 3 million have written to you in overwhelming opposition. These rules are working they have been upheld in federal court and they have promoted a Virtuous Cycle of investment and innovation online. And i dont think this point can be stressed enough. Publicly traded companies are required by law to tell their investors the risks to their company. No publicly traded isp has made such a claim. However, many Online Companies including netflix and snap have claimed that oh eroding or eliminating the rules will in fact pose a threat to their businesses. You know when i read your statements and you talk about investment and your concerns, you only seem to talk about in relation to isp investment. Im concerned that maybe you just dont get it. The internet isnt just an isp connection to the consumer. Its a vast array of Networks Services and applications. Ignoring the rest of the ecosystem is to ignore the part of the internet that is the most vibrant and innovative. Im deeply concerned that the fcc is on a wrong path, a path that will hurt Small Businesses regular people and some of the most innovative sectors of our economy. And on that cheery note i will yield the balance of my time to miss eshoo. I thank the Ranking Member and what a superb Opening Statement you just made. One of the most important issues currently before the fcc is obviously Net Neutrality. We have heard a lot from Net Neutrality opponents about the impact of title ii on brad bant investment while fielgts affirmative. Ps tell them its kmield investment their executives tell sharmds a different story. The benefits of title ii protections to every other sector of our economy are enormous, a free and open internet supported the creation of 10. 4 million u. S. Jobs in all 50 states in 2016. 86 of these jobs came outside of major tech hubs. Despite the broad impact of the open internet on our economy, the fcc is barreling down the road of eliminating the critical protections and making it clear to the American People startups and Small Businesses that their input is not valued nearly as much as that of washingtons special interests. So i look forward to discussing this issue further and ask that my full statement be inserted in the record. I also plan to discuss very directly with you mr. Chairman the whole issue of rt in the Intelligence Communitys Public Record statement. It is replete with references to rt. And i think that we need to pay a great deal of attention to that. I thank you the gentleman for yielding and i yield back. The gentle lady yield back does the gentleman yield back. I yield back the gentleman yields back his team i will say to my colleagues we agree you that the issues of the cosystemen oh the net true nalt title ii deserve additional attention attention from this committee and we look forward to carrying forward with this. That time i recognize the chairman of the full committee mr. Walden for five minutes for Opening Statement. Morning madam chair to all of the witnesses, the commissioners and the chairman to our guesting. To our guests. American innovation and the internet space is literally revolutionized the world and everything we do and how we do it. From research in communications to shopping and entertainment, the internet is an essential part of our everyday lives. Given the debate over the rules for internet operations and Consumer Privacy it is our responsibility on the energy and Commerce Committee to fully understand all sides of the internet governance issue. Therefore, im announcing this morning that im convening a full energy and Commerce Committee hearing entitled ground rules for the he internet ecosystem for thursday, september 7th, 2017. Today i am sending formal invitations to the top executives of leading tech Companies Including facebook, alf wet, amazon and netflix, as well as broad band providers including, comcast, at t, verizon and charter kmupgsing, inviting each of them to come and testify before the full energy and Commerce Committee. Its time for congress to legislate the rules of the internet and stop the pingpong game of regulations and litigation. Make no mistake given the importance of the Public Policy debate and the work we need to do as a committee it is essential that we hear directly from the countries top internet and edge provider leaders who frequently speak out publicly about rules of the internet. Its time they came before us and directly shared their positions and answered our questions. And with more than a months advance notice im sure they can arrange their schedules to accommodate our invitations. Now with regard to todays panel, chairman pal, welcome and congratulates on taking over the helm at the fcc. Commissioner clyburn, commissioner oreilly were glad off you back us as well thank you for the work we do we begin a new charp in the history of the fcc one that will ham shape some of the most important parts of the national kmi the video distribution sfree, Telecommunications Industry and the internet. In todays hearing we begin to examine rethorsoning the fcc thats the First Time Since 1990 the fcc has come up for reauthorization. By any estimation this discussion is long overdue. And today we continue conversations to make the fcc a model agency with proposals for a number of process reforms. Many of which will sound very familiar because weve taken them up before in this committee. When we first took up the open government reforms i said it was not about who headed the fcc at the time it was about improving transparency and public involvement in a public process. I believe that under chairman wheeler and i believe that just as much now under chairman pal. I was pleased to be the chairman demonstrated his commitment to making the operations more transparent through action by initiating a Pilot Program to publicly release the text of Commission Agenda items at the same time theyre presented to the other commissioners for a vote. A measure his predecessor oppose ds there are a number of matters pending with the Commission Many of which we will discuss. With the the broadcaster repack is under way. The commissioner set forth of a fwrchs schedule to move all the broadcasters impacted by this auction. While i have every confidence that the chairman will work to ensure consumers to have access to over the air television concerns remain about the sufficiency of the 39month time line and the 1. 75 billion budget. I take the concerns seriously and will continue to work closely with the commission and my colleagues to make sure that over the air broadcasting and the viewers they reach on main channel and on their translatesers are not adversely affected. Of course chairman pal commence add proceed egged to examining returning regulation of the internet to barpt framework that made it the economic engine it is today. As we wait for this process to take its course pb the future of the greatest economic engine of modern times is clouded with uncertainty with a frohhing recognition that the time is now for legislative action we offer to waived for on Net Neutrality in 2015 i believe now as i did then that we should Work Together to write Bipartisan Legislation to protect the internet from bad actors who want to use their unfair advantage to block throttle or in other ways engage in bad behavior. The American People deserve no less we stand ready to act. Chairman pal commissioner err clyburn shall commissioner oreilly thank you all again. There are others who want to use the last 15 seconds i would happily yield and if not i yield back the balance of my time. The gentleman yields back at this time i recognize the Ranking Member of the full committees mr. Pallone for five months for opening. Thank you madam chairwoman. Id like to thank you the fcc commissioners for joining us this morning our first fcc oversight hearing of this congress. Kwhiel im glad youre hear this hearing should have occurred months ago the republican majority had no problem conducting oversights the prefer ov administration holding quarterlily oversight hearing now their own Party Controls the majorities of the commission we are six months into the administration and this is our first hearing with the new commission. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. Do because the commissions own actions have shone the critical need for congressional oversight. To date most of the fccs actions have ignored the needs of consumers. To often when given the chance this fcc has sided with large corporations to the detriment of hard working americans. The commission started this year by making it more difficult for competitors to offer broad band to low income people through the life line program. It continued with the scheme to encourage for consolidation into the Media Industry eliminating voices from the air. Last week chairman pal to refused to commit to protecting the funds necessary to close the homework gap as part of the popular Erate Program in our schools pen then the alarming outright refused by the fc. Kr to protect the security of the broad bant networks at a time when the russians and others are looking for new ways to breakin. But the highest profile example chl fcc side wg large corporations over mall businesses and hard working americans is the attempt to eliminate Net Neutrality andfree and open internet is kmurgs for democracy by giving everyone an equal voice online. They get to decide which videos we watch, which sides of we read , and what services we you that we use. Nobody gets to influence that services we use. Nobody gets to influence that choice. Not the government, and not the companies that run the networks. A free and open internet also allows Small Businesses to flourish. The Small Businesses many of which owned by minister and women are responsible for more than half the jobs in the country today. If the fcc moves ahead with Net Neutrality were, the consequences will be severe. It will cut away at our connections with each other and to limit Economic Opportunities for the future. The fcc claims that Net Neutrality repeal is necessary because consumer cap Consumer Protections might deter infrastructure. Results,ad to cruel the hope that the commissioners are listening to the billions of comments coming in from throughout the nation. This is not an oversight hearing, the republican majority surprised us with a 42 page reauthorization bill that had absolutely no democratic input. Its lashes 18 million from the fccs budget. This is not serious legislation and it does not load well for any serious legislation being developed by the majority of this subcommittee on any major communication issues. I would like to yield such time that she wants to miss matsui that i have left. Thank you very much. I represent sacramento, the