Public service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Host and our guest this week on the communicators is representative marsha blackburn, a republican from tennessee and the new chair of the energy and commerce subcommittee on communications and technology. Chairwoman blackburn, what are some of your priorities this year . Guest oh, we have plenty of priorities. Were looking forward to doing some Good Housekeeping work, if you will, cleaning up at fcc and ntia. Those two agencies also have to go through a reauthorization. Fcc has not been reauthorized since 1990, and ntia since 92. So were looking forward to moving forward with that. You know, we appropriate in the federal budget every year there are, theres 310 billion that are appropriated over 200 agencies that have not been reauthorized. So thats kind of item number one, making certain that we do that. And, you know, within that as youre doing reauthorization, it is an opportunity to revisit the structure of those agencies. Times have changed since 1990 or 1992, and its time to revisit what those agencies spend their time on. And i would say also to make certain that they are focused on their Core Missions and that theyre paying attention to those Core Missions. You know, when you go that period of time and you dont have reauthorizations, its easy to kind of get off script and get away from what is mission critical. And so just Good Government. Lets go back in, well do that visit, well make certain that if it needs to be rightsized, its rightsized. If emphasis needs to be shifted within the agencies, we will do that. So well spend some time there. Then well do some work on encryption and cybersecurity. Leonard lance, who serves as vice chair, is going to lead the efforts on our behalf when it comes to encryption and cybersecurity. And then my favorite, expanding broadband, Rural Broadband and expanding this out, making certain that we address what i view as having been an opportunity gap; communities that do not have broadband, and theyre not able to go in and expand Educational Opportunity for their students. Theyre not able to utilize telemedicine in health care, theyre not able to recruit new factories that can bring jobs to those underserved areas. So broadband expansion. And i think thats a pretty good agenda for a year. Im looking forward to it. Im already at work on it. Yeah. Host well, you are, and, in fact, youve held a hearing already on ntia. What did you learn from that . Guest what we learned is, you know, talking to different administrators, people that are former administrators, and they, they came in and said, look, you know, the agency needs to be focused on helping the federal government with their utilization of spectrum and how they go about using that spectrum. They need to concern themselves with siting of towers and the way we deploy broadband and expand broadband. And and they made a couple of points, i thought, that were really important. Not all of its going to be wire line. And while we think in terms of looking at wire line and the issues that come with wire line when its pole attachments and things of that nature, that we need to think in terms of wireless also in the coverage that you can get. And especially as you think about the 5g. And that component moving to commercialization. So they were very, very helpful. And i appreciated the fact that it was a good bipartisan hearing, there was great conversation between the former administrators, that theyre bipartisan sitting before us x there was a tremendous amount of agreement about the reauthorization needed to take place, the budget needed a good review, realignment and focusing on purpose was manager that needed to happen swuz something that needed to happen, and broadband should be an emphasis. Host joining our conversation today is john hendel of communications daily. In terms of reauthorization, how quickly would you be hoping to moving to drafting legislation . Guest yeah, yeah, and with reauthorizing the agencies, i hope that over the next six months you will see us moving forward with ntia and fcc to get this process started and to get the dialogue started. I hope that were well on our way by the time we break for the august recess. I hope we are well on our way to getting these done. Reauthorizing these federal agencies and making certain that they are rightsized, that they are focused on their mission, i view this as being step number one. And whether its ntia or fcc, my hope is that we can push it forward sooner rather than letting it languish and doing it late. And in the case of ntia, would you want a new administerrer in place first . Like, how does that guest i think that we have input that is, that we have needed. I think that the house and the senate have kind of a group of issues. There are people that have worked with the ntia. It is housed in the commerce department, that we can move forward and now, i would love for the senate to move forward and to take more than one vote a day and get this cabinet confirmed so that we do have a secretary of commerce, and the secretary of commerce could go ahead and name the deputies and unders and assistants and Division Heads that are within their jurisdiction. I think that would be a very positive step. So, yes, we would like to have someone named. It does not forestall us from taking action by there not being someone named. Host in your years of observing and serving on the enc committee, what have been your observations about the fcc and how you might like to see it reorganized . Guest i would like to see more attention paid to Spectrum Management, and heres the reason why. I feel like sometimes, you know, an a auction takes place and then its like, okay, thats off the todo list. And theres not as much attention to managing that spectrum and then looking at new ways to pack in utilizations on that spectrum. And this is one of the reasons. Ntia and their association with the fcc is important, and our relationship, house and senate, with them is important. Think about the internet of things. Think about, by the time we get to 2020 and, jonathan, what is it, three billion devices that were going to have i believe so, yeah. Guest connected to the internet. You think about that utilization and how important Spectrum Management is in order for everybody, and it ties in with broadband deployment. You know, how are you going to use telemedicine concepts if you dont have the broadband and youve got to have the spectrum to do this. How do you utilize increased Educational Opportunities and video classrooms and Remote Monitoring if you dont have it . So it opens up, it kind of brings the world in to you, and my hope is that were going to see the fcc look at that. I do think also that as we reauthorize them, it is time for the fcc to look at their structure. Weve got a hiring freeze that is in place. It makes sense to go ahead and do that. Where are needs not being met. Over the past 20 years, how has, how have the needs for interfacing with the fcc changed. I would like to see a revitalization of the regional offices for the fcc so that if someone has a problem, theyre not finding themselves having to call washington, d. C. And wait for somebody to get around to calling them back and then waiting longer for somebody to get out to them. And i think convenience of working with a federal agency, having those regional offices operational is important. Whats your relationship with ajit pai . Guest i really appreciate chairman pai. I appreciate his willingness to work with congress. I have had a good working relationship with him through the years. I think he is very diligent. I have appreciated the way he, hes not a fan of Net Neutrality, nor am i. Hes not a fan of the title ii reclassification, nor am i. So i think im going to get along just fine with chairman pai. Well, and speaking of Net Neutrality, do you think that should be something that congress deals with or chairman pai at the fcc . How is that going to play out over the next few months . Guest you know, jonathan, i think it can be kind of a onetwo process. There can be an extraction or rescinding, that is something, certainly, that they could do. I think that congress may want to come in and be specific on some things with dealing with how broadband is approached. I think that most people agree the internet is not broken, it does not need the fcc to manage it. The fcc does not need necessarily to precede the isp in the governance of those networks. The fcc does not need the ability to set priority andal to content. And value to content. Innovators that do not need to go file with the fcc before they innovate an attachment to the internet. And we all want to make certain that the internet is a free and open source. And i think part of that really when you look at it, it kind of ties back to that original concept when they were developing the internet for computers, for separate locations, a team around each of them. Everything was open sourced. It was for information transfer, and i think the reclassification of putting it in title ii is something that just was not helpful to growth and progress. So what do you hope to get back to kind of the draft legislation that former Communications Subcommittee chairman greg walden and now full Committee Chairman greg walden had when he guest you know, yeah. What id like to do is see where the fcc thinks that they can get with this. Of course, im not a fan of paid prioritization. I dont think that we these to go in and legislate we need to go in and met on that. I think thats something for entities to negotiate when they are constructing a deal between two business entities. So you want to wait then, presumably, for at least a few months guest i would like, i would like for the fcc im looking forward to working with chairman pai and with the administration. So, and im a big believer in orderly process. So lets, you know, get all the players in place and see what theyre going to do and then legislatively what is necessary for us to do to make certain that you do have internet freedom, it is something that i want to let that process well take those steps as they come along. Host well, you talked about orderly process and getting the players in place. The fcc is short two commissioners right now. Guest they are. Host does that hurt it . Guest they are short. I think that commissioners oreilly and clyburn are very skillful. The fcc is moving forward with process reform while they wait for the commission to be filled out. They have moved forward on some process reforms on a bipartisan basis, and i applaud them. Theyre not sitting around waiting, not using it as an excuse to say were not fully filled out. Theyve kind of gotten to work. And i have enjoyed with commissioner clyburn, ive enjoyed working with her on different issues, and i look toward to continuing. I look forward to continuing to do that. I think she has been a good voice. Commissioner orielly, likewise. I have certainly enjoyed getting to know and working with him during his tenure. Host as somebody who worked on the Trump Transition Team on these issues, will you have any input into who the third republican commissioner would be . Guest i have not been asked for my opinion on that, but if they wanted me to weigh in, im sure i would have some thoughts. [laughter] well, and how soon do you think you might get chairman pai in front of the subcommittee for an oversight hearing . Thats one thing guest yeah, yeah. We are hopeful that we can begin hearing from the fcc in february and have the commissioners before us in march. We would like to do that, get their thoughts on what theyre thinking about doing. I think the good thing is were talking with our colleagues in the senate on a regular basis. We are working with the commission, talking with them on a regular basis, chairman pai was up this week to meet with some of us. And i think that is healthy for the process, in my opinion, its healthy, that things are going to get done and were not going to let the agenda languish. And chairman pai is going to bring forward regularly process changes for the fcc. Its good to modernize that agency, it is good to avail themselves of technology, to look for efficiencies, to be more effective, and im glad that they are, theyre not waiting around. Theyre moving forward. Host chairman blackburn, yourdown part in the senate, senator roncher wicker, and your ranking member, mike doyle, democrat of pennsylvania. Whats your working relationship with those gentlemen . Guest with roger wicker, i have known him for years. He and i have talked, and im looking forward to moving legislation with him. Congressman doyle and i, of course, have known each other from the committee, and and were looking forward to sitting down together in the next week or so and talking about whats going to be on the a. Agenda, hearings that are going to come up. My hope is that our hearingsing are going to be productive as the ntia hearing was this past week. Well, and there was one concern that did come up amongst some democrats at that hearing which was about the fccs privacy rules for isps. And theres been some debate about whether the Congressional Review Act should be used or not. I know congresses has begun looking at those and wanted to kind of get your sense of whether you support using the Congressional Review Act for that. I know you had a lot of concerns last year as those rules were kind of coming into being, so guest yes, i did and still do. We are talking and working with the senate on this, trying to see if using i think using the cra is fine, that that would be the most expedient way to address the concerns. We are working with the senate to make certain that we can do that and, hopefully, next week when we come back on monday, well have a resolution to it. Would you be filing that . Or would that potentially be another republican member of the house . Guest were going to work with the senate and see how we proceed on that. And some have questioned whether there might be any gap in terms of privacy oversight just given the ftc right now still has the common carrier exemption, and the fcc has not undone reclassification of broadband as a service. Is that a concern . Guest ing i would think that there would be a way to work through that so that you dont have a gap in oversight. And getting thes process started the process started, if we go the cra route, making certain that we are doing it and handling it appropriately is what my first concern would be. And then to make certain that we have worked with the fcc and then the ftc which, by the way, that is who has always had oversight of privacy, that there is the appropriate transfer of that responsibility. Host in your view, has the fcc overstepped its boundaries in the last eight years . Guest i think it has. I think theyve gotten outside of their, their core mission if youd like to call it that. The Net Neutrality order, the reclassification, getting into privacy which has been the jurisdiction of the ftc, they have the historical knowledge and the expertise to handle price privacy issues privacy issues, and i believe putting it there is the way to go. Of course, peter welch and i cochaired together the privacy working group. We had Data Security legislation ready to move forward, and at the last minute a democratic members of the committee pulled off the legislation. I hope that that is something that can move forward. I would be encouraged if we were able to move privacy, Data Security legislation pieces. That does not come under coms and tech, that comes under Digital Commerce and consumer protection, that specific component of it would. But i would like that. Then i would like to see us come to a resolution on some things with encryption and with cyber. Host yeah, what are your thoughts when it comes to encryption right now . Guest weve got to look at both encryption of the data and encryption of the devices. We dont want the devices to be weakened. Working with Law Enforcement and with the different intel agencies, we have to come to some kind of understanding of what this is going to be. I cant tell you that we have an answer. Working on the encryption and cyber issue is a lot Like Fighting a forest fire. You get something put out in one place, and its going to pop be be pop up in another. We realize that. Its going to take some conversations so that we are doing something that addresses the issue, but doing something that is not necessarily technologyspecific. Because you have new generations of technology that come about, say, every 18 months. And congress does not work at that kind of pace. So before the ink was dry on something, the technology would be outdated. So i think its important that things not be Delivery System or technologyspecific. Giving you an answer of exactly what it would be, i dont know. I think thats what some thoughtful conversations and approaching it to say how do we best help, we know heres a goal over here, we want people to know their data is safe. We want them to know that in the virtual space, their virtual you, as i call it, is safe and secure. We know that when you have a device, you want to know that device cant be broken into, and your information lifted. At the same time, we have to find a way to work with Law Enforcement on this so that the data they need is data that they can have access to. It is it is going to also stem over into the internet of things with systems, inhome systems that record conversations or log conversations or home operating systems. And so i, i think this is going to take us a little while to work through, but lets do it right, you know . Lets not do something that would be a reaction that would get us going down the wrong track. So i look forward to beginning those conversations. It is going to take diligence. Doing the Due Diligence is going to be a part of the heavy lift. I am thrilled that Leonard Lance is going to be the one who is leading our efforts on this and working with full Committee Staff an