Access in Rural Communities, the future of mobile broadband and combatting skarms held by a house customers sub ke. This is two hours, the subcommittee on communications and technology will now come to order. The chair now recognizes herself for five minutes for an Opening Statement. I want to welcome you all to the subcommittees hearing titled a recite and reauthorization of the federal Communications Commission. 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. The fcc has not been reauthorized since 1990, and its current appropriation is over 430 million. It is charged with the administration of the Communications Act, and under statutes vital to the functionings of our Communications Policy we must reexamine the Core Functions of the commission and restore a culture of humility that was lacking under the regulatory cloud left by the chairman. The fcc points a vital role in our increasingly Technology Dependent society. The subcommittee has released a discussion draft for consideration. I would be remiss by not discussing that neutrality, the commissions decision in 2015 to reclassify the internet as a public utility was laced with the irony with putting the most innovative part of our economy with a 1930s era law. This gave new meaning to regressive. Replies to comments are due august 18th. Chairman pai, we hope you are keeping that we had whacker handy because it has a lot of work to do. Title 2 reclassification has created a 5. 6 reduction in isp network investment, will lead to great regulation and has generated tremendous uncertainty. However, i know there is disagreement, and while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle had nothing to do with this, internet giants amazon, facebook and google recently joined with websites such as porn hub and dark money groups like for the future, demand progress and free press, for a day of action to claim republicans will break the nets. Let 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. Ranking men pallone said in 2010 it is a job for congress in referring to the Net Neutrality rules and i agree. Other issues confronting the commission include administration of the Life Line Program, media ownership rules and pro sells reform, the gao released another report critical of the Life Line Program on june 29th. It found that 36 of the Program Participants could not be verified for eligibility. Over 6,000 deceased individuals were enrolled after their death, and numerous carriers approved eligibility for the Program Based on fictitious documentation. Life line continues to be plagued by significant deficiencies including the need for a hard cap. Outdated media ownership rules and process reform issues also concern the committee. Commissioner orielly noted that the fcc review of broadcast ownership rules released last august was, and im quoting, divorced from the reality of todays media marketplace, end quote. Finally, process reform has been an issue of bipartisan concern for sometime. Bipartisan bills have passed the house five of the last six years. Chairman pai, you have taken positive steps, including the release of a fact sheet for any proposal to be considered at an open meeting in releasing the text of 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 todays hearing, and at this time i yield the balance of my time to mr. Ladd. Thank you, chair blackburn. Welcome to the fcc, commissioner. The internet is a great equalizer. It provides an open platform to empower innovation, expression of free speech as well as other inventions in history. By reclassifying internet, the fcc needlessly risks this great economic industry. Title 2 opens the door to burdensome regulations that harm competition, threaten the investment in broadband needed to close the digital divide, and hold back the innovations such as 5g. I applaud chairman pai for initiating a proceeding to review this misguided reclassification. It is important for consumers not to conflate the harmful title 2 reclassification with the Net Neutrality principles some would suggest. Theres strong support among the American People for a light touch approach to internet regulation and a strong consensus on both sides of the aisle for Net Neutrality principals. It is my hope that this commission and congress can finally resolve the open internet issues and that we can Work Together in a bipartisan capacity. Thank you, madam chair. I now recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Doyle for five minutes. Thank you, chairman blackburn, for holding this long overdue hearing today and thank you for the witnesses for appearing before us. It is my sincere hope we can make it a regular occurrence. I 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. Chairman pai, in the time you have been head of this agency we have seen an agenda that is anticonsumer, antiSmall Business, 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 broadband to schools and libraries. The commission reinstated the uhf discount for which seems to be no other reason than to enable an unprecedented merger between sinclair 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 as 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 enabled poor people to get access to broadband, literally pulling service away from people who had already signed up. The commission is in the pro sells ses 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. Theyve been upheld in federal court and they have promoted a virtual cycle of investment and innovation online. 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 are Line Companies including netflix and snap, have claimed are eroding or eliminating these rules will, in fact, pose a threat to their businesses. You know, when i read your statement and you talk about investment and your concerns, you only seem to talk about it in relation to isp investment. Im concerned that maybe you just dont get it. The internet isnt just an isp connection to the consumer. It is 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. On that cheery note, i will yield the balance of my time. Im sorry, Ranking Member, what a superb Opening Statement you just made. One of the most important issues currently before the fcc is obviously Net Neutrality. Weve heard a lot from Net Neutrality. Opponents, about the impact of title 2 on broadband investment, and while large isps tell the fcc title 2 has chill investment, their executives tell their shareholders a different story. The benefits of tigtle 2 protection to every other sector of our economy are enormous. 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 barrelling down the road of eliminating these 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 we need to pay a great deal of attention to that. I thank the gentleman for yielding and i yield back. Gentle lady yields back. Does the gentleman yield back . Yes, i yield back. The gentleman yields back his time. I will say to my colleagues, we agree with you that the issues of the health of the internet ecosystem, the issue of Net Neutrality, the issue of title 2 deserve additional attention from this committee and we look forward to carrying forward with this. At this time i recognize the chairman of the full committee, mr. Walden, for an Opening Statement. Good morning. Good morning to our commissioners and chairman, to our guest. American innovation in the internet sfas has revolutionized the world in everything we do and how we do it. From research and communications to shopping and entertainment, the internet is an essential part of our every day 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 special energy and Commerce Committee hearing entitled ground rules for the internet ecosystem for thursday, september 27th, 2017. I am sending formal invitations to the top executives of the leading tech Companies Including facebook, alphabet, amazon and netflix as well as broadband providers including comcast, at t, verizon and charter communications, inviting each of them to come and testify before our full energy and Commerce Committee. It is 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 this Public Policy debate and the work we need to do as a committee, it is essential that we hear directly from the countrys top internet and edge provider leaders who frequently speak out publicly about rules of the internet. It is time they came before us and directly shared their positions and answered our questions. With more than a months advanced notice im sure they can arrange their schedules to accommodate our invitations. Now, with regard todays panel, chairman pai, welcome and congratulations on taking over the helm of the fcc. Commissioner clyburn, commissioner orielly, were glad to have you back before us as well. Thank you for the work you do. We begin a new chapter in the history of the fcc, one that will shape some of the most important parts of our national economy, the talent industry, the video Distribution Industry and the internet. In todays hearing we begin to examine reauthorizing the fcc, and 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 conversation 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 these 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 pai. I was pleased to see chairman pai demonstrate his commitment to making the fccs 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 the other commissioners for a vote. A major his predecessor opposed. There are a number of matters pending at the commission, many of which we will discuss today. With the forward portion of the incentive option concluded, the next phase, the broadcaster repack, is under way. Commissioners set forth an aggressive schedule to move all of the broadcasters impact by this auction. While i have every confidence that chairman pai will work to ensure consumers continue to have access to overtheair television, concerns remain about the sufficiency of the 39month timeline and the 1. 75 million budget. I take these concerns seriously and will continue to work closely with the commission and my colleagues to make sure that overtheair broadcasting and the viewers they reach on their main channel and on their translators are not adversely affect. Of course, chairman pai has commenced a proceeding to return the internet to the framework that made it the economic engine it is today. As we wait for the process to take its court, the future of the greatest economic engine of modern times is clouded with uncertainty, with the growing recognition the time is now for legislative action. We offered the way forward on Net Neutrality in 2015. I believe now as i did then we should Work Together to write Bipartisan Legislation to protect the internet from bad actors who want to use unfair advantage to block, throttle or in other ways engage in bad behavior. The American People deserve no rest. Chairman pai, commissioner clyburn, commissioner orielly, thank you again. If others want to use the last 15 seconds, i happily yield. If not, i yield back the balance much my time. The chairman yields back. I recognize the Ranking Member of the full committee mr. Pallone for five minutes for an opening. Thank you. I would like to thank the fcc commissioners for joining us this morning, the first fcc oversight of congress. Holding quarterly oversight hearings. Now that their own Party Controls the majority of the commission, were 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 because the commissions own actions have shown the critical need for congressional oversight. To date most of the fccs actions have ignored the needs of consumers. Too often when given the chance this fcc has sided with large corporations to the detriment of hardworking americans. The commission started this year by making it more difficult for competitors to offer broadband to low income people through the Lifeline Program. It continued with a scheme to encourage more consolidation in the Media Industry which would eliminate voices from the air. Last week chairman pai refused to commit to protecting the funds necessary to close the homework gap as part of the popular e read program in our schools. Then theres the alarming outright refusal by the fcc to protect the security of our Broadband Networks at a time when the russians and others are looking for new ways to break in. The highest profile example of the fcc siding with large corporations over Small Businesses and hard working americans is its attempt to eliminate Net Neutrality. A free and open internet is crucial for democracy by giving everyone an equal voice online. Each of us gets to decide which videos we watch, which sites we read and which 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. These Small Businesses, many of which are owned by minorities and women, are responsible for more than half of the jobs in the country today. If the fcc moves ahead with Net Neutrality repeal, the consequences will be severe. The plan will have a chilling influence on our democracy, cut away our connections with each other and limit Economic Opportunities for the future. The fcc claims that Net Neutrality repeal is necessary because Consumer Protection might deter in network infrastructure. I hope that the commissioners