Us the tremendous cost one conflicting interests in spectrum are not resolved swiftly. One construction of Critical Infrastructure is delayed due to poor coordination between federal agencies. It is the people who rely on the infrastructure who suffer. Miss baker, yes or no, do you recommend congress invest to increase the technological expertise had both agency so they can more efficiently address conflicts when they arise . Yes, i do. I think that you have two great leaders and chairwoman and administrator davidson. I think enabling them to have more experts and more to show their it expertise, to show that Congress Actually wants them to be the final arbiter in spectrum disputes would go a long way. I appreciate that. I agree that we must ensure federal agencies have the capacity to do their jobs and both the American Public and commercial interest demand regulatory certainty and consistency. I look forward to working with our colleagues to ensure and tia and fcc are up to the task of managing this important resource. Today, ntia and fcc, well on monday, they announced an updated memorandum of understanding threatening these agencies roles as the sole agencies in charge of managing our spectrum resource. The agreement also increases coordination and addresses many of the challenges from managing bands and have a significant federal agency equity. Yes or no, does current statute clearly identify the fcc and ntia as leaders in regulating and managing National Spectrum use . Yes, does. I would like to submit for the record some of the reports that you highlighted that indicate the improvements that must be made at the fcc and ntia and given an opportunity a little later, i want to explore those a little bit more. Thank you so much for that. Im going to turn this over. Thank, you mister chairman. Miss baker, mr. Lewis, Congress Never let the fccs Auction Authority laps. What is the impact if Auction Authority lapses and would have an adverse impact in our ability to lead in the deployment of next Generation Communication Services . Mr. Lewis . I agree. It would be a shame to see the authority to lapse. That would be the worstcase scenario. I fear that impact would signal that we are not committed to removing or even moving away from this structure that has allowed us to create greater competition and greater diverse uses a spectrum. That would be a shame. Its also why i am advocating for a longer authority to signal that we want to continue into the future with the right studies in the right data. Miss baker . It would cause uncertainty, for certain. We do not know about licenses, we do not know about auctions. If they are not able to hold auctions, youre not gonna be able to build a 5g. That has an effect on our global competitiveness. We all want a strong and powerful fcc. It is why i am born forwarding an 18month extension. Very quickly, i mention this in my Opening Statement but i believe its critical to get our wireless ecosystem fueled, which is why its important that the short Term Extension as well while we are working on the longer term pipeline bill. Very quickly, you support the short Term Extension . Its a low, if you do not . Is that correct . I prefer a longer extension, even a permanent authorization. I think we all do but that may not be an option. Miss baker, can you talk about the regulatory certainty provided to commercial when congress provides the fcc direction on particular spectrum ban similar to what we did under the 2012 spectrum act . Either any other benefits to congress mandating what spectrum bands are auctioned . Thank you for the question. Its an important one. I feel i think we all want a longer Term Authority for the fcc but its important that bans are tied to this longer term Auction Authority. The reason is exactly because when you did the Spectrum Authority in 2012, you tie three bands to it. Those bands got done. The next, as we have heard so far today, the next bands are going to be more complex. They are hard. We have targeted the lower threes. The lower three is you have any spectrum innovation act. That is our number one goal. Its prime midban target. Spectrum is adjacent to the three top 45. It will allow wider channels, but we would like to see the four gigahertz in the seven gigahertz added as well. They are all government bans. Government has two thirds of the prime advantage spectrum right now. Not very many Government Agencies wake up and say, im going to repurpose my spectrum for commercial access today. I think its really important for congress to mandate those options for us to make sure that we motivate and that these options actually happen so that we can keep up with the rest of the world. I also think it has a side benefit as you specified in the auction to have proceeds found firstnet. Congress gets to dictate priorities to the proceeds if they specify the bands. In the last two years, h spectm auctions and none of those have gone to congressional priorities. I feel pretty strongly that a long term Spectrum Authority is good but it needs to be tied to specific bans. Quickly, could you comment because theres a proposal up here by the democrats which could be loaded on as early this week to textbook income and i know the way that spectrum has treated under the tax code allows it to be advertised over a period of years. What impact would this tax have on providers of Wireless Services . Thank you for the question. It is a really big deal for our industry. It is currently structured. The tax provisions undermine pretty much every thing we are talking about here. We are building a 5g twice as fast as we build out 4g and that is to the tune of 60 billion dollars on infrastructure in the last two years. If 15 tax on the 200 billion dollars in spectrum investment, that will absolutely when its retroactive and its a surprise, it will absolutely slow our build out. It will slow our holding Digital Divide. There will impact our level competitiveness and certainly is going to impact our spectrum pipeline. As a congresses decided that broadband is an important infrastructure and put it in the infrastructure bill funding, i think that we would very much like to see that any technical correction would treat spectrum the same as any other infrastructure asset. Presumably and i think when the tax code in 2017 act was passed, it was passed with an idea in mind to encourage companies to invest in filling out new technologies and that sort of thing. This is as has been suggested, closing a loophole. This was a specific design when Congress Passed a tax bill. Could you speak very quickly my time i think has expired but there is a lot of funding as you pointed out being made available with mobile networks. Could you talk about whether or not you support efforts to streamline permitting requests so that consumers can reap the benefits of these new technologies more quickly . As you know, i have a bill that would provide for that but how much of an issue is that when it comes to bill lee out these new technologies . As you know, we support your bills strongly the faster we can build these networks, the faster we can bring 5g speeds which are hundred times faster and attach more. Devices to these networks and lead the world in innovation. Stream aligning is very important. Mister chairman, my time has expired. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next we will recognize senator fischer. Senator fischer, you are recognized for questions. Here thank you, mister chairm. I appreciate our witnesses being here today to discuss critical consideration for managing americas airwaves. Miss baker, i want to talk a little bit about the value of authorizing the fcc to continue holding the public spectrum auctions. You addressed that a little bit in senator thunes questions when you spoke about the fcc and the issues and what happens there with certainty et cetera, if that deadline is not met and its not reauthorized. Can you speak specifically to american taxpayers . How would they be negatively affected if we do not reauthorize the fcc Spectrum Authority . Just to get past all the technical stuff and let people know why this is important. We are still in the middle of the race to 5g at this point. Other countries have twice as much mid band spectrum which is where 5g is being built out across the globe. We simply need more to continue to increase our speed and to continue to world the lead and innovation. The fcc cannot hold auctions and we will not have any more spectrum and we will be we will far fall far behind and lose our Global Leadership. It will mean quite a lot in 4g, with our leadership, that is why the all the Innovative Companies are here in the United States. It is why uber and all of the airbnb, they are all here. That is because we lead the world in 4g. We need to do the same in 5g. We need to continue to authorize spectrum and therefore they have to have the authority. Thank you. Looking at the overall Spectrum Management process, it is vital that all stakeholders feel fairly represented. Weve seen spectrum fights have shown a lack of trust in the iraq process. Motivating certain federal agencies to want to go around and tea ice a. How can we strengthen the integrity of ntias central managing federal spectrum needs and regain the trust from the federal stakeholders . Thank you for the question, senator fischer. I think the mou announced today goes a long way to solving some of those issues. What we were really trying to emphasize is that coordination happened early on so that when bands are identified for federal agencies to the iraq process, can identify concerns early and get the various technical studies necessary done in a timely manner so that they can be ready when fcc does proceed with a proceeding. That was not really happening. We saw that they were not really regular meetings between fcc and ntia they were not occurring as regularly as they had. The reaffirmation of those two agencies to meet quarterly and monthly basis, i think it does go a long way and getting some of those issues resolved early. And restoring the trust. I also served on the Armed Services committee and at times, i worry about losing deal deese that drum and putting some of that up for auction especially when we are looking at the advances we see in technology with regards to providing our war fighters what they need and also to meet the threats that this country faces from our adversaries specifically peer adversaries like russia and china. That is a concern that i have. I know that there has been good who work in the past with d. O. D. How can you assure me that this good work is going to continue in the future and we can make sure the security of this country is going to continue to be our number one priority . I think the mou is a good first step. I could only say that it can implement Going Forward. I think ensuring that those agencies do follow through on those monthly meetings that they do start to share information around technical studies can consider all the views. One of the recommendations we made that we did not, if not really part of the new mou was at ntia really explain to federal agencies for how it represents executive branch views before fcc. I think that will also go a long way for federal agencies to feel more comfortable about, okay, you had to make a decision about this so i understand its more transparent. I would say those two recommendations would help. Thank you. Thank, you mister chair. Thank you senator. Next we will hear from some boroughs in. Senator rosen, you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you chair lujan and Ranking Member for really holding this important hearing and the witnesses being here today. The importance of Spectrum Authority for bipartisan broadband programs, its so important. Last year Congress Passed the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act. Whos brought to help with that. We job provision the law including my broadband deployment act and the broadband equity access and Deployment Program invested in the last mile infrastructure. This once in a lifetime investment in our nations broadband infrastructure has a potential to finally close our Digital Divide. This question is for all of the witnesses. If the fcc authority were to lapse, what impact would that have on implementing the broadband provisions of the bipartisan infrastructure law including the program. The infrastructure program, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program of course as well as other so we can start with this miss baker. Miss baker . Thank you for your question and thank you for all of the work that you did on the infrastructure bill. And also for mandating that it was technology neutral. As you know, wireless provides needs two parts for the service. We need the infrastructure itself as we build out, which we are spending 30 billion dollars a year in building of what we also need spectrum. If the sec does not have the option authority to provide us with more spectrum, then there is only so much we can do. It is very important for broadband Going Forward and for also the implementation of the fixed mobile side of the equation for states as they decide to have to spend the revenue, which again, 5g home is a really good option to serve rural and unserved areas with the b program. We look at those as an opportunity but its important for the sec to continue to offer spectrum. Thank you. I thank you for that question. I do not think our work really spoke to that issue. I will defer to my colleagues on the panel. Mr. Lewis . Thank, you senator and thank you for championing the middle Mile Broadband employment act. I agree that i do not think it has a direct impact but it has the complementary effect of if we do not have the infrastructure, then we do not have several areas. If you do not have the spectrum, then we cannot serve rural areas with the all above approach to make sure that folks are connected. Fiber, wireless, fixed wireless are all part of the solution to make sure that everyone is connected. Thank you. Miss baker . Thank, you senator. A auction authorities are an integral part of our Spectrum Management strategy. It would be handicapping the development of the wireless sector did not include that for the policy makers for fccs moving forward. That would buy us and handicapped the ability to rollout those programs. Thank you. The minute or so i have left i want to talk about spectrum policy and the impact of the wireless workforce. While this industry has been significant driver of u. S. Innovation. Investments and wireless deployment has ushered and services and devices that millions of americans have extended. On a course all of our apps. The industry does rely on highly skilled workers to run and maintain our networks and our Telecommunications Workforce is aging. There are far fewer younger employees with experience needed to fill these positions in the Wireless Industry. Mr. Lewis, your testimony, you discussed a way that fcc could use option designed to encourage greater participation under represented communities in the wireless injury story so what impact could our Telecommunications Workforce is aging. There are a strong u. S. Central policy have on hiring, retaining, training workers in the Wireless Industry, particularly, as you look to a expand and diversify our workforce . Thank you, senator. I believe theres a number of ways it could have an impact both on the hiring, as well as the ownership side. On the hiring side, setting the standards for hiring, contracting with vendors could set a high bar for companies that are receiving the public airwaves to live up to those sorts of standards on the structure that can impact the ownership side, in promoting competition, making sure we set up auction structures that allow for small, women, and minority owned businesses to completing the auctions through smaller bidding credits. And honestly, we may not have all the ideas, but i am interested in finding out what other ideas can be brought forward. I celebrate that we recently reinstated the Advisory Committee on digital empowerment, those are the things we love to see if the fcc, were all stakeholders can come together and come up with other packets to promote diversity. Thank you, thank you mister chairman, my time is up. Thank you, next, we will hear from senator blackburn. You recognize the question. Thank you, mister chairman. I want to thank our witnesses for being here to talk about this issue today, and miss baker, i want to start with you first. An issue you have heard me talk about regularly is having an inventory of all the spectrum that is held by federal agencies, and i would like for you to speak to the importance of why we ought to do this as we look at reupping this Spectrum Authority, and why it would be useful to have this as we look at this 5g bill. Thank you for the question, senator. Its an important one, and i will get back to you, the next spectrum we allocate needs to be mid band. The mid band is government spectrum. Two thirds of the midbands government spectrum. We need to know what is. There and inventory would be very helpful, so we can know who is using that spectrum efficiently and who is not. That will help us as we used the Spectrum Relocation Fund that this committee so brilliantly pass, and has been so u