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74–098 2012

OVERSIGHT OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, 

TECHNOLOGY, AND THE INTERNET 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND 

COMMERCE 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 

Serial No. 111–65 

( 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

energycommerce.house.gov 


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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE 

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California 

Chairman 

JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan 

Chairman Emeritus 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

RICK BOUCHER, Virginia 

FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey 

BART GORDON, Tennessee 

BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois 

ANNA G. ESHOO, California 

BART STUPAK, Michigan 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

GENE GREEN, Texas 

DIANA DEGETTE, Colorado 

Vice Chairman 

LOIS CAPPS, California 

MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania 

JANE HARMAN, California 

TOM ALLEN, Maine 

JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois 

HILDA L. SOLIS, California 

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas 

JAY INSLEE, Washington 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

MIKE ROSS, Arkansas 

ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York 

JIM MATHESON, Utah 

G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina 

CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana 

JOHN BARROW, Georgia 

BARON P. HILL, Indiana 

DORIS O. MATSUI, California 

DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, Virgin Islands 

KATHY CASTOR, Florida 

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland 

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut 

ZACHARY T. SPACE, Ohio 

JERRY MCNERNEY, California 

BETTY SUTTON, Ohio 

BRUCE BRALEY, Iowa 

PETER WELCH, Vermont 

JOE BARTON, Texas 

Ranking Member 

RALPH M. HALL, Texas 

FRED UPTON, Michigan 

CLIFF STEARNS, Florida 

NATHAN DEAL, Georgia 

ED WHITFIELD, Kentucky 

JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois 

JOHN B. SHADEGG, Arizona 

ROY BLUNT, Missouri 

STEVE BUYER, Indiana 

GEORGE RADANOVICH, California 

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania 

MARY BONO MACK, California 

GREG WALDEN, Oregon 

LEE TERRY, Nebraska 

MIKE ROGERS, Michigan 

SUE WILKINS MYRICK, North Carolina 

JOHN SULLIVAN, Oklahoma 

TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania 

MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas 

MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee 

PHIL GINGREY, Georgia 

STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana 


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SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE INTERNET

RICK BOUCHER, Virginia 

Chairman 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

BART GORDON, Tennessee 

BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois 

ANNA G. ESHOO, California 

BART STUPAK, Michigan 

DIANA DEGETTE, Colorado 

MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania 

JAY INSLEE, Washington 

ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York 

G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina 

CHARLIE MELANCON, Louisiana 

BARON P. HILL, Indiana 

DORIS O. MATSUI, California 

DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, Virgin Islands 

KATHY CASTOR, Florida 

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut 

ZACHARY T. SPACE, Ohio 

JERRY MCNERNEY, California 

PETER WELCH, Vermont 

JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan (ex officio) 

FRED UPTON, Michigan 

Ranking Member 

CLIFF STEARNS, Florida 

NATHAN DEAL, Georgia 

BARBARA CUBIN, Wyoming 

JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois 

HEATHER WILSON, New Mexico 

VITO FOSELLA, New York 

GEORGE RADANOVICH, California 

MARY BONO MACK, California 

GREG WALDEN, Oregon 

LEE TERRY, Nebraska 

MIKE FERGUSON, New Jersey 


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C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hon. Rick Boucher, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth 

of Virginia, opening statement ............................................................................ 1 

Hon. Cliff Stearns, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 3 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 

Hon. Henry A. Waxman, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

California, opening statement ............................................................................. 8 

Hon. John Shimkus, a Representative in Congress from the State of Illinois, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 9 

Hon. Edward J. Markey, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, opening statement .................................................... 10 

Hon. Roy Blunt, a Representative in Congress from the State of Missouri, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 11 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 13 

Hon. Bart Stupak, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 16 

Hon. Marsha Blackburn, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

Tennessee, opening statement ............................................................................ 16 

Hon. Jerry McNerney, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, opening statement .................................................................................... 17 

Hon. Joe Barton, a Representative in Congress from the State of Texas, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 18 

Hon. Donna M. Christensen, a Representative in Congress from the Virgin 

Islands, opening statement ................................................................................. 19 

Hon. Nathan Deal, a Representative in Congress from the State of Georgia, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 20 

Hon. John D. Dingell, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, opening statement ....................................................................................... 21 

Hon. Mike Rogers, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michigan, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 21 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 23 

Hon. Doris O. Matsui, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, opening statement .................................................................................... 27 

Hon. John B. Shadegg, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona, opening statement ...................................................................................... 27 

Hon. Kathy Castor, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 29 

Hon. Anna G. Eshoo, a Representative in Congress from the State of California, opening statement .................................................................................... 29 

Hon. G.K. Butterfield, a Representative in Congress from the State of North 

Carolina, opening statement ............................................................................... 30 

Hon. Bobby L. Rush, a Representative in Congress from the State of Illinois, 

opening statement ................................................................................................ 31 

Hon. Zachary T. Space, a Representative in Congress from the State of 

Ohio, opening statement ...................................................................................... 32 

Hon. Michael F. Doyle, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth 

of Pennsylvania, opening statement ................................................................... 33 

WITNESSES

Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission ............ 35 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39 

Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 101 

Michael Copps, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission .............. 45 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 48 


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VI 

Michael Copps, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission—Continued 

Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 143 

Robert McDowell, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission .......... 53 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 56 

Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 166 

Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission ........... 68 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 70 

Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 184 

Meredith Attwell Baker, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission ........................................................................................................................ 76

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 78 

Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 207 


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OVERSIGHT OF THE FEDERAL 

COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY, 

AND THE INTERNET, 

COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, 

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., in 

Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Rick Boucher 

[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Boucher, Markey, Rush, Eshoo, Stupak, 

Doyle, Inslee, Weiner, Butterfield, Matsui, Christensen, Castor, 

Space, Welch, Dingell, Waxman (Ex Officio), Stearns, Upton, Deal, 

Shimkus, Shadegg, Blunt, Buyer, Walden, Terry, Rogers, Blackburn, and Barton (Ex Officio). 

Staff Present: Neil Fried, Minority Counsel; and Garrett Golding, 

Minority Legislative Analyst. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. RICK BOUCHER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH 

OF VIRGINIA 

Mr. BOUCHER. Good morning to everyone. Today the subcommittee conducts its first oversight hearing of the Federal Communications Commission during the course of the 111th Congress. 

This hearing was postponed from the originally scheduled date in 

July, and one benefit of the postponement is that today we have 

a full complement of FCC commissioners before us. I am pleased 

to welcome each of you this morning. And I would note that for 

Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Baker, today marks their inaugural appearance 

before the House as members of the FCC. We look forward to seeing more of each of you in the months to come and to working 

closely with you as together we address the Nation’s telecommunications needs. 

Before commenting on current issues, I want to take this opportunity to commend Commissioner Copps for his leadership in helping to assure the DTV transition and serving as acting chairman 

with great distinction during a period of several busy months. Your 

commitment, Commissioner Copps, to consumer education and including the deployment of knowledgeable staff around the Nation 

was essential to ensuring that the vast majority of households were 

prepared for the transition on the transition date of June 13. 


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I also want to commend Commissioner McDowell for his collaboration with Commissioner Copps on that effort, and particularly 

thank him for his role in bringing attention to the fact that, as of 

last January, the FCC’s call centers were inadequately staffed and 

badly underprepared to handle the expected high volume of calls 

from viewers who were seeking technical assistance. 

Chairman Genachowski, from our previous discussions, I am 

very much aware of the priority that you are assigning to the creation of a broadband plan for the Nation which is due in mid February next year. The blueprint is urgently needed to promote universal broadband access, to achieve data rates that are substantially higher than the average speeds that users have available 

today, and to promote greater demand for broadband among those 

who have access but choose not to subscribe to it. I know that you 

share these goals, and we look forward to working with you very 

closely as you prepare this plan, and look forward to the plan that 

you will present in the early months of next year. 

Many other matters are receiving both our attention and yours. 

I will comment briefly on several of them, and ask for any views 

you care to express this morning about these matters. 

Our subcommittee has scheduled an upcoming hearing on the 

need for a Nationwide fully interoperable communications network 

for first responders, during which we will hear from first responders, from commercial wireless carriers, and from other interested 

parties. A variety of proposals has been put forth for how the 

DBLOCK of 700 megahertz spectrum should be utilized in meeting 

that goal. And if you have given attention to this matter and have 

any thoughts you would like to share with us this morning about 

how we can assure that our Nation has fully interoperable communications capabilities for first responders, we would welcome those 

views. 

We are having bipartisan discussions among our subcommittee 

members about an appropriate statutory reform of the Federal Universal Service Fund, and I anticipate that a comprehensive reform 

measure, a bill, will be introduced by subcommittee members with 

bipartisan support in the very near future. We have introduced 

with bipartisan support a measure designed to inventory the radio 

spectrum with the goal of making available additional spectrum for 

commercial wireless services. And later in this Congress, we intend 

to put forward legislation broader needs with respect to wireless 

services and a measure extending a clear set of privacy rights to 

Internet users. I expect that each of these measures will be constructed in a bipartisan process and be introduced with bipartisan 

participation. Any views that you currently have on this range of 

matters and would care to express to us this morning, we would 

be very happy to hear. 

Today’s hearing is an opportunity for Chairman Genachowski 

and Commission members to tell us about their agenda for upcoming efforts to enhance our Nation’s telecommunications capabilities, 

and we very much look forward to your testimony and thank you 

for your time here with us this morning. 

That concludes my opening statement. I am pleased now to recognize our ranking Republican member of the subcommittee, the 

gentleman from Florida, Mr. Stearns. 


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OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CLIFF STEARNS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA 

Mr. STEARNS. Good morning. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Thank you for having this very important hearing. This subcommittee’s oversight of the FCC is obviously one of its primary 

missions. I would like to welcome Chairman Genachowski and 

Commissioners Clyburn and Baker who, as the chairman mentioned, are testifying to our committee for the first time. I appreciate your willingness to appear before us today so we can better 

understand perhaps what your priorities are and how we can all 

work together. I also want to take this moment to thank Commissioner Baker for her work at the NTIA to make the DTV coupon 

program work despite the last-minute delays by my colleagues. So 

I want to recognize her for her strong efforts. 

Perhaps I could say I wish the Commission to adhere to the Hippocratic oath, do no harm. The communication sector has not been 

immune from the economic distress that has been faced by the 

country during the last year. The FCC’s goals should be to help the 

communications sector to recover and, frankly, to encourage companies to invest in new facilities and equipment that will bring 

broadband connection faster to most Americans. 

The stimulus requires the FCC to present Congress with a national broadband plan by February 17, 2010. For broadband to 

reach its full potential in this country and be a truly transformative factor in our economy, the Commission must not undermine the climate it has helped to create over the last few years; 

that is, encouraging massive private investment in broadband. 

While many wring their hands over the OECD ratings and ranking, we are I think, frankly, doing well. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 63 percent of U.S. households have 

adopted broadband as of April 2009, up from 53 percent in May 

2008. By contrast, the European Commission says that only 36 percent of the European Union households have such service. 

From 2001 to 2008, the FCC charted the right course for the 

broadband market, employing a light regulatory touch to encourage 

this investment. The result was the exponential growth in 

broadband subscribership and bandwidth consumption. But a reversal by the FCC of the current regulatory framework would 

greatly undermine investment at a rather inopportune time. 

There has been some speculation about what the new Commission is going to do about net neutrality regulations. Everybody 

wants the Internet to remain open and accessible, but many of us 

are concerned that adopting new policies involving net neutrality 

could impede network operators from bringing new Internet-based 

products and services that consumers want. At this stage of the 

game, when the Internet is still evolving, government intervention 

in the form of net neutrality regulation is both unnecessary and 

anti-consumer. 

Along with broadband, the Commission has opened multiple inquiries into the wireless industry. The wireless sector is a great 

success story and one of the real bright spots in the otherwise challenged economy today. More than 99 percent of the consumers have 

one or more choices in wireless carriers; more than 95 percent have 

three or more choices; more than 90 percent have four or more 


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choices; and, almost 65 percent have five or more choices today. Indeed, the U.S. wireless market is the second least concentrated of 

all the 26 OECD nations. So, as a result, wireless consumers today 

are paying less for better services. In fact, between 1993 and 2008, 

the average local monthly bill has dropped to $51 from $101 in constant dollars. During this same timeframe the cost per minute has 

dropped to 4 cents from 44 cents, and the average minutes of use 

has grown from 140 to 758k the most of any country. 

Now, on the subject of spectrum. I hope the commissioners and 

members of this subcommittee will work closely to secure additional spectrum for commercial use. As recent press reports have 

noted, the explosive growth and the demand for bandwidth as consumers access new applications and upload user-generated content 

will tax the limits of carriers’ capacity probably more quickly than 

most of us realize. While advances in technology can help solve this 

problem by allowing for the more efficient use of spectrum, policymakers will have to do our part by making more of this critical resource available. Many of our international trading partners are already taking steps to make additional spectrum available in their 

markets. If we fail to do so, we risk ceding our global leadership 

in wireless service and innovation. 

So, for this reason, I urge my colleagues to support the bipartisan spectrum inventory legislation, which I hope we can act upon 

this year, Mr. Chairman. 

As we can tell, the FCC will be very busy in the upcoming year 

and next year, so I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Stearns follows:] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Stearns. The chairman 

of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentleman from 

California, Mr. Waxman, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Mr. WAXMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to 

welcome the full FCC here for our very first oversight hearing, and 

especially the new chair, Mr. Genachowski. I would like to join you 

in thanking Commissioner Copps for his outstanding work as interim FCC chair. Under his able leadership, the digital television 

transition went well, and the Commission got back to business. 

Thank you for your service. And I would like to thank Commissioners McDowell and Baker for the important roles they played in 

the DTV transmission. We are all aware of their commendable efforts to help improve the transition. 

Chairman Genachowski, you take the helm at a critical time in 

the Communication’s policy, and I am confident that you can continue Commissioner Copps’ work of getting the Commission staff 

organized, energized, and focused on consumers. I know that your 

colleagues at the Commission are enthusiastic about your collaborative leadership and your vision for the Agency. 

I am pleased that the Commission has already launched a comprehensive proceeding to craft a national broadband plan. This is 

of immense importance to virtually every aspect of our society and 

how we will function in the 21st century. The success of your work 

will be essential to delivery of health care, education, to jobs, economic growth, to science and the arts, to journalism and the media. 

Indeed, your forthcoming national broadband plan is critical to 

America’s competitiveness and leadership in the world. 

Of course, any broadband plan must address issues related to 

wireless broadband, including spectrum availability. The committee 

has before it a bipartisan spectrum inventory bill that would start 

the critical process of making more spectrum available for 

broadband services. The FCC will play a critical role in this process, and I am confident that you understand the need to do so efficiently and quickly. 

We also need to consider ways we might expedite the construction of the wireless facilities that are critical to broadband deployment. This is an infrastructure issue that is critical to the successful deployment of broadband services. Simply put, without additional facilities, there will be no additional broadband. And I am 

particularly interested to learn how broadband can help other initiatives important to this committee, including smart grid technologies and the health IT transformation. 

President Obama has made ensuring an open Internet a central 

plank in his communications policy platform, and he has my full 

support. The Internet is a vital doorway to opportunity for many, 

whether to distribute new content, to develop a new application, or 

simply to search for a new job. We must ensure that the Internet 

remains the engine of economic growth and technological innovation that helps propel our people and our economy forward. 


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The fear some have professed that net neutrality rules will stifle 

network investment have proven unfounded over the years. Most 

recently, over 2,200 public and private entities applied for 

broadband grants and, in so doing, opted in to net neutrality rules. 

Industry will benefit from clarity, consistency, and predictability 

with regard to net neutrality. As a member who has worked hard 

to protect the intellectual property rights of our creative communities, I do not believe net neutrality and strong copyright protection are mutually exclusive goals. In fact, clear net neutrality rules 

should help broadband network operators explore innovative steps 

designed to stop the theft of online content. 

I know that our new FCC chairman shares my perspective on the 

importance of achieving both goals. 

For these reasons, I think that the time is right to formally establish, through legislation, if required, the rules of the road with 

respect to net neutrality. Accordingly, I have asked Mr. Markey to 

add me as a cosponsor to H.R. 3458, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. And I will also continue to support Chairman Boucher’s 

efforts to lead willing parties to a negotiated solution. 

I also support the Commission’s effort to examine the state of 

competition in the wireless industry. Most agree that the best protection for consumers is robust competition. And while I recognize 

the competitive nature of the wireless industry, I do see some 

warning clouds on the horizon. More specifically, I believe the FCC 

should act soon to resolve problems with special access services and 

certain roaming arrangements. 

I want to thank the Commission for making public safety’s need 

a top priority and initiating a study of the options for the 

DBLOCK. We must act soon to improve the state of public safety 

communications, and I am anxious to review your plans and to 

work with you to ensure we find the most effective way for the public safety community to obtain access to the spectrum it needs. And 

I am pleased that Chairman Boucher plans to hold a hearing on 

this topic in the near future. 

Clearly, I have only touched on a few of the critical issues before 

the new FCC, but I am encouraged by the new spirit of comity and 

collaboration that you all espouse, and I hope that Congress will 

approach these important policy issues in the same manner. I look 

forward to your testimony and the hearing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Chairman Waxman. The 

gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Upton, is recognized for two minutes. 

Mr. UPTON. I am going to waive. 

Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Michigan waives his opening 

statement and will have 2 minutes added to his questioning time 

for our witnesses this morning. The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. 

Shimkus, is recognized for two minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN SHIMKUS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Mr. SHIMKUS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try to go quick 

also. 


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I appreciate the commissioners present and the opportunity to sit 

down with most of you. Some of you I have known for a while, and 

the new folks, and have taken that time, very, very helpful and important. Chairman Genachowski, I appreciate your meeting with 

me and then rapidly putting the kids.gov link up on the FCC site, 

something Ed Markey and I have been working on for a long time 

and you identified that it wasn’t being promoted and you responded 

rapidly. And that was on your own initiative, not mine. 

DBLOCK is critical. I have been in the 911 emergency communications issue, along with Anna, for many, many years now, and 

we just have to get this right and be prepared for the next time, 

before the next time happens. And you all know what I am talking 

about. 

The Nationwide broadband deployment without having a Nationwide broadband map is it putting the cart without the horse. 

Southern Illinois looked at the Kentucky model, and we think that 

is important. And siting of towers. We have eventually got to have 

a time when the debate stops and we get tower site, especially in 

rural areas. If there is no wireless, there is no E-911. And in the 

end, I want to thank the coalition of more than 50 public interest 

groups and civil rights groups for reminding the me that the fairness doctrine is still part of the debate. Now, I went through and 

my staff went through the Republican staff briefing. Nothing was 

talked about on the fairness doctrine. But because these groups 

have now raised it, there may be some debate on the fairness doctrine. I think there is a congressional majority vote on the floor in 

opposition to reinstituting the fairness doctrine. We are ready to 

continue to have those debates, but it is just curious that we 

wouldn’t have mentioned it had these groups not intervened. And 

I yield back the balance of my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Shimkus. The gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Markey, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH 

OF MASSACHUSETTS 

Mr. MARKEY. I thank the chairman very much, and I welcome 

our incredible new cast, Chairman Genachowski and Commissioner 

Clyburn, Commissioner Baker, as well as our two veterans, Commissioner Copps and Commissioner McDowell. Welcome back. 

As the author—and, by the way, someone who served our committee for 20 years, Colin Crowell, who is sitting behind you there, 

just sitting over their shoulder instead of mine as he has for all 

these years. As the author of the amendment requiring the development of a national broadband plan by next February, I am particularly interested in the Commission’s progress in this area. The 

national broadband plan is among the most significant things the 

Commission will do since the implementation of the Telecom Act of 

1996, and it is essential that we get it right. I would emphasize the 

opportunity we have given to you, and I urge you to dream big in 

terms of the plan you put together for our country. Give us a plan 

that speaks to our highest aspirations as a society, not just to promote greater broadband availability, affordability, speeds, or comVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:51 Aug 15, 2012 Jkt 074098 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A098.XXX A098

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petition, which we certainly need, but also a plan that animates 

technology policy with ideas for addressing opportunity, advancing 

better quality, and more affordable health care, and spurring greater innovation to lesser our independence on foreign oil through energy efficiency, smart grid technologies. 

I will be proposing measures such as E-Rate 2.0, building upon 

my original conception of the E-Rate from 1994, which included 

community colleges and Head Start facilities in the program. This 

is but one of several ideas that I would be suggesting. 

The same thing is true for net neutrality, as Chairman Waxman 

and Congresswoman Eshoo have always been focusing upon. Special access. We have to ensure that we get that issue right. I have 

introduced a bill on video accessibility and 21st century communications to make sure that all consumers, regardless of disability, 

have access to all of these new technologies. And I do believe that 

it’s important for us to look at this handset exclusivity issue. 

And one other thing I would just like to add is that nothing 

drives people crazier than to buy a new phone from the same company, and then you have to buy a charger for that new rather than 

having the old one that you have already purchased from that company work. So can we do something about that? That drives people 

crazy. Okay? They just hate it. So I would like to make that for 

you a special project, because people wind up with all these chargers over a number of years and one of them was working very well 

for them. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Markey. 

The gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Blunt, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROY BLUNT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI 

Mr. BLUNT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to join everyone else in welcoming the Commission here today, particularly our 

new commissioners. I would like to say, specifically to Commissioner Clyburn, that her dad and I were the whips together for one 

Congress, we talked virtually every single day of that Congress, 

and he is a good friend of mine and I look forward to doing what 

I can to be helpful to you and the other commissioners, and we are 

glad to have all of you here today. 

This is important work. It is work that it is really hard to anticipate the changes that will occur. Talking earlier today about a 

telecom bill that we worked on just a few years ago, by the time 

we got to the end of that particular piece of legislation, it seems 

to me that nothing we debated at the beginning of the legislation 

still mattered by the time we were still 5 years beyond that debate, 

and that is the world that you live in and have to work with. Certainly it is a dynamic area. It is competitive. The ingenuity, the 

entrepreneurialism, the competitive spirit in telecommunications 

has made a big difference. There are a couple of issues that obviously this committee will be divided on or at least a number of 

issues. 

One would be net neutrality. My personal view is that we have 

to be very careful here that any policy that deals with net neutrality, a topic that the definition constantly seems to change on 


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what it means, we have to be careful with net neutrality that we 

don’t undermine both the ability of network managers to allow for 

efficient flow of traffic and that we don’t undermine the ability of 

the private sector to get the funding and investment that they have 

grown accustomed to. 

Second, I want to join Mr. Shimkus in expressing my concern 

about any return to the so-called fairness doctrine, and also any return to that doctrine through some sort of new definition of localism that would really have as its objective returning to that doctrine. There are lots of issues that we will be talking about today 

and in the future, spectrum allocation, handset explicivity, a national broadband plan, and many others. This is an incredibly important assignment for our two commissioners who continue to be 

on the Commission, for the three of you, including the chairman 

that join them, and I hope we can be helpful in your work and certainly we are going to be incredibly interested in the work that you 

do. And we are glad to have you here today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Blunt follows:] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Blunt. The gentleman 

from Michigan, Mr. Stupak, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BART STUPAK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 

Mr. STUPAK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this hearing. I want to welcome our returning witnesses, Chairman 

Genachowski, Commissioner Copps, and Commissioner McDowell, 

as well as our new witnesses, Commissioners Clyburn and Baker. 

Welcome. 

Today’s hearing represents an opportunity for a fresh start for 

the agency and for the telecommunications industry. Last year, 

after an extensive investigation by our Subcommittee on Oversight 

and Investigations, the committee issued a report titled Deception 

and Distrust detailing the mismanagement that had occurred at 

the FCC over the past few years. This mismanagement included 

the manipulation and suppression of reports and data that did not 

agree with the former chairman’s agenda and a lack of unfettered 

access to expert FCC staff by the commissioners. I don’t want to 

rehash the specifics of the report, but I encourage you, if you have 

not already, to read it. 

The FCC has an enormous responsibility, coupled with extensive 

authority, to make decisions that affect the lives of millions of 

Americans and billions of dollars in private and public money. With 

so much at stake, it is your duty to ensure that the regulatory decisions you make are done in a transparent manner and are based 

in facts. Not everyone will be happy with what you decide, but they 

should at least feel that they had a fair opportunity to present 

their case before the Commission. 

The best way the FCC can promote private investment and innovation within the vast universe telecommunications market is to 

provide certainty, the certainty that the FCC will consistently 

make regulatory decisions in a timely, thoughtful, and fair manner 

which benefits consumers and promotes competition. I look forward 

to discussing with you a number of issues, old and new, that are 

pending before the Commission. Thank you for being here. And 

thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Stupak. The gentlelady 

from Tennessee, Mrs. Blackburn, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE 

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome to all of 

you. We have talked about different issues that are going to come 

before us, and of course we are going to look forward to working 

with you on these. I want to highlight just a couple of these as we 

start our hearing today. 

Net neutrality and control over the Internet is something that is 

important to me and to my Tennessee constituents and content 

producers. It is a very important issue. I think we all agree that 

the market is very competitive and it shows no signs of failure. So 

I am very weary of talk or efforts to increase regulations where 

there is really no compelling case to do so. And it has been very 


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well documented, the investment that is taking place by the technology companies into product and cutting edge technologies and 

services, and I fear that doing anything to thwart that investment 

or to disincentivize these companies would have broad repercussions. And I hope you all take that into account before you move 

forward with the any kind of implementation. 

The other component of that is broadband, and the investment 

in broadband does result in jobs. And if companies are not able to 

control their content, then they are going to have less money to 

make those investments and to create new employment opportunities. And seeing investment in infrastructure remain strong has 

been encouraging. And I read a Brookings Institute study that 

showed where a 1 percentage point increase in broadband penetration in a State, that that led to a .2 or .3 percent increase in employment numbers. And I think that is worth looking at. I appreciate you all being here. I look forward to the conversation. Yield 

back my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mrs. Blackburn. The gentleman from California, Mr. McNerney, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JERRY MCNERNEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Mr. MCNERNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening today’s 

hearing. And I want to thank Chairman Genachowski, Commissioners Copps, McDowell, Clyburn, and Baker. I am looking forward to getting a chance to know your opinions on these issues and 

getting to know you personally a little bit this morning. 

The FCC is working on a range of important and timely issues; 

however, I want to focus my intention on a couple of areas. Specifically, the Commission will be offering its insights on competition 

in the special access market. This is of particular important to numerous stakeholders in the telecommunications industry, and the 

matter is now pending before your Commission. I look forward to 

working with the Commission with my colleagues on the committee 

and with the various stakeholders to find balanced policies. 

I am also interested in hearing from the Commission regarding 

the length of comment periods in response to notices of inquiry. 

The FCC has an obligation to move forward quickly, but the industry stakeholders should have sufficient time to analyze the proposals, and I want to understand what your thinking is in terms 

of how those periods are determined. 

Now, our country faces some important challenges of personal interest to me, namely, net neutrality and cybersecurity. Regarding 

cybersecurity, we now face some very big challenges and very great 

exposure, both in economics and in national security, that prompts 

me to urge you to move forward aggressively in that area of cybersecurity. And as we hear from the FCC on these and other issues, 

I am confident that we can work together to find solutions that 

make a lot of sense for everyone. So thank you for coming. I yield 

back the balance of my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. McNerney. The ranking Republican member of the full Energy and Commerce ComVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:51 Aug 15, 2012 Jkt 074098 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A098.XXX A098

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mittee, the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Barton, is recognized for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. BARTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to compliment 

you on your timing. I have been here all of 15 seconds. That is 

pretty good. 

Mr. BOUCHER. We aim to please. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOE BARTON, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS 

Mr. BARTON. Well, let’s hope we keep that attitude. 

I want to welcome our full Commission to the Energy and Commerce Committee. We have two veterans and three rookies. And to 

the veterans, I have spoken with each of you individually a number 

of times, and I appreciate the professionalism and the personal 

friendship that each of you have exhibited. And to our three new 

members, I have met with you and I look forward to developing 

that same sort of relationship. 

This is an exciting time for the FCC. There are new opportunities. We have a chairman who has got a very positive relationship 

with the President of the United States, and that is always a positive. So I think there are some real opportunities to do some good 

things. 

I would recommend that the Commission start by restoring 

transparency and public faith in the Commission. As our two veteran commissioners know, in the past the Commission has tended 

to operate, if not exactly in the dark, they certainly have been very 

opaque. And sunlight and transparency is a good thing in democracy, and it is certainly a good thing in the regulatory agencies. 

The Commission in the past has failed to publish the specific text 

of its proposed rules, has provided little time or very little time for 

public comment, it has taken too long to adopt decisions, and it has 

sometimes taken even months to release the text of the specific 

item. Because of this and other reasons, Congressman Stearns and 

I have introduced H.R. 2183 that would address those issues. Obviously, that is not a perfect bill, and we would welcome any insights 

that the Commission has in terms of how to make it better. 

Broadband policy is something that the new chairman has said 

is a personal interest of his, and my understanding is that there 

is a new broadband policy that is being drafted or prepared as we 

speak that is required by the stimulus package. Keep in mind that 

the state of broadband adoption in the United States is actually 

better, at least in my opinion, than those that allege is not for selfserving interest in terms of getting more regulation and more public dollars or whatever. 

Many will cite the Organization for Economic Cooperation and 

Development’s claim that the U.S. ranks 15th in broadband adoption. This report has been thoroughly discredited for, among other 

things, calculating penetration per person than per household, and 

it also ignores wireless connections. As we all know, the United 

States is one of the most wirelessly connected Nations in the world. 

Broadband adoption in the United States has been rapid, considering the size and geographic diversity of our country. The Pew 

Internet & American Life Projects reports that 63 percent of U.S. 


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households have adopted broadband as of April 2009, which is up 

from 53 percent in May of 2008. 

By contrast, the European Commission says that only 36 percent 

of the European Union households have such service. So I think we 

are in better shape than we give ourselves credit for. I think that 

our growth has resulted from a deregulatory approach we have 

taken towards these advanced services. I know there may be some 

disagreement amongst our new commissioners, but I think the last 

thing that we should do is to return to an old, discredited monopoly 

era regulatory approach, such as forced sharing of network infrastructure and mandatory wholesaling of services. History has 

shown that those type of policies serve to deter investment, innovation, and competition. 

Mr. Chairman, I have got about four more pages of prepared 

text, so I am going to introduce that for the record because my time 

is about to expire. Let me simply say that telecommunication policy 

has been one of those areas where we have had bipartisan cooperation. We just finished the DTV transmission. Commissioner Baker 

had something to do with that at her previous post, and Commissioner Clyburn has had an impact on that down in South Carolina, 

and of course our two current commissioners were very involved in 

that and the chairman has had quite a bit to say about it in his 

prior private life. So that is, I think, a success in how we can work 

together, and broadband policy and net neutrality are two areas 

that still need to be worked on, and hopefully we can have that 

continued bipartisan success. 

With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Barton. And I assure 

you that I will read every word of that statement. 

Mr. BARTON. I am sure you will, too, Mr. Chairman. It is very 

good. 

Mr. BOUCHER. I am confident of that. The gentlelady from the 

Virgin Islands, Mrs. Christensen, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Chairman. Congratulations, 

Chairman Genachowski, and welcome. I appreciated your visit with 

me and my staff earlier in the year. A special welcome to our new 

commissioners, Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Atwell Baker. And 

welcome back, Commissioner McDowell. Our special thanks to 

Chairman Copps for your leadership during a particularly challenging time. But as all of you have said in your testimony, the 

challenges have just begun. I also want to acknowledge the helpfulness and responsiveness of the Congressional Affairs staff, the 

great examples of this staff that you have praised throughout your 

testimonies. 

One thing that really stands out as I looked at your resumes and 

statements and the ones that you prepared today, that in addition 

to the intimate familiarity with the depth and breadth of the field 

of telecommunications is the diverse and dynamic experience you 

each bring to the task, and that will make for a very strong Commission prepared to tackle the also very dynamic and diverse challenges. 


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Chairman Genachowski, I commend you for your methodical, 

science-based, data-driven approach to these challenges and the indepth reviews that have taken place or are underway. 

Commissioner Clyburn, you spoke a lot on the need to think 

about the impact on the consumer. I see some of that reflected in 

other comments. And I look forward to the outcome of a review on 

minority and women ownership in the industry and the strategies 

developed to address the lack of diversity. 

Lastly, my daughter, who took it upon herself to call one of my 

carriers to find out why I got a bluetooth that I had not ordered 

and she knew that I probably would have just kept, will thank you 

for the work that you do to make sure that consumers like me 

know what services I have and what I am paying for. So we are 

pleased to have you here before the committee this morning, and 

I look forward to your testimonies and to working with all of you. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mrs. Christensen. The gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Deal, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. NATHAN DEAL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA 

Mr. DEAL. Thank you. Welcome to all the commissioners here 

today. As you hear from these opening comments, it indicates the 

diversity of the issues before you, and I appreciate that fully. 

I want to focus, and I will do so in my questions, on one specific 

area that continues to be a problem that I think is growing larger 

every day, and that is the issue of content exclusivity contracts coupled with the licensing that is under your jurisdiction. Now, in the 

broad general scope of things in the TV, video, marketplace, we all 

generally talk about that in terms of retransmission consent authority. I am now growing more concerned about that same problem in the radio marketplace, and my question later on to you will 

focus on that. 

As I view what is happening in my State, more licenses are being 

granted for radio stations based on so-called underserved communities. The only problem is that when the license is granted there 

may be a tower somewhere close to that community, but the actual 

station itself is located in another community, in fact, in some instances where three or four separate licensed facilities are in the 

same building. That, coupled with the content exclusivity, I think 

creates a monopoly in the marketplace. And I do not know to what 

extent you have authority to deal with that. I don’t know whether 

or not you even look at the issue of content exclusivity contracts 

when you are considering the issuance or consolidation of the licensing portion of this agenda. So I will explore that more completely with you. And I can assure you it has everything to do with 

Georgia football. Thank you. And I yield back my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Deal. The chairman 

emeritus of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Dingell, is recognized for 5 minutes. 


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OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN D. DINGELL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 

Mr. DINGELL. Mr. Chairman, I thank you. I commend you for 

this hearing and for the fine job you are doing as chairman of the 

subcommittee. 

I want to express a warm welcome to our witnesses today and 

to you, Chairman Genachowski. It is my hope that, under this new 

leadership, the Federal Communications Commission will again 

enjoy a collegial and productive relationship with this committee. 

Much that falls under the purview of the FCC, including universal 

service reform, spectrum auctions, broadband development, wireless competition, requires the attention of this committee, and my 

colleagues and I will welcome the willing cooperation of the FCC 

in addressing these matters. 

I intend to focus my questions today on several questions of great 

public and personal concern. First, as our witnesses know, I have 

a keen interest in a thing called forbearance at the FCC. I have 

introduced legislation, H.R. 400, the Protecting Consumers 

Through Proper Forbearance Procedures Act, to correct what I perceive as a defect, a serious defect, in section 10 of the Communications Act of 1934. And I will be inviting your comments, gentlemen 

and ladies, on that portion of your jurisdiction. And I am concerned 

that unwise actions are being cloaked in inaction down at the Commission. 

Second, pertaining to special access, I am interested to hear what 

progress, if any, FCC has made in collecting adequate data to determine the state of competition for high capacity data services. 

Third, I will enjoy a candid discussion with our witnesses, I hope, 

about the rule pending before the Commission addressing interference between Wireless Communications Services, WCS, and Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services, SDARS. As my time is limited, 

I may not be able to address all these questions properly, and so 

with the permission of the chair I will submit questions for the 

record. I also will be requesting that members of the Commission 

respond to questions with a yes or no answer in the interest of 

time. 

So members of the Commission, Mr. Chairman, welcome to the 

committee this morning. I think we will have an interesting and 

useful discussion today, and I thank you for your presence. Thank 

you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Dingell. 

The gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Rogers, is recognized for 2 

minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE ROGERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 

Mr. ROGERS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, thanks for being here today, and I look forward to getting to know the newer commissioners. Welcome. 

Mr. Markey challenged you to dream big. I just hope you are not 

dreaming big of government intrusion, and I hope that you look at 

each issue with a notion to encourage investment. And there are 

issues certainly that we are concerned about, the fairness doctrine, 


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broadband. I mean, there is a way that we can do this to encourage 

private investment like we have never seen before, and it is in your 

hands to do that. And I hope that is the call that you will take, 

and not get into the temptation for net neutrality. There has been 

some disturbing comments from—public comments about the FCC 

regulating broadcast and print media. I hope that you will resist 

the urge to go beyond what is a standard decorum of government 

involvement in the media. That is very, very concerning to me and 

I know many on this committee, and we will be watching awfully 

closely to make sure that the FCC provides a level of certainty in 

things like special access and a broadband plan that allows the private sector to invest. And with that certainty—and the quicker the 

better. With that certainty, we will have I think a very competitive 

broadband plan for the United States as well as a free and open 

media that we I think all have grown to understand and respect. 

And so with that I have a statement, Mr. Chairman, for the 

record, and I look forward to having the opportunity to sit down 

individually with each of you all. And Godspeed on what I think 

is going to be a very exciting time through this Commission. And 

I yield back. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Rogers follows:] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Rogers. The gentlelady 

from California, Ms. Matsui, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DORIS O. MATSUI, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Ms. MATSUI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for calling today’s hearing. I would also like to thank Chairman Genachowski 

and the Commissioners for being with us this morning. 

This is a new Commission with some new members, the new 

chairman and Commissioners Clyburn and Baker, and I congratulate you on your recent confirmations and I look forward to working with all of you with the challenges facing us in this day and 

age. 

It has been widely noted that over the last several years the FCC 

may not have been as focused on the issues that are important to 

consumers and the marketplace in general. Whatever the opinion, 

I believe that there is a need for reform, creativity, and thoughtfulness moving forward to ensure fairness and competition in the 

marketplace. 

The FCC has a central role to play in moving our economy forward and creating jobs by expanding broadband access across the 

country. To help close the digital divide for millions of hard-working families we must also address the affordability of broadband 

services as more households have greater access to the Internet. 

That is why I will soon be introducing legislation to expand the 

universal service funds lifeline assistance program for universal 

broadband adoption, to help more lower-income Americans living in 

urban and rural areas in subscribing to affordable broadband services. 

I am also particularly interested to hear how the national 

broadband plan will help, and this includes households, schools, libraries, health facilities, among others, in urban underserved communities achieve greater access to broadband services. I am also interested in hearing how the Commission plans to address public 

safety issues so that agencies, local law enforcement, and households better communicate during emergencies. 

And on the issue of special access, the Commission should soon 

update the data needed to evaluate the level of competition in the 

marketplace. Spectrum availability will be key to increased competition, including public safety and to encourage new and innovative services. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues 

and the Commission on all of these important issues moving forward. And I thank the chairman for holding this important hearing 

today, and I yield back the balance of my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Ms. Matsui. The gentleman 

from Arizona, Mr. Shadegg, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN B. SHADEGG, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA 

Mr. SHADEGG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you for 

holding this hearing. I have always found the hearings you held in 

the past in the Energy Subcommittee to be informative and I expect nothing less here today. I want to welcome all of our witnesses 


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and express my appreciation for their testimony here, am anxious 

to hear it; therefore, I will keep my own remarks relatively brief. 

The FCC has played and continues to play a vitally important 

role as our technology and capabilities have advanced. I look forward to learning more about the priorities of the agency and how 

we can work together. My particular emphasis, however, is on ensuring that the market is as competitive as humanly possible. 

Quite frankly, I think there is always a danger of overregulation 

in these areas, and that consumers benefit by regulation which sets 

the level of control at an ability to ensure that there is real competition, because I believe real competition benefits the consumers. 

And that is, after all, who I think I am here with a duty to represent. 

I look forward to your discussion of each of the issues, but in particular to the issue of special access and the special access proceeding. It seems to me that that proceeding has drug on too long, 

that we need to get the information and get the decisions made, 

and we need to make sure that those decisions are made in a way 

that we benefit consumers so that they can have the most choice 

and the most options. I think it is critical that action on that proceeding occur as quickly as possible. 

I join my friend, Mr. Shimkus, in noting that my staff didn’t talk 

to me about the fairness doctrine; but since it is being discussed 

by those who would like to see a new fairness doctrine, I am happy 

to make it clear that I think that is the prerogative of the Congress, and I would not be happy to see any administrative interference in that area. 

I hope this is the first of many hearings between our committee 

and you all on how we can improve our communication system in 

the Nation and make it as efficient as humanly possible. 

And for my friend, who must have left, Mr. Markey, I would suggest that perhaps for telephone chargers we need a public option 

so that people can go somewhere and buy from the government a 

single charger that will charge all of their telephones. 

With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time 

and thank you for this hearing. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Shadegg. The gentleman from Vermont, Mr. Welch, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

Mr. WELCH. Thank you very much. You know, I am thinking 

about what Mr. Stearns said. This committee shares a concern on 

a bipartisan basis to try to move the economy ahead, and telecommunications and all of the work that the Commission is doing 

is an oasis of progress, actually. So it is incredibly important for 

each and every one of us in our districts that we have the best possible telecommunications policy. I welcome the new members who 

have been recently appointed to the Commission, and I introduced 

myself as a new member of the committee. And what is tremendous is, I think, we have got terrific people on this committee who 

share your common goal to work together, because if we are going 

to build a national economy and strengthen it, we are going to have 

to have absolutely the best telecommunications policy in the world. 

So I wish you good luck, and I will enjoy working with you for the 

betterment of the economy here in the country. Thank you. 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Mr. Welch. The gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Walden, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

Mr. WALDEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to waive my 

opening statement in lieu of extra time. I do want to welcome the 

commissioners. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Walden. The gentleman from Nebraska, Mr. Terry. 

Mr. TERRY. Welcome. Waive. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Mr. Terry. The most concise statement 

made so far. The gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Castor, is recognized 

for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. KATHY CASTOR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA 

Ms. CASTOR. Well, thank you very much, Chairman Boucher. 

And welcome to Chairman Genachowski and all three members of 

the FCC. I look forward to your testimony today. 

The technological innovation of just the past few years has been 

truly remarkable. And even last year’s Presidential campaign made 

unprecedented use of social networks, distributed phone banking, 

and an unmatched grasp of limitless possibilities of information 

technology. And it is my sincere hope and belief that the coming 

years will truly foster American ingenuity and expand America’s 

leadership in information technology. And over the past couple of 

months we have had an opportunity already to see how this new 

Commission is working since your confirmation, Chairman 

Genachowski. You have already begun aggressively preparing to 

complete the national broadband plan that Congress has asked for, 

and I have been encouraged by the speed with which you have 

acted to engage stakeholders in public hearings. And I understand 

later today the FCC is holding a public hearing on spectrum. I coauthored the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act that was introduced by 

Chairman Boucher and Ranking Member Stearns this summer, so 

I applaud you for that. 

The FCC has a very full plate with issues like the spectrum and 

the broadband plan, the DBLOCK, and your work on wireless competition and transparency for consumers all require very serious 

decisions to be made, and I commend the Commission for its work 

so far. As you settle into your jobs, we are all intently interested 

in your plans and outlook. So I look forward to your testimony. 

Thank you very much. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Ms. Castor. The gentlelady from California, Ms. Eshoo, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ANNA G. ESHOO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Ms. ESHOO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome. The full FCC. 

This is great. I am very excited. 

Chairman Genachowski, welcome. We are very proud that you 

are going to be leading the Commission. 

To the two Commissioners that are the mainstays from the previous Commission, we thank you and salute you. 


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And certainly to Commissioner Copps, I think that you have just 

been a force of nature in terms of what you have done and what 

you went out all over the country to speak to the public interest, 

and for your magnificent work as the acting director. Thank you 

to you. We are all grateful to you and very, very proud of you. 

Commissioner McDowell, it is always a pleasure and a privilege 

to work with you. 

And to the two new commissioners, two women on the Commission, how proud we are of you. And what you bring to the Commission is nothing short of extraordinary. 

I think, putting all of that together, we have the opportunity to 

have a Commission that really is going to be a 21st century Commission, and we need to seize the opportunities and really shape 

our collective destiny when it comes to telecommunications, and 

there are so many opportunities to do that. So we all want to work 

with you in order to accomplish that. 

I think that the FCC needs to be able to anticipate change, understand and identify the changes that are going to define us as 

a country. We need to complete rulemakings in a timely manner 

that keep abreast of industry dynamics. I think the FCC needs the 

structure and the financing to accomplish these goals. And you 

need to tell us how you think and what you need in order to make 

this happen. 

I think that you are all aware of what my guiding principles are 

behind my concerns about Commission policies. I want to see a 

competitive environment that encourages innovation and business 

development, not a world where big fish eat little fish. I am tired 

of that, most frankly, and I don’t think it has gotten us very far. 

I want to know how you plan to nurture a healthy competitive environment. I think that you know that Congressman Markey and 

myself have introduced net neutrality legislation that will bring 

about a free and unfettered access to the Internet. A free net might 

as well not be a net at all if people can’t receive broadband. I think 

it is as simple as that. So I actively support modern broadband 

standards that will guarantee equal access for this really highly essential resource for everyone in our country. And we need high 

speeds that rank with worldwide standards. We shouldn’t be starting with the slowest and then working our way up. It will be the 

22nd century, and there will be a longer list of countries that are 

ahead of us. 

So welcome to the new commissioners. Thank you to the two that 

have really held down the fort. And to Chairman Genachowski, to 

each one of you, I genuinely look forward to working with you to 

accomplish what needs to be accomplished for our country. Thank 

you. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Ms. Eshoo. The gentleman 

from North Carolina, Mr. Butterfield, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. G.K. BUTTERFIELD, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NORTH 

CAROLINA 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I too 

would like to thank all five of the commissioners for coming forward today to have this conversation with us. I look forward to 


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working with each one of you. Today, I am looking forward to hearing about the progress of the national broadband plan that Congress required as part of the Recovery Act. It is my hope that the 

plan will be sufficient to ensure that areas with little or no access 

to the crucial service be given priority. 

Many of the communities that I represent are without very basic 

access to broadband and are decades behind better connected areas 

of our country. The global economy demands access to broadband, 

and I stand ready to assist each one of you in expanding broadband 

access to underserved and unserved areas. We had a great debate 

in this committee about the definition of those two terms, and so 

we have delegated it to you and hopefully we will get a commonsense approach to this issue. 

I also have a keen interest in the DTV transition. The transition 

has been largely successful and has freed up valuable bandwidth 

that will be used by first responders to better communicate with 

one another. However, many of my constituents in North Carolina 

have been adversely affected by the transition. They are unable to 

access very basic television programming using an over-the-air signal. Prior to the transition date, I wrote to the Commission to 

make them aware of the potential for a complete loss of service to 

certain households that receive their television signals over the air, 

but unfortunately nothing was done to mitigate the signal loss. The 

affected households require new high-powered antenna to receive 

the digital signal. For many families in my district, a new antenna 

costing several hundred dollars was not a viable option. 

On June 11, I introduced the DTV Transition Assistance Act. The 

bill would utilize remaining money from the converter box coupon 

program to establish a television antenna coupon program to be 

used by those households that lost their signals due to the transition. 

There are many other issues that I hope to discuss with the 

Commissioners as time goes on, including net neutrality and the 

other issues that we have heard mentioned today. Again, thank 

you for coming. I look forward to coming with you. I yield back. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you. 

The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Rush, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BOBBY L. RUSH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS 

Mr. RUSH. Thank you Mr. Chairman. In biblical scripture, there 

is a phrase that says that weeping we may endure for a night, but 

joy comes in the morning. And as I look out at the many FCC commissioners, my heart is jumping for joy because we have endured 

4 years of the midnight, or 8 years of the midnight, and now you 

are in a position to enjoy it as a new day and a dawning of the 

new era at the FCC. And I certainly want to commend you, each 

and every one of you. I think that you are very capable of leading 

this charge, and my friend, Commissioner Copps, I know that you 

feel vindicated in that you have been like a lone soldier there at 

the FCC fighting for those issues that are a vital concern to the 

American people. 


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Broadband is a key factor when one attempts to maintain or improve one’s condition of lifestyle today. Broadband, as you know, is 

fundamental to information gathering and sharing with American 

people. Its economic importance should be obvious. It literally is 

the difference maker in the future of many of the families in our 

Nation. And that is why I consider your broadband plan, the directors at this Congress has given FCC, I consider that just second 

only to American’s pursuits of a national health plan in terms of 

the impact on the American people. 

I want to also just highlight one particular area that I am vitally 

concerned with, and that is the diversity of media ownership. Commissioner Copps, you and I have had discussions on that, and I 

think that is the—that would be the acid test for definition that we 

do indeed have a new day when we can address the issue of diversity of ownership among the media. 

And at some point in time if we have not in this discussion, I 

want to address the issue of the Verizon-AT&T debacle, as I would 

term that, that really squandered an opportunity where there could 

be the diverse ownership, particularly as it relates to minorities in 

that particular sales. So that would be the test decision or the test 

gauge that I would look at in determining how the FCC squandered an opportunity to move this Nation forward and to have a 

fairness in terms media ownership. 

Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Space, is recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ZACHARY T. SPACE, A 

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO 

Mr. SPACE. I very much appreciate the time of our witnesses, the 

distinguished chairman, and commissioners of the FCC. Thank you 

for joining us. 

The topics of today’s hearing are many, but I wish to focus on 

the commission’s work on the National Broadband Plan. 

As we all know, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 

states that the FCC shall develop plans to make sure all Americans 

have access to broadband. That is something that I care deeply 

about as a representative of an area of rural Appalachian Ohio, in 

which many thousands of my constituents lack access to both 

broadband and the tremendous benefits that can be derived from 

it, be they of an economic nature or quality of life nature such as 

health care and educational opportunities that we are missing out 

on it now because we don’t have anything close to universal access 

to broadband. 

Last Congress, I introduced the Connect the Nation Act to provide grants to public/private partnerships selected by States to 

work on deploying broadband technology. Early this year, I pushed 

House leadership to include funds for broadband in the Recovery 

Act. In the spring, I worked with countless stakeholders in and 

around my district to develop an ambitious connecting Appalachian 

plan to provide broadband access to 34 counties in Ohio. Then following a release on GAO report on actions undertaken by the Federal Government to encourage broadband employment, I joined 

Chairman Waxman and Chairman Boucher and then-acting Chairman Copps to highlight the areas of interest, including the findings 


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regarding the remaining gaps in broadband coverage in rural 

areas. 

I say all of this not to highlight my own personal accomplishments, but to point out that Ohio 18 is the face of the remaining 

need in this country, and we are also an example of a way forward. 

The decent hardworking men and women of rural Ohio cannot wait 

any longer for resolution of what Chairman Genachowski calls our 

generation’s major infrastructure challenge and access to what 

Commissioner Copps describes as our country’s greatest enabler. 

Commissioners, I challenge you to implement a national 

broadband plan that serves those with the greatest needs, and I 

stand ready to work with you to accomplish this. In Ohio, we are 

ready to work to get this done. 

Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Washington State, Mr. Inslee 

is recognized for 2 minutes. 

Mr. INSLEE. Thank you. I just look forward to this discussion. I 

am really impressed with some of the things the Commission is 

doing and look forward to discussion about our interrelated issues 

of wide spaces and unlicensed spectrum and how we moved the action process forward. I think we have more to do. We’ve got some 

progress but we have been waiting 5 years to complete our wide 

spaces issue, and I look forward to your comments on how we can 

move forward on these issues. 

Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from New York, Mr. Weiner is recognized 

Mr. WEINER. I, too, want to welcome the commissioners. I think 

we are all pulling for you. I know that we’ve gone through a period 

on the commission that was perhaps more contentious than it 

needed to be, and I think that having spoken to just about all of 

you I see that we all want to get past those things. 

I want to particularly welcome the new chairman who I think 

comes to the job with perhaps a collection of experiences and a 

background that makes him more equipped than perhaps any other 

chairs, someone who is innovative in the private sector, someone 

who has worked here on Capitol Hill with a close relationship with 

the President and someone who had his name mispronounced 

seven times in the Senate confirmation hearings. I want to thank 

the chairman for his service, and I look forward to tackling some 

of the issues that this subcommittee faces, but welcome to you all. 

Mr. BOUCHER. The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Doyle, is 

recognized for 2 minutes. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL F. DOYLE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH 

OF PENNSYLVANIA 

Mr. DOYLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning and welcome to the Commission. First, let me also thank Commissioner 

Copps for his outstanding service as interim chairman of the Commission and someone that I’ve certainly been pleased with to work 

with over the years. 

And I also want to commend Commissioner Baker for her work 

at NCIA and to our new commissioner, welcome. We are happy to 

see you on board. 


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I want to associate myself with comments from Chairman Waxman and Boucher and former Chairman Markey on the critical importance on broadband and their use on wireless competition. 

I heard Mr. Markey’s story about cell phone chargers and you 

know the EU brought together all of the device makers and regulators and worked with the industry to solve this consumer complaint. They settled on a micro USB standard. I would hope that 

American carriers and device makers would follow that policy, and 

we don’t need to wait for the FCC to force some action to address 

this consumer complaint. 

I want to tell you I was delighted when the FCC came to Pittsburgh in 2007 to discuss and learn more about the future of 

broadband. I think we all learn more when we leave Washington, 

D.C. and get out in the field and talk to real people. And Chairman 

Genachowski, I would like to encourage your staff and those working on the broadband plan to review the record of the Pittsburgh 

field hearing. Several witnesses who gave real-world experience at 

broadband adoption in low-income urban communities and how 

innovators are limited from using SMX text messaging to reach 

young people, and how people get left further behind when they are 

not connected to a critical network like the Internet. 

I’ve also noted that the FCC has hired a lot of people from inside 

and outside the Beltway. They’ve picked a lot of folks with practical 

real-word experience, they’ve been able to attract many people with 

important background in the private and public sector. I think that 

is a good thing. A number of them have testified before our subcommittee on communications and technology issues. I don’t always 

agree with everything that they’ve testified to us, but I respect 

their intelligence, I admire their commitment in seeking facts and 

data that support their views, and I recognize that they are serving 

in advisory positions. 

When it comes down to it, when decisions are made, the people 

who matter are the people who are sitting in front of us today, the 

chairman and the commissioners. That is who we should be talking 

to. 

And I look forward, Mr. Chairman, during the question-and-answer period, to have some questions for our new commissioner. 

Mr. BOUCHER. You have now heard from us, and we look forward 

to hearing from you. 

And we are very fortunate to have before us this morning—and 

thank you for your attendance—the five members of the Federal 

Communications Commission. 

Without objections, your prepared written statements will be 

made a part of our record. We would welcome your oral summaries 

and would ask that you keep those within a reasonable time frame 

so that we have time remaining to pose questions to you. 


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STATEMENTS OF JULIUS GENACHOWSKI, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION; MICHAEL COPPS, 

COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION; 

ROBERT McDOWELL, COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION; MIGNON CLYBURN, COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION; AND 

MEREDITH ATTWELL BAKER, COMMISSIONER, FEDERAL 

COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 

Mr. BOUCHER. And we will be pleased to begin this morning welcoming the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Mr. Julius Genachowski, and we would be very pleased to 

have your statement at this time. 

STATEMENT OF JULIUS GENACHOWSKI 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member 

Stearns, members of the subcommittee. It’s a particular pleasure 

for me to be here in the House of Representatives where 25 years 

ago, I started my career when a young congressman took a chance 

on someone fresh out of college. It is a privilege now to be chairing 

the Commission and to work with such an exceptional team of commissioners. I have the highest regard for each of my colleagues, 

Commissioner Copps, Commissioner McDowell, Commissioner Clyburn and Commissioner Baker. 

I believe that some of the members have recognized the public 

owes a debt of gratitude to Commissioner Copps, then-acting chairman and Commissioner McDowell for their excellent work for the 

DTV transition. 

While as we’ve heard issues remain, more work needs to be done. 

There is no question that the FCC’s role to date has been a success. 

Both Commissioner Clyburn and Commissioner Baker bring firstrate experience to the FCC and track records of real accomplishment. It is wonderful to have a full team up and running at the 

FCC. I am confident that together we can make the FCC an agency 

that works for all Americans. 

While I arrived at the FCC only a couple of months ago, I tried 

to hit the ground running seeking to revitalize and retool the agency. I’ve begun by articulating strategic principles that include fostering investment and innovation, promoting competition, protecting and empowering consumers children and families. These 

principles require work in a number of important areas: Developing 

a national broadband strategy; unleashing spectrums so the U.S. 

can lead the world in mobile; helping deliver state of the art public 

safety communications networks for our country; promoting a vibrant media landscape in the 21st century that serves the public; 

and reforming the FCC itself so that it can become a model for excellence in government. 

I have detailed in my written remarks on these topics. Let me 

summarize them here. First, the national broadband plan. We have 

been working hard on broadband, which I believe is our generation’s major infrastructure challenge. Robust, open, affordable 

broadband can be our platform for sustainable economic growth 

and opportunity for all Americans. In April, under then-acting 


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Chairman Copps leadership, the Commission began the efforts to 

develop the national broadband plan mandated by Congress. 

In July as part of my first Commission meeting, we heard a work 

plan for meeting our February deadline, which is coming up very 

quickly. In developing the national broadband plan, the FCC is 

conducting a data driven process with unparalleled opportunity for 

public participation through public workshops, requests for comments on concrete questions, the use of new media and technology, 

including a Web site, broadband.gov, a new blog, Blogband, Idea 

Scale and other platforms for public participation. 

We are at the very early stages of this work but thousands of 

Americans have already connected to the FCC, learning about the 

Commission’s work and offering real and substantive comments 

which we are incorporating into the record. We are using these and 

other tools to reach out beyond the Beltway to all Americans, individuals and businesses, because all Americans are stakeholders in 

the broadband plan. 

Second, the Commission, in August approved issues of notices of 

inquiry that addressed the key topics of innovation, investment, 

competition and consumers. 

Our wireless innovation and investment notice of inquiry focuses 

on the Commission’s particular responsibility for managing spectrum, a unique and scarce national resource. It recognizes the vital 

importance of innovators and entrepreneurs to the work of the FCC 

and seeks input and ideas for how the FCC can best maximize investment and innovation in the mobile industry. It asks is there 

anything the Commission should do that it is not doing to promote 

investment and innovation? Is there anything that the Commission 

is doing that it shouldn’t do where that would better promote innovation and investment? 

The goal of the wireless competition of inquiry, which we also approved, is to build a solid analytic foundation for predictable factbased competition policy in the wireless sector. And the goal of the 

consumer information and disclosure NOI that we approved last 

month is to allow the Commission to assess whether consumers 

have adequate information to make informed buying decisions. 

These notices reflect the importance of mobile. There’s been 

strong innovation in the wireless sector. That is the good news. I 

believe the U.S. has the opportunity to lead the world in mobile. 

I believe we also have some real challenges in this space including 

those mentioned by some members of the committee were facing a 

real demand crunch when it comes to spectrum. 

I would like to next take this opportunity to reconfirm my strong 

commitment to public safety. Public safety interoperability is a vitally important issue for the Commission and the Commission staff 

is actively evaluating proposals addressing mission critical voice 

communications and broadband capability for our Nation’s first responders. 

My first day on the job, I requested a top-to-bottom review on the 

Agency’s state of readiness for major public emergencies. Admiral 

Jamie Barnett, our new leader of our Public Safety and Homeland 

Security bureau, led that review. We released the results of the review on September 8th and they are summarized in my written 

statement. The bottom line, the review confirms that the FCC 


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stands ready to respond to communication emergencies, but the report also reminds us that the agency must continuously strive to 

maximize its readiness to ensure that it is prepared to meet its 

vital mission in the digital age and to work toward helping our 

country’s first responders deploy 21st century technologies in support of their operational requirements. 

Along with starting work in our strategic priorities, we are also 

working toward the FCC becoming a model for excellence in government. One of my first acts was to appoint a universally respected senior staffer, a special counsel for FCC reform. She is 

working alongside our new managing director, who has 15 years of 

very relevant experience in the private sector, our new general 

counsel, and our director of strategic planning on FCC reform. 

They are looking at all ideas to improve the operations and processes of the FCC to achieve the goal that I have laid out: having 

the FCC become a model for excellence in government, a model information agency for the communications age. 

Our form agenda is extensive. Highlights include a careful review of FCC properties and examination of the Commission’s data 

collections, analysis, and dissemination, licensing comment and 

complaint filing systems. Modernizing our information infrastructure, and our financial operations. 

Now, I will say that I have learned a few things during my brief 

tenure so far as chairman. For one, repeating relentlessly is sometimes necessary. Many have asked, and I state again, I do not support reinstatement of the fairness doctrine either through the front 

door or the back door. I believe deeply in the first amendment, and 

oppose any effort to censor speech based on the political viewpoint 

or opinion. 

Now finally, while I have not had the opportunity to meet individually with all of the members of the committee yet, I hope to 

do so. I have had the privilege to meet with many of you. Those 

conversations and those meetings have been constructive. I was 

happy to hear Mr. Shimkus mention our action on kids.gov; from 

Congressman Terry, we learned about Blue Valley Meats, a terrific 

business in Nebraska that developed a—that used broadband to 

better distribute to grow its business. It is a great example of small 

business using broadband to grow, create jobs all over the country. 

And we reached out to Blue Valley Meats in connection with our 

broadband process. 

Congressman Walden, when I met with him suggested that we 

do something that I thought was a great idea, that we get our 

media bureau staff and sit down with broadcast engineers and see 

what kind of ideas we can generate to better improve the processes 

of the FCC. That has happened, and it is resulting in some concrete actions. 

I spent time with Congresswoman Eshoo at a hospital in Palo 

Alto where we saw some of what broadband can offer, an incredible 

use of technology, imaging technology, broadband around remote 

diagnostics that allow for diagnosing of newborns with a disease 

that causes blindness in a way that when you see, you think this 

needs to be available to all Americans. It is available in Palo Alto; 

it should be available everywhere. Those are the kinds of things we 

are thinking about in connection with our broadband plan. 


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Let me stop there. These are but a few of the examples. I look 

forward to having more conversations with each of you in the 

months ahead and concrete actionable ideas that we can implement 

in the FCC. 

You can be assured that my goal for the FCC is to be a resource 

to this committee, to be open, fair, responsive; and as I said, to 

have the FCC be a model for excellence in government. 

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I look 

forward to answering your questions. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Genachowski follows:] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Commissioner Copps. 

STATEMENT OF MICHAEL COPPS 

Mr. COPPS. Chairman Boucher, Ranking Member Stearns, members of the subcommittee. 

Let me first express my very real gratitude for your incredibly 

generous statements today and more specifically, for your support 

and guidance, particularly during those 5 months-plus that I was 

privileged to serve as the Commission’s acting chairman earlier 

this year. Those were just incredibly busy and eventful months 

dealing with the first and foremost with the DTV transition, and 

also launching a truly historic proceeding growing out of the mandate from Congress for the Commission to develop a national 

broadband plan. 

I am pleased that we were able to navigate through this period, 

and I am incredibly optimistic about the future of our new Commission. Chairman Genachowski brings tremendous intellect, experience and commitment to his job, and he is off to a fine start. In 

addition, I tremendously value my relationship with my good friend 

and colleague, Commissioner Rob McDowell, who made a world of 

difference in the success of our DTV program during those months 

while I was acting chair—fellow commissioners Mignon Clyburn 

and Meredith Baker and how on board each are with very valuable 

and relevant experiences and talents. So I believe we are positioned 

for major progress. 

I also want to thank my friend and former colleague, Jonathan 

Adelstein, for his tremendous service as commissioner for nearly 7 

years. It seems strange not having him sitting here right beside me 

this morning. I think Commissioner McDowell has termed us the 

Three Amigos. Hopefully we are already on the way to becoming 

the five amigos of the Commission. I know Jonathan will serve the 

public interests superbly of the new administrator of World Utility 

Service. 

My biggest thanks of all go to the FCC team. I have for 8 years 

admired their skill, their professionalism, and dedication; but seeing it up close as acting chairman, seeing, for example, volunteers 

leaving their families to go across the country to help other families 

get ready for the DTV transition or working nights and weekends 

to get other items ready for consideration gave me a new appreciation for what public service means and what public service is. And 

giving them the room they need to accomplish their tasks is one 

of the things that I tried really hard to do as acting chair. 

For me, our current involvement in broadband is a dream come 

true. For 8 years, I advocated everywhere I could for a national 

broadband strategy to get this essential infrastructure out to all 

our citizens. I see broadband as our country’s great enabler. It is 

part of the answer to just about every challenge we confront as a 

Nation: lost jobs, shortfalls in education, energy dependence, environmental degradation, inadequate health care delivery, and the 

list goes on. This is the 21st century’s great infrastructure challenge, comparable to the challenges earlier generations confronted 

to build enabling infrastructure like turnpikes and roads and 


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bridges, canals, highways, rural electricity, and then even telephone service. 

Now it is broadband’s turn to help build renewed prosperity by 

opening the doors of opportunity for all Americans, no matter who 

they are, no matter where they live, no matter what the particular 

circumstances are of their individual lives. Enable broadband, and 

we enable the citizens of this great country. 

Just as sweet music to my years was the designation of the FCC 

to be the epicenter for the development of this plan. I am pleased 

that the Commission was able to launch a comprehensive 

broadband notice of inquiry this past April, and I am greatly encouraged by Chairman Genachowski’s commitment to an open and 

transparent and data-driven broadband process, really unprecedented in the history of the Commission. And that is exactly this 

kind of outreach and openness that we need in everything we do. 

So I hope and I believe that that broadband proceeding will serve 

as a model for future proceedings in the way we achieve maximum 

civic engagement with traditional and nontraditional stakeholders 

alike. That is the way we should do business all the time. 

There is much more to be done on top of broadband. While the 

bulk of the DTV transition is behind us, there is still work to be 

done. With consumers and stations alike, we are doing that work. 

The additional time and resources provided by Congress made a 

world of difference in reducing the number of problems we would 

otherwise have encountered, and the private sector/public sector cooperation that we were able to develop here showed how productively the sectors can work together, and it is absolutely essential 

as we look now to develop a broadband plan to build a partnership. 

That is how we grew this country of ours and built it. 

Lastly, I come back to, as I always do, to the country’s media environment. Now is the time to pay it serious attention. We have relied, for example, so heavily on our broadcast media for so much 

of the news we must have for emergency and public safety information, for public affairs programming essential to our civic dialogue, 

and for programming that supports the health and welfare of our 

children that reflects the social and cultural diversity that comprises the great tapestry that is the United States of America. We 

have not been, in my mind, sufficiently attentive to this. 

Now, with all of the new digital TV capacity at our disposal, 

broadcasting’s capacity to develop such processing is orders of magnitude larger than it used to be. Stations can now broadcast four 

or five or even more program streams using the same amount of 

spectrum they used to transmit just one stream in analogue. What 

an opportunity for broadcasters whose strength is local to develop 

programs reflecting local issues, cultures, sports, and all of the 

rest. Too few of them are taking advantage of the capacity. Times 

are tough. We all know that. But recovery will come. Broadcasting 

does need to play to its strengths and its future can be truly bright, 

and I am convinced that its future is bright. 

Our country is also awakening to the realization that there is a 

crisis in journalism regardless of the means of distribution: broadcast, newspaper, cable, the Internet. News gathering and news dissemination expenses are being cut to the bone. Investigative journalism is too often falling by the wayside, and these constraints are 


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endangering, I believe, the vibrancy of the civic dialogue on which 

our democracy depends. 

New media is developing, more will come, but traditional media 

persists. We can’t focus on one and neglect the other because we 

need solutions in both areas now. 

Recently the legendary Walter Cronkite died. One of my good fortunes after I came to the Commission was to get to know this good 

and wise man, and we had numerous discussions about the deepening crisis in journalism and the urgent need to tackle this program. As he once said, America is the most prosperous and powerful nation in perhaps the history of the world. We can certainly afford to sustain a media system of which we can be proud. I look 

forward to working with the subcommittee on this issue as well. 

Thank you again for inviting us here. This is, I think, perhaps 

the most exciting time of history to be a member of this Commission. I am enthused. And I look forward to your comments and 

your counsel and your questions. Thank you very much. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Copps. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Copps follows:] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Mr. McDowell. 

STATEMENT OF ROBERT McDOWELL 

Mr. MCDOWELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member 

Stearns and members of the committee. It is a privilege to be here 

before you today. 

The FCC is an agency with new energy and new blood, and I am 

honored to be serving there for another term. I look forward to 

working with my new colleagues, Julius Genachowski, Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Baker, as well as my veteran amigo, Mike 

Copps. With these new commissioners and new leadership, we have 

a perfect opportunity to rebuild the FCC as we address the myriad 

communications and economic policy challenges facing America. 

For some time now I have been calling for reform of the Commission’s structures and processes to help spark discussions and 

progress. I wrote open letters outlining reform ideas to both acting 

Chairman Copps in January and Chairman Genachowski in July. 

And one of my letters is part of my written statement in the record. 

First and foremost, the FCC should be a more open and collaborative place where all commissioners are included in the idea formulation process early on and not just 21 days before a voting 

deadline. 

Both acting Chairman Copps and Chairman Genachowski have 

taken significant steps to enhance information flow and improve 

employee morale, and they should be commended for their efforts. 

A tremendous amount of FCC work remains to be done, however. 

I look forward to working with all of the stakeholders on this important endeavor, especially members of this subcommittee and the 

full committee. 

As we move forward, I cannot think of a more important time to 

be at the FCC. Even though the American economy has been 

shrinking overall, our communications marketplace is vibrant, 

evolving, and growing. Consumers have more choices among more 

communications technologies, services, and providers than ever before. For instance, 157 million Americans watched more than 21 

billion online videos during the month of July alone—a figure that 

is growing at a double-digit rate each month. Consumers are 

watching those videos on an increasing number of platforms as 

well, most notably wireless platforms. 

Three years ago, the discussion of a wireless-only marketplace 

was just beginning. Today, nearly one in five American households 

is wireless only. In fact, I like to point out that my wire line legal 

adviser, Nick Alexander, his household is wireless only. I think 

that speaks volumes. And the majority of American consumers also 

have the choice of five wireless carriers. 

At the same time, 23 percent of all businesses are expected to be 

wireless only by the year 2012. America’s wireless broadband market is leading the world by growing more than 400 percent over the 

past 3 years. Additionally, America has the fastest growing fiber to 

the home market in the world with an annual growth rate of over 

120 percent. Five years ago, less than one percent of American 

homes had access to fiber; today that figure stands at 13 percent. 


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Since the year 2000, the number of high-speed lines in America 

has increased more than 1,900 percent for approximately 6.8 million connections at the end of the year 2000 to almost 133 million 

lines nearly 9 years later. 

To grow that number further, America’s businesses will spend up 

to $80 billion on new broadband infrastructure this year alone. And 

I know that this is a terrible year to be investing in capital expenditures. 

Certainly our communications marketplace is far from perfect 

and more must be done. As we prepare our congressionally mandated national broadband plan however, we should not just examine our shortcomings, but we should learn from what we have done 

right as well. 

The information and communications technology sector is poised 

to lead our country out of the recession and into an era of sustained economic prosperity. Higher paying jobs and untold consumer benefits if the government does not adopt policies that inhibit economic freedom and investment. 

America’s year-over-year private sector investments in 

broadband dwarf any government broadband efforts throughout the 

globe. In recent years, the Commission has promised that new 

broadband technologies would come to fruition as a result of our actions to put into the hands of consumers the power of previously 

unavailable spectrums, such as the 700 megahertz band. Market 

players, both large and small, will need even more capital to build 

out the infrastructure needed to make that promise a reality. 

With this fact in mind, whatever policies we adopt should help 

attract more private sector capital and not deter it. As the 

broadband plan takes shape, it is my hope that the plan will not 

take a heavy-handed, top-down command and control industrial approach. Instead, I hope it will be imaginative, pragmatic, flexible 

and the next step in an open process that will make helping 

unserved America its top priority. 

Our policies should encourage abundance and competition to give 

consumers more choices, life-changing innovations, and lower 

prices all while obviating the need for innovation and rationing. If 

we are truly committed to being data driven and avoid cherry-picking data to justify a predetermined outcome, we can produce a useful template to produce a constructive public policy. 

In addition to reform and the broadband plan, the Commission 

faces a number of other challenges. We are confronted with a skyrocketing universal service cost structure that is unsustainable. 

More than 1.3 million broadcast indecency complaints, some of 

which literally are older than my children, lie ossifying at our 

agency. 

The Communications Act requires us to review our rules governing media ownership next year, and during that review, we 

must be faithful to the first amendment and defend the freedom of 

speech. 

We still have work to do to ensure technologies that operate any 

unused television white spaces can come to market and into the 

hands of consumers as quickly as possible. Likewise, we must work 

with Congress to devise a solution for resolving the communication 


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challenges faced by our Nation’s emergency response providers and 

the list goes on. 

But in conclusion, America’s ICT sector is at a critical juncture. 

Our technological and economic future could be brilliant if we, as 

policymakers, have the courage to make the right choices. 

I look forward to working with Chairman Genachowski and my 

colleagues on important policies that will encourage job-creating investment, empower consumers, and make America stronger and 

more competitive. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Boucher. Thank you, Mr. McDowell. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. McDowell follows] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Ms. Clyburn. 

STATEMENT OF MIGNON CLYBURN 

Ms. CLYBURN. Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee. 

Good morning. It is an honor and a privilege to appear before you 

today alongside my esteemed colleagues to discuss our work at the 

Commission. 

As an agency responsible for regulating the telecommunications 

industry, the FCC has an important role to play in our Nation’s 

economic recovery and sustained health. From what I have witnessed in my short time at the Commission, I can assure you that 

we are an agency fully committed to the task at hand. 

My colleagues have already touched on a number of matters facing the Commission. I would like to highlight a few issues that will 

be priorities for me. 

First, I strongly believe that we must refocus this agency on consumers. We must be vigilant in asking ourselves how our decisions 

impact the marketplace. Where the market is working effectively 

and consumers are reaping benefits, we can take a step back and 

watch it flourish. Where the market is failing, however our responsibility is to craft reasonable and appropriate measures to get it 

back on track. 

Our new inquiry concerning the information disclosed to consumers when they purchased telecom equipment and services reflects the FCC focus on consumers. There is no more essential component and purchasing processing than clear, accurate, and useful 

information. Without it, consumers enter into contracts they never 

anticipated, pay for services they never sought, and spend far more 

than they should for services they received. When this happens, the 

market has failed and a closer look is warranted. 

As part of redoubling our consumers’ efforts, I believe we must 

also increase our accessibility in transparency to the public. By fostering greater participation and awareness, we undoubtedly will 

yield superior results. This means making the Commission far 

more accessible to the general public through our Web site and 

other new media tools as well as finding innovative ways to open 

our doors beyond the Beltway. 

I want to also touch on the national broadband plan. While much 

of to focus over the next several months inevitably will be on the 

core elements of broadband deployment and adoption, the plan 

must also account for national priorities beyond the traditional 

communications round. 

Two such areas about which the members of this committee are 

intimately familiar are energy and health care. 

When it comes to thinking about the intersection between 

broadband and energy policy, the conversation begins with a smart 

grid. If we take seriously the notions of energy independence and 

reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we must develop a grid capable 

of accommodating renewable power as a significant portion of our 

energy generation mix. Our broadband plan must account for the 

continued development and growth of this technology. 

Broadband policy also has the potential to transform the way 

health care is delivered in this country. In order to develop a useful 


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plan that incorporates innovative mechanisms for providing quality 

health care, we must first understand the industry’s infrastructure 

requirements, the current reasons for inadequate access and adoption, and ways in which we can facilitate effective and secure online access to medical records. 

In bringing these and other sectors of the economy into the fold, 

coordination among a variety of Federal agencies and State entities 

is paramount. I will do everything in my power to make sure that 

we continue to work effectively with all stakeholders. 

The final issue I would like to address this morning is the state 

of minority ownership. I am pleased that our chairman has already 

indicated that this is an issue he would like to address early on. 

But before we even begin to find solutions for the lack of diversity 

in media ownership, we need to have an accurate diagnosis. And 

to do that, we need credible, reliable, and complete data. We don’t 

have that now, and in my view, we need to get the ball rolling as 

soon as possible to come to terms with exactly why our broadcast 

industry is in the state we find it in today. 

I look forward to working with my fellow commissioner, Chairman Genachowski, and the subcommittee as we develop the most 

effective telecommunications policies possible. The American people 

are relying on all of us to work cooperatively to ensure that they 

are being provided the widest array of services at the highest quality and the best prices. 

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today, and 

I look forward to answering your questions. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Ms. Clyburn. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Clyburn follows] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Commissioner Baker. 

STATEMENT OF MEREDITH BAKER 

Ms. BAKER. Good morning Chairman Boucher, Ranking Member 

Stearns, and all of the very distinguished Members of this committee. 

It is really exciting to be here today, and I am very grateful for 

your kind words about my tenure at NGIA. I really hope to bring 

that experience to enhance all of our experience at the FCC. 

So during my first 6 weeks at the Commission, I have had the 

opportunity to meet the various bureaus and the offices, and I have 

been greatly impressed by the agency and the depth and the talent 

and dedication of the staff as we really face unprecedented challenges of the significant issues before us. 

Chairman Genachowski gave an inspirational speech to the FCC 

staff on his first day, and he stated that the promise of technology 

has never been brighter, and consequently, the obligations of the 

Commission have never been greater, and I share that view. 

The FCC holds the keys to unleashing the power of broadband, 

the new media landscape and true public safety operability. This 

responsibility is challenging, but the rewards will truly make a difference in the life and future of every American. 

According to one metric, the communications industry constitutes 

one-sixth of our economy and is the foundation upon which the rest 

of it runs. A 21st century communications infrastructure is essential for restoring sustained economic growth opportunity and prosperity. 

Congress has instructed the FCC to develop and implement a national broadband plan. This directive holds great promise for our 

Nation, and as you have heard, we are hard at work on it. 

Broadband has become critical infrastructure. The enabling technology from everything from the future of our children’s education 

to the next generation of health care, smart energy grid development and, again, true public safety interoperability. 

The FCC will play a very important role in making sure that the 

right regulatory environment exists to create incentives for companies to build out this infrastructure faster to reward innovation 

and investment and to encourage competition so that American 

consumers have access to and can afford the world’s most advanced 

telecommunications services. We are gathering the data to ensure 

that our recommendations are well informed. 

I believe that we can reap great benefits from a more efficient, 

transparent and flexible spectrum policy. The spectrum inventory 

bill introduced and cosponsored by so many of the members of this 

subcommittee shows important leadership and is the first step to 

increasing wireless broadband use in innovative ways such as secondary markets, leasing, and test beds. 

As many of you know me from my previous position at NTIA I 

think it is critical to pursue policies that foster the efficient use of 

spectrum to promote the continued innovation and investment in 

the wireless marketplace. 


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We plan to take a hard look at the means and tools to maximize 

spectral efficiency and to optimizes the use of the country’s bandwidth. 

I am pleased that the first vote I cast at the Commission was to 

see what else we can do to promote innovation in the wireless sector. Further, this afternoon we will have a broadband workshop on 

spectrum. And on Monday, I will host our first field hearing for the 

national broadband plan, a spectrum hearing in Austin, Texas. It 

is imperative that we lay the foundation for wireless, the fastest 

growing sector of America’s broadband economy who’s continued to 

flourish. 

During the past weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting with 

many of the members of this committee and it is a very talented 

and dedicated group. I want to thank you for taking the time out 

of your busy schedules to visit with me and share your thoughts 

on the communications policy and the future of the FCC. I have 

learned a great deal about your respective views and the range of 

issues that you face in your districts. I look forward to continuing 

our dialogue and to working together for the benefit of American 

consumers. 

The FCC has a profound impact on what the American people 

see, hear, and read. Healthy competition can benefit consumers, 

and, in many cases, can reduce the need for affirmative Commission action. However, the regulatory mandate of the FCC will remain an important one as our society continues to experience technological advancement in the communications sector. I take this responsibility very seriously while working to promote the principles 

of investment, innovation, and competition for the benefit of all 

Americans. 

In conclusion, it is a true honor to be serving at this time with 

my four colleagues sitting with me at the table and with the wealth 

of their experience and expertise. I, too, would like to add my voice 

to thanking acting Chairman Copps for reintroducing a collegial 

tone at the Commission which Chairman Genachowski has continued to build upon. 

I look forward to working with them and Commissioner 

McDowell and Clyburn and taking actions that will have extraordinary impact on the everyday lives of the American people. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you, and 

I look forward to answering your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Baker follows] 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much. 

The subcommittee’s thanks to each of our Commission members 

for your very thoughtfully prepared comments here this morning 

and for the time that you have taken to have this conversation 

with us. 

I want to begin by complimenting each of you on what I perceive 

to be an outstanding bipartisan dialogue among you and a determination to work effectively together in order to advance telecommunications policy. And my personal view is that is the way 

the best policy is made. And it is a practice that we continually intend to pursue here on this subcommittee as well. 

Chairman Genachowski, as you begin to draft your broadband 

plan, I want to draw your attention to two areas with regard to 

which I hope you will provide a particular focus. 

And the first of these is the need for extraordinarily high bandwidth extending to libraries and communities across the United 

States. Presumably, we would have fiber optic connections to every 

library in this country once your plan has been fully implemented. 

Libraries are an intellectual hub, they are a social hub in many 

communities across our country. They typically offer computers 

with broadband and free Internet access. And hundreds of people 

in a typical community will receive their free Internet access by 

virtue of that offering at the local public library. 

They also offer their own content through their Web sites, and 

many of those areas of content involve full-motion video which, of 

course, requires large bandwidth in order to deliver. And when you 

have a broadband line extending into a library, a very high capacity line, that line can be a jumping-off point for last mile applications for residents and businesses located between the library and 

the central switching office where that fiber connection terminates. 

So there are really a range of community benefits when they are 

advanced when we have truly high capacity broadband access extending into the public library. I hope you will have due regard for 

that as your plan is developed. 

I am going to ask for your comments on that one other issue related to broadband, and I will ask for your comments on both of 

these at once. 

As our colleague, Mr. Butterfield, indicated, you are going to be 

devising definitions for many unserved areas and underserved 

areas across the country. And I hope you will be extraordinarily 

careful, particularly in the definition of what is unserved. We have 

some experience with the existing Community Connect Program 

that is administered by the Rural Utility Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it is a very small program. It is effective where it is deployed, but it is very small and perhaps because 

of its small size, there is some necessity to be quite conservative 

in the definitions of the areas that will qualify. 

But one of their definitions is so conservative as to disqualify 

areas that, in my personal opinion, are really worthy of service. 

They define ‘‘unserved’’ as an area that has absolutely no 

broadband access to anyone in the community. So if a single resident of the community has broadbands extending into that extending into that home, the entire community is deemed to be served 

even though no one else in the community has access to broadband. 


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That is an unusually, and I think, far too severe restriction. And 

I would hope that you would keep that example in mind as you are 

defining what ‘‘unserved’’ means. 

If there are parts of the community that lack broadband, those 

parts should be deemed to be unserved in whatever definition you 

craft. 

I want to comment on the notion of underserved also. In my 

view, if there is a single provider in a community and the benefit 

of competition is not provided in that community, that community 

should be deemed to be underserved. If the data rates are unusually slow in that community, if it is perhaps less than a megabit 

per second for a download speed, that, in my view, would be another indicia of that community being underserved. 

If you have competition and high data rates but prices are very 

high for whatever reason above the national average perhaps, that 

might be another indicia of a community that is underserved. 

And so I would offer those suggestions to you as you undertake 

these critical definitions in structuring your plan. 

And Chairman Genachowski, if you would like to take a few minutes to respond, I would be happy to hear your answer. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. The first thing I would tell you is that all of 

those thoughts will be taken into account as we develop the 

broadband strategy. 

The structure of our work, the way we have organized the staff, 

the workshops, the issues that we are jumping into follow from 

what is in the statute. We were asked in connection with the national broadband strategy to look at one, deployment; two, adoption 

and affordability; three, national purposes in the way that 

broadband can help address so many of our national problems, 

health care, education, energy, etc. 

As I have been in this job for a little while and as we have done 

the work on broadband, we realize that these issues are incredibly 

complex. When I met with Congressman Doyle—I don’t know if 

he’s here now—there are real issues in Pittsburgh that you 

wouldn’t expect that, as I talked to Congressman Doyle, sound a 

lot like issues that I hear about I talk to rural members. 

The overriding goal of the national broadband strategy, as I understand it, is the goal of broadband access for all Americans. 

There are many challenges to address, many problems to solve, and 

the kinds of issues that you have raised up—some of which have 

come up in the context of the near term broadband grants—are 

issues that we must get our arms around with connection of the 

longer-term national broadband strategy. 

With respect to libraries, a couple of thoughts. 

One of Congress’ great successes and one of the Commission’s 

successes over time has been the ERAY program which reflects a 

strategy adopted on a bipartisan basis to look at different institutions from the one you mentioned in schools, although libraries are 

also in the program, and to say we see enormous benefits from connecting schools before we get to broadband. 

And I think this is reflected in the statute that we have been 

asked to look at in connection with the broadband strategy. Libraries have all of the benefits that you spoke about; schools, health 

care facilities, these all have both direct benefits because if these 


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local institutions can be connected to broadband, there are obvious 

benefits to each library, schools, hospitals; and they also have these 

extra benefits that you mentioned that driving high-speed Internet 

to these institutions help solve the last mile problem and other 

problems in the community through both wire and wireless options. 

We have heard the phrase in our workshop so far as strategic institutions, encouraging us as we develop a national broadband 

strategy to think in part about what we can do to help ensure that 

strategic institutions in the U.S. have access to a robust pipe for 

exactly these reasons. And I think you will see that discussion network continue. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

The gentleman from Florida, Mr. Stearns, is recognized for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. STEARNS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And I appreciate your comments about the FCC. It is very refreshing to hear how they are working in a bipartisan fashion, and 

of course I attribute your leadership, too, because you are working 

in the same capacity here in this subcommittee. 

I think we heard from our ranking member on this side, Mr. Barton, he and I drafted a bill, 2183. Mr. Chairman, this bill probably 

can be enacted by you without passing this bill, and I am not sure, 

since we are in the minority, we will have any chance. 

But I think the question for you is over the years, I think both 

sides, both Republican and Democrat, think there has been a lack 

of transparency on the basis of the FCC’s commission. Perhaps, as 

Mr. Barton said, it has become opaque. So we would like to see 

published a specific text of proposed rules in a timely fashion, allow 

the public at least 30 days to file comments, 30 days to file replies, 

establish deadlines, and public decisions within 30 days after adoption. I would like your assurance that you will perhaps implement 

these and make the FCC more transparent. 

And I will ask Commissioner Copps and McDowell right down 

the line to get your opinion. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. I think these FCC processing issues are very 

important. They do relate to better decision making. At the FCC, 

as I mentioned one of the first things I did was appoint a very-well 

respected special counsel for reform who was leading this process. 

And I have asked her and the team that is working on it to take 

all of these ideas into account, and we will. 

Transparency is incredibly important. We have taken some steps, 

as I have mentioned already. Probably the most important is the 

way we have run our broadband process. Through open workshops, 

publishing a schedule of workshops encouraging broad participation, each of the workshops are in public. You see staff rolling up 

their sleeves with a mixed group of people. 

Mr. STEARNS. This place is packed by a lot of people, and these 

people are probably saying tell us what the procedures are so we 

can follow and we can have them in place so we have the transparency so we can compete. Commissioner Copps, I guess the question is do you agree, perhaps, in that there needs to be more transparency? 


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Mr. COPPS. I do agree with that. I tried to foster that kind of 

transparency when I was chairman. I am sure under Chairman 

Genachowski that we are going to have that. 

I would like to ask you for some help to make our Commission 

run better, and I have talked about this before, and I know some 

members of the committee—I remember a dialogue with the Mr. 

Barton last time and he was supportive of this. 

We are talking about the sense of camaraderie we have here 

with the openness in the discussion, yet more than two of us can 

never get together to talk. We have this incredible array of talents 

and experiences. 

Just putting myself in your place, if you could only talk to one 

other of your colleagues and nobody else, you would be in one hell 

of a fix. And I think we are in a fix that way, too. I think we need 

to do something. 

Mr. STEARNS. Thank you. 

Mr. McDowell. 

Mr. MCDOWELL. I support the spirit of your bill. I agree with 

Commissioner Copps’ Sunshine Act reform among some other statutory reforms would be helpful. I have been speaking out about 

FCC reform for a couple of years but most vocally this year. I have 

attached that letter as part of my written testimony to Chairman 

Genachowski in July. There is a lot more work to be done. 

I think we do have the building blocks to do a lot of the FCC reform already. So we do have the building blocks to make it a good, 

effective, transparent agency. 

Mr. STEARNS. Commissioner Clyburn, I think with your experience you would think transparency is key. In fact, I want to comment, you were the only one that was right on time within the 5 

minutes. 

I was impressed. 

Ms. CLYBURN. And I appreciate it. 

One of the things that we are considering doing inside of the 

agency to promote greater transparency is revising our own ex 

parte rules and—to make sure that the public knows how we are 

dealing with outside parties and what is being communicated. So 

we are taking internal efforts, making internal efforts towards 

that, also. 

Mr. STEARNS. I am going to start with my next question for Commissioner Baker. 

Just recently, the D.C. Circuit threw out the FCC’s cable ownership cap because the FCC had failed to account for all the video 

competition to cable that comes from satellite and phone companies. I guess will you commit not to support regulatory and interagency in today’s competitive market and just allow innovation and 

without making detailed showing of both market power and market 

failure? And so perhaps you might comment on that. 

Ms. BAKER. Yes, I will commit to that. Absolutely. 

I think we have a new media landscape. I think that is what the 

new D.C. Court told us. I think that we need to continue to foster 

innovation. I think, generally, as a principle I start with markets 

work better than regulation, and we need to make sure that we 

add all the incentives that we can to the marketplace. 


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Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Chairman, I would just like comment on the 

D.C. Circuit’s actions. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Well, when the market works and there is 

sufficient competition, then the FCC has no need to act. When the 

market isn’t working and consumers could benefit from policies to 

promote competition, then the Commission must act. And I think 

we have seen over time that both are true, and it depends on particular circumstances. 

Mr. STEARNS. Thank you. 

My last question, if I could, Mr. Chairman, is dealing with more 

of a local parochial issue. I have a community called Palm Cay in 

my congressional district, and they have a cable company called 

Cablevision of Marion County, and the problem is they can’t terminate their cable service. We have written to the FCC about this, 

and it seems unfair and a potential violation of the FCC report and 

order 17-089 declaring exclusive contracts to be null and void. And 

I am just wondering if you could give us an update on my letter 

to you dealing on behalf of the Palm Cay community and what can 

be resolved ultimately and how quickly. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. It is a fair issue to raise. We had a chance 

to speak about it, and after our meeting I spoke with the media 

bureau and told them this proceeding has been open since 2007. 

That is about long enough. So they are hard at work at resolving 

it. I can’t give you a specific date, but we will work to resolve it 

and generally work to close out open proceedings like this. 

Mr. STEARNS. Certainly before the end of the year? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Yes. 

Mr. STEARNS. Thank you. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Stearns. 

The gentlelady from the Virgin Islands, Mrs. Christensen, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and thank you all 

for your testimonies. 

I have a parochial question, also. The FCC previously ruled in 

favor of interim cap on universal fund high payments to competitive eligible carriers in the Virgin Islands. We just had one. So we 

really lag behind the rest of the country in terms of competitive 

entry. Do you think that the interim cap in any way creates barriers for competitive entry in poor areas? And would the FCC consider exemptions for areas like mine that just had one carrier and 

now the universal high fund payments are closed off to any other 

carrier? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. I had a little bit of a hard time hearing the 

question, but I think I understood it. 

Tackling the challenges of universal service is very important for 

the Commission. On one hand, it has been an extraordinary success for the country, helping deliver telephone service to all Americans everywhere, as Commissioner Copps said, without regard to 

who they are or where they live. At the same time, it is very clear 

that the system is under pressure for a series of reasons relating 

to changes in the marketplace. There are broad global issues that 

have be addressed with the USF, and then there are a series of the 

sort you mentioned that come up in particular markets that we 

have to address. Last, it relates in an important way to broadband, 


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because we do need to move USF to a program that supports 

broadband. 

I wish it were easy, and we could flash cut and move over. It will 

be difficult. It is an area where the Commission will be working on 

it. As Chairman Boucher said, he is working on a bill. We will be 

a resource for the Commission, and I hope this is something that 

we can all solve together. It is an important challenge for the country. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. 

And I will just direct this out. Anyone can answer it. 

As I read the testimonies, and we had NTIA and RES here last 

week, most of the outreach is done through the Internet. And we 

still have a digital divide in this country, and there are many people that are not getting the information. Someone said somewhere 

last weekend—I don’t remember who it was—that in our communities, the disadvantaged communities, we don’t even know what 

we don’t know. So how do you plan to reach out to those people 

who are still not connected? And we still have an issue of increasing demand for broadband as we proceed to build up. So are we 

able to reach people who don’t have Internet connectivity to get 

their input as we move forward? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. We have to. It is incredibly important. It is 

one of the reasons that we are doing the open workshops where 

people can come in and participate. They can participate online. 

They can come in. And it is why we are starting field hearings, as 

Commissioner Baker mentioned. 

There is such an important, challenging—I don’t know if it is a 

Catch-22 or a virtual circle, depending on how you look at it. If the 

government wants to communicate with my 17-year-old, they had 

better use the Internet. If the government wants to communicate 

with my parents, don’t try. And this is a real challenge for government, because we do have to reach people in a variety of ways 

when it comes to services in the ways that people actually communicate. 

One of the big benefits of pursuing universal broadband is that— 

and this won’t happen quickly, but when it happens, there are tremendous potential cost savings for government. Because instead of 

communicating with people and providing services as we have to 

do both online and offline, we can begin to provide more and better 

services online. We can’t do that until we have really achieved universal broadband because of the real challenges that you mentioned. We can’t leave people with an inability to participate and 

to benefit from the services and information that the government 

supplies. 

Mr. Copps, did you want to— 

Mr. COPPS. Well, I very much agree with that. But I also would 

just add that until we get to that day when we have that capacity, 

we have all of these nontraditional stakeholders who don’t know 

what is going on at the FCC and don’t have the resources to hire 

a lobbyist or a law firm in Washington, D.C. Yet they are impacted 

daily by the decisions we make. 

So I think—and Chairman Genachowski is doing a sterling job 

of this. We are going to have hearings. We are going to be reaching 

out to minority groups. We are going to go to the inner city as well 


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as to rural America. We are going to talk with the disabilities communities. I have already been to Indian country, because the problems there are so glaring. 

So we really have to use every technology, every device, old-fashioned, new-fashioned, or whatever, to get the word out and get the 

participation of everybody in this broadband plan. Because, in the 

final analysis, the broadband plan ought to be of, by, and for the 

American people. 

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I have about 10 seconds, if you would like to 

add. 

Ms. CLYBURN. He is allowing me to go out of order of seniority. 

One of the things that I am excited about is it was mentioned 

about the field hearings. I am planning a field hearing for October 

6 in Charleston, South Carolina. And one of the things that I am 

keenly tuned in on is I am trying to do it from a two-fold perspective, meaning doing some work in the city where you have some 

problems of maybe underserved challenges and going out into rural 

areas where there are unserved challenges and speaking with some 

friends and church members who—some of whom are friends, also. 

I don’t want to say that I am excluding. And librarians. My mother 

was a librarian. All of these groups that you mentioned. All of 

these persons need to be engaged in these conversations, and then 

and only then can we maybe get the ground swell that we need to 

promote this broadband universe in which we know the public can 

benefit. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mrs. Christensen. 

We are expecting a series of recorded votes on the floor starting 

potentially within the next 10 minutes, and Mr. Stearns and I were 

talking about a way that we might be able to facilitate the questioning of witnesses in the hope that perhaps we could finish our 

work here before these votes begin. We have a large number of 

them pending, and it may be an hour or more before the votes are 

completed, and we were thinking that perhaps we could ask members if they would be willing just to ask one question each. Would 

that be satisfactory? If anybody seriously objects to that, this might 

not—Mr. Barton. 

Mr. BARTON. Reserving the right to object. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Please, Mr. Barton. 

Mr. BARTON. I am not aware, what is the availability of the Commission? Do they have to leave at a time certain? 

Mr. BOUCHER. I am not aware that they do. We could have them 

go to lunch and then come back. My concern is that I think many 

members may have flights scheduled for the early afternoon in anticipation of the House adjourning for the week, which we are going 

to be doing by about 1:30 or so. 

Mr. BARTON. Continuing my right to reserve, Mr. Chairman, I 

will do whatever you and Mr. Stearns have agreed to. But I think 

it is so rare that we get the entire Commission here. If members 

self-select not to question, then that is their decision to self-select 

and, in my case, go to Texas as opposed to stay here and be intellectually stimulated. But I would encourage the chairman and the 

subcommittee ranking member to allow those members who wish 

to fully participate past the departure time of the Congress or the 

adjournment time to do so, because we don’t get the entire ComVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:51 Aug 15, 2012 Jkt 074098 PO 00000 Frm 00092 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A098.XXX A098

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mission very often. And there are some new ideas. I listened in my 

office to all the statements of the Commissioners, and I would— 

again, if you and Cliff have made a decision, I am not going to object. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Would the gentleman yield to me? 

Mr. BARTON. Sure. 

Mr. BOUCHER. We haven’t made a decision. We decided we would 

ask the members what they wanted. 

Mr. BARTON. My preference would be to let each member ask at 

least 5 minutes. That is a preference. 

Mr. BOUCHER. And I agree with what the gentleman’s saying 

about the unusual importance of this hearing as compared perhaps 

to some others. We will proceed in regular order. I think we have 

now consumed most of the time we have remaining anyway. 

The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Barton—— 

Mr. BARTON. This happens to be my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER [continuing]. Is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. BARTON. I am not going to try to use all 5 minutes. 

I am going to list the things I want to talk about and then let 

the Commissioners, primarily the chairman—I want to talk about 

transparency. I will just say that I heard what Commissioner 

Copps said. I agree with him. I would be happy to work with the 

Commission to put together an amendment or a draft bill to try to 

get the subcommittee and full committee—I think you all should be 

able to communicate without having to go into formal session. So 

however we can facilitate that, I support that. 

As I said in my opening statement, I think we need to have more 

transparency in the Commission, and Mr. Stearns and I have introduced a bill to that effect, and we would ask the Commission to 

comment on that bill to see if it needs to be improved. 

My first question is to the new chairman on the spectrum auctions. We don’t have much new spectrum in the pipeline. We have 

a bill in on it that is a bipartisan bill on the spectrum inventory. 

Do you have any thoughts that you would share with the committee on what conditions, if any, if we try to reauction the D Block 

that has already failed once? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Two points quickly, Mr. Barton. One, on 

transparency and FCC reform, I look forward to working with you 

as part of our process to make sure that we have an FCC that is 

open, transparent, fair, data driven, and that really is the expert 

agency that benefits the entire country. 

On spectrum quickly, second, there is a demand crunch coming. 

We need to put more spectrum in the marketplace, and the pipeline is not what it needs to be. And so I would welcome passage 

of the inventory bill, and our role in that and the NTIA’s role in 

that I think will be very important. 

Third, with respect to the D Block, that is a spectrum that we 

can get on the market soon. The challenge of the public safety component of it is real. I am focused on making sure that we get it 

right. I don’t want to rush into a failed auction, but I also think 

we need to move quickly to address the issues Commissioner Copps 

as acting chairman caused the agency to begin work on. 

The agency has jumped into it. The D Block, of course, comes up 

often in connection with our broadband plan. So we don’t have anyVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:51 Aug 15, 2012 Jkt 074098 PO 00000 Frm 00093 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A098.XXX A098

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thing now in terms of what we will be looking at, but the staff is 

hard at work. 

Mr. BARTON. Do you have a time frame to put some proposals out 

there for the D Block? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. It is something that is being actively looked 

at, and I think no later than in connection with the broadband plan 

we will have an option. 

Mr. BARTON. Are you talking about February? Is that because 

the broadband plan I think is—— 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Yes. No later than February we will have 

real options that we are looking at and considering, because of the 

nature of the spectrum and its relationship to a national broadband 

strategy. 

Mr. BARTON. My last question deals with universal service reform. I don’t think it is any surprise to anybody who has followed 

this committee that I am a big proponent of that. The universal 

service fund continues to grow. The costs continue to go up. Do you 

have any—again, this is to you, Mr. Chairman. Do you have any 

thoughts on reform measures with regards to the universal service 

fund? And, do you have a timetable for the Commission considering 

those? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. The timetable will be similar. No later than 

February in connection with the national broadband strategy will 

we have options to look at and policies to consider. Because USF 

and broadband will be an important part of the discussion. Many 

people are raising it, including many on the committee. 

As I said before, there are real opportunities and challenges both 

with the universal service fund. I don’t think I need to repeat 

them. You know them extremely well. It is a complex challenge on 

which there are some areas in which there is beginning to be some 

consensus, but more work needs to be done to have universal service reform that works well for the country. I know the committee 

is looking at this as well, and we will continue to be a resource for 

the committee as it does its work. 

Mr. BARTON. My next question, if you don’t want to answer this, 

you don’t have to. Do you have a frequent conversation with the 

President? I mean, are you and he in communications so that we 

know that the FCC has got a direct line to the White House? 

Which we haven’t had with some other chairmen in the past. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. I don’t think anyone speaks with the President as frequently as they might have in the past. 

Mr. BARTON. All right. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Barton. 

The gentlelady from Florida, Ms. Castor, is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Ms. CASTOR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman Genachowski, I appreciate your words on the spectrum; and I would like to hear from the other members concerning 

the spectrum, what your thoughts are, what your concerns are as 

we look at greater availability for new and innovative services. 

Mr. COPPS. Well, I certainly share the thought of several of my 

colleagues, that we are in dire need of a spectrum inventory. I 

think as of 12:20 this afternoon on the 17th of the month, there is 

nobody in the United States who has the foggiest idea of how much 


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spectrum is being used and utilized and if it is being utilized 24 

hours a day or 10 seconds a day. So we really need to get a handle 

on this. 

We need to make sure our auction system is working properly 

and is inviting the participation of small as well as large competitors. We need to make sure that spectrum is being used and utilized; and, if it is not, I think we ought to be looking at some alternatives for other uses of that spectrum that may have been licensed. 

So these are a few of the things that I think we need to be concerned about. But what I am hearing from all of the folks testifying 

on the broadband workshops is that, in many ways, this comes 

down to a question of is there spectrum to do what we need to do. 

Mr. MCDOWELL. I would welcome an inventory on spectrum, absolutely. We need to be careful what our expectations are once we 

get that inventory. Given any particular point on the map, it is 

very difficult to determine who is using what spectrum for what 

purpose, and I want to make sure I am briefed so I can allow time 

for Commissioner Baker, who is the true expert in government use 

of the spectrum, since she managed that as acting head of NTIA. 

But we have a lot of spectrum that is not on line yet, from our 

AWS 1 auction in 2006. That is not yet built out. We have the 700 

megahertz auction. Remember, the DTV transition just happened. 

We just had that auction last year. That is not built out. We have 

a lot of work to do in the television white spaces. 

All of this is fabulous spectrum. The propagation characteristics 

there are that signals can travel a long distance and penetrate 

buildings; and it can be a fabulous asset, a great arrow in our quiver to resolve the broadband problem in unserved America. 

But let’s be careful of what we want to do. Let’s make sure we 

are flexible. Let’s not try to micromanage the use of that spectrum. 

Let’s make sure we require it to be used. But by the time we implement a government-mandated business plan, sometimes the market moves past that, as we have found in several instances. So we 

need to be careful. 

Also, to be mindful that our spectral efficiency in this country 

doubles every two and a half years, sort of tied to Moore’s law of 

computing. So that since Marconi’s first transmission by radio or 

invention of the radio, we are now two trillion times more spectrally efficient. So keep that in mind. 

Ms. CLYBURN. I agree with my colleagues that we need to understand what is out there and how it is being used. It is critical. It 

is really critical that we have detailed data so we can allocate more 

effective—allocate spectrum and allocate it effectively. 

Ms. BAKER. I will agree with all my colleagues. But where we 

need to go is we need to have a more efficient, we need to have 

a more transparent and a more flexible spectrum policy. 

And I think there is an awful lot of things we can do and an 

awful lot of ways we can work with our government partners as 

well. I think the government often hears government is inefficient, 

but DARPA spends more money on R&D in this area than probably 

anyone else. They have come up with a bunch of things like dynamic spectrum access and multi-antenna signal processing that 

are going to help us make more efficient use of what we have. 


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But I agree with Commissioner McDowell. We have a lot that is 

in the pipeline. We have the 700 megahertz. We have the AWS. We 

have the BRS spectrum. That is all coming up that is not fully 

built out. But we need to lay the plans for the step after that, and 

so I am committed to and look forward to working with you on that 

plan. 

Ms. CASTOR. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Ms. Castor. 

The gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Upton, is recognized for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. UPTON. Thank you, and I will be very quick. Two brief questions and a comment. 

First of all, I want to make sure that you all know that I believe, 

on the wireless side, that folks are very satisfied. 

We will deal with Mr. Markey’s adaptor. I will make sure that 

he has got plenty, both in Massachusetts and here and both when 

he is in the car as well as in his office. But we don’t want to fix 

what is broken. I don’t believe that there is an effort that we need 

to pursue to regulate. 

My two questions are these: Regardless of which position one 

might take on the issue of special access market, all sides now 

seem to be asking the Commission to collect data on the market, 

and it seems to me that it is time to get the facts on the table, especially before you begin to work on the broadband plan. 

So, Mr. Chairman, do you plan to collect special access data from 

the carriers and interested parties? And, if so, when? That is question number one, in the interest of time. 

Just as we deal with the challenges of the transition to digital, 

we have a couple of areas, I would presume, around the country, 

certainly in my district where it seems like those challenges are a 

little bit high, of if we are able to accommodate perhaps a burst 

of additional power on the digital signal so that folks can get from 

WGN or some of our local channels that may be at the very edge 

would be helpful. 

I look forward to hearing from you in terms of how you are dealing with those special, hopefully unique, cases; and I yield to you 

to respond. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. On special access, it is something that we are 

hearing a lot about from multiple parties. The staff at the FCC has 

been working on the data issue for at least as long as I have been 

there. We haven’t decided whether we will need more data in order 

to reach a decision on special access, so the next step that you will 

hear from us is our view on whether we have enough data to make 

a decision. 

On digital television, I have instructed the media bureau to work 

diligently, closely with every broadcaster in the country that has 

specific issues. The first challenge that Acting Chairman Copps at 

the time and Commissioner McDowell led so well was the overall 

challenge for the country. Now it is a lot of case-by-case problems 

that come up. The staff of the media bureau is showing up every 

day working with broadcasters to try to address specific issues, and 

we will work with you. 

Mr. UPTON. Thank you. 

Yield back. 


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Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Mr. Upton. 

The gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. Markey, is recognized 

for 5 minutes. 

Mr. MARKEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much; and thank 

you, Commissioner Genachowski, and, again, thank you for your 

brilliant decision in hiring Colin. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Thank you for your gift. 

Mr. MARKEY. You know, we talk enough about public option, but 

I would like to talk about the portability option, which is this 

charger issue. You know, if you buy a new TV, guess what, when 

you plug it in, you don’t need anything else. It works just like the 

old TV. If you buy a new radio, you plug it in. You don’t need anything else. It works just like the old. You buy a new car, guess 

what? They don’t change the way you put gasoline into the car. It 

all is the same. It is kind of a standard—you don’t have to buy 

some new adapter to put the gasoline in your brand-new car, just 

like the old car. 

So here you have this thing where tens of millions of these devices have to be purchased and then thrown away within like a 

year and a half or so as you get your new device. That is a pretty 

huge environmental problem across the country to dispose of all 

this stuff, plus it is just a pain, just a pain to have to go through 

it. 

So my hope is that the Commission could look at this. My intention is to introduce legislation on it. I am going to work with Mr. 

Doyle and work with other members to kind of track down this 

issue and just to make it easier for people so they don’t have to 

fork over this extra dough. So if I could work with the Commissioners, would you be willing to work with me on that? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. We would be happy to work on it. I think 

simply raising the issue has done the first step, which is challenging our great technology industry to come up with a solution. 

I am glad that you have raised it. I have raised it with some technology companies. There is a desire to solve this; and looking at 

what, if anything, the FCC can do to incentivize some innovation 

to reduce the number of chargers would be something we would be 

happy to work on. 

Mr. MARKEY. As the chairman of the Environment Subcommittee 

here, it is just becoming a huge environmental issue that is unnecessary. There has got to be some little fix that we can put in that 

makes the old adapter still usable. It doesn’t seem that complicated. 

And, second, you know, I am developing legislation to create an 

E-Rate 2.0 for broadband; and I noted that the Commission held 

a workshop on August 20 to identify new issues. Can you share 

your thoughts on updating and refining the E-Rate program to capitalize on broadband? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. We are looking, as part of the broadband 

strategy, in part because Congress told us to, not only at employment and adoption but also what the statute called national purposes, how to make sure broadband serves health care, education, 

and energy. The E-Rate has been such an extraordinary success, 

let’s lead the world in education, libraries, hospitals when it comes 


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to broadband; and we would be more than happy to be a resource 

to you in thinking through the best way to make that happen. 

Mr. MARKEY. That would help me a lot, Mr. Chairman. 

The thought that I had back in January and February of this 

year was, here is this great stimulus package. There is a 

broadband component to it. Why don’t we just have a plan for the 

Nation? And so that is why I added that amendment into the bill, 

so that we could all step back, put together this plan, affect the 

whole country; and it goes everything from schools to hospitals but 

every aspect of our life. 

Let’s be honest. The only reason we have a smart grid is that we 

had a Telecommunications Act of 1996. Because, without 

broadband deployed across the whole country, you can’t manage 

the wind and the solar coming in from the prairies and the desert. 

You can’t manage it coming in from the ocean. You can’t manage 

it coming off of people’s roofs. You need the broadband telecommunications network to manage it. 

So we need a vision here, you know? That is challenging the 

American people to accomplish it. 

I thank you for the great work you are doing and all the other 

members. I know other members want to ask questions, so I will 

yield back the balance of my time. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Mr. Markey. 

The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Shimkus, is recognized for 5 

minutes. 

Mr. SHIMKUS. And I will be real brief, too, Mr. Chairman. Thank 

you for the time again. Thank you for the Commission’s presence 

here. And I think we have got a lot of optimism going into the future. 

For my friend, Mr. Markey, I will help him create a new Federal 

agency, and maybe we can move some stimulus dollars for this 

adapter program. This is most ridiculous thing I have heard of. 

Handsets are lighter, more efficient. We can’t have an adapter 

based upon 15 years ago when the cell phones were like bricks, and 

that is what will happen if we direct a solution to this. We have 

got to let the market do that. 

But I do agree with Ed on the broadband deployment and the 

mapping issue. And I am always angry when we compare apples 

to oranges and we talk about the OECD. In comparing European 

countries, which are small, I always talk about being stationed in 

Germany and being able to drive across the entire country in like 

3 hours; and I can’t get from one part of my congressional district 

to another in 3 hours. Compare our ability to deploy with the European miles. 

So, please, when we move forward, let’s get off this Europe is 

this, Europe is that. Let’s get like, we say in the health care debate, a unique American experience that meets our needs and not 

compare us to other places in the world. 

And I am just going to end with that, and I don’t have a question, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Shimkus. 

The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Doyle, is recognized for 

5 minutes. 

Mr. DOYLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 


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Mr. Chairman, in 2003, and again in 2007, the FCC, on a unanimous bipartisan basis, voted to recommend to Congress that statutory limitations on low-power FM radio stations are contrary to the 

public interest and should be repealed. I have introduced legislation, H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act, that will do just 

that. We have already had a hearing, and it is my hope that our 

esteemed chairman will allow us to proceed to a markup and pass 

this legislation soon. 

I know that from the vote in 2007 Commissioner Copps and 

McDowell voted in the affirmative, but we have three new Commissioners. So just a simple yes or no from our three new Commissioners. Do you also recommend that Congress lift the restrictions 

on LP/FM stations to so-called third adjacent protections? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Based on what I know, yes. 

Mr. DOYLE. Commissioner Clyburn? 

Ms. CLYBURN. Yes. 

Ms. BAKER. Yes. 

Mr. DOYLE. Okay. It is unanimous, Mr. Chairman. Thank you 

very much. 

One other quick question, because I know we are being pushed. 

In 2007, many of us have communicated an interest in convening 

a special access proceeding, and I can remember a letter that 

Chairman Markey sent back in the spring of 2007 urging action on 

that proceeding. Since then, the issue has laid dormant. 

Commissioner Copps, I know you were supportive of learning 

more; and I know, Commissioner McDowell, back in June of 2007 

you wrote a letter back to the chairman saying that you wanted a 

fresh record. My question is, now that both sides have been willing 

to provide the right data—and this question is to all the Commissioners—will you support finishing that inquiry that has been sitting there since 2007 sometime before we all die, preferably by the 

end of the year? 

Mr. MARKEY. Will the gentleman yield? 

Mr. DOYLE. Yes. 

Mr. MARKEY. Thank you. And I am closer to that point in time 

than you are, so thank you. A well-raised question. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. Yes. It is an important topic that has been 

raised with us by so many people that special access is a key part. 

It is an important part of the communications ecosystem, and we 

do need to make sure that it is competitive. So it is something that 

the staff is actively working on and we will be addressing soon. 

Mr. COPPS. I remember signing a letter to then subcommittee 

Chairman Markey that September, 2007, would suit me just fine 

for deciding special access; and I remain of that opinion. 

Mr. MCDOWELL. I think we should resolve the issue. It is very 

important to broadband. I think what we need, though, and I have 

been asking this for 2 years and it could have been done by now, 

a long time ago, is a very granular analysis of data gathering. Not 

just both sides. There are more than two sides on this. There are 

multiple sides with new entrants as well. So a cell site by cell 

site—I will say it again. A cell site by cell site, building by building 

data of who is providing special access where and at what cost is 

the exact same information that the Department of Justice had in 


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the bill. I see mergers of many, many years ago. It is completely 

doable. 

I have been talking to our new head of Office of Strategic Planning, Paul de Sa, about this. And I think that is the only way that, 

if the Commission does anything in the future, that is sustainable 

on appeal. So I am saying it again. 

Ms. CLYBURN. This is a complicated issue that I look forward to 

working on with speedy resolution involving all stakeholders and 

what I know will be a data-driven process. 

Ms. BAKER. Sheis right. Especially as a new Commissioner, it is 

complex, it is contentious, but we need to solve it. We need to solve 

it as rapidly as we can. Because it is an input to an array of the 

competitive services, including wireless. So I think we all are committed to better data and making a decision quickly. 

Mr. DOYLE. Great. And just very finally and quickly, I want to 

put a plug in for asking the Commission to please take a look at 

wireless microphones in the 700 megahertz. This has been brought 

up as a key public safety and public interest to the community. 

And I hope that we will address that soon, too. 

Mr. Chairman, I thank you. I yield back. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Doyle. 

We now have less than 5 minutes remaining to cast votes on the 

floor. Mr. Deal, do you want to ask your questions? 

Mr. DEAL. I would like very much to. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Mr. Deal. 

Mr. DEAL. Georgia football hangs in the balance. 

Recently, the Georgia Athletic Association entered into a 10-year 

contract with an interscholastic organization for all exclusive rights 

to their broadcast and to their paraphernalia, et cetera. That company, in turn, entered into a contract with Cox Communications, 

the sister—the primary station being in Atlanta, Georgia. They 

have also now apparently refused to enter into contract agreements 

with traditional radio stations that have, for as long as 60 years 

in some cases, been able to broadcast Georgia football. 

Now, the result of that is, is that the FCC has approved the location and sale of radio stations from one small community into others. For example, now Cox Communications owns five radio stations in Athens, Georgia, the home of the University of Georgia. 

They have located towers as a result of those consolidations and 

ownerships of these other stations within 65 miles of the existing 

broadcast stations’ reach; and, as a result of that 65-mile limitation, which is in the content owners’ contract, the effect is that 

these historically broadcast stations have now been deprived of this 

ability to broadcast Georgia football games. 

Now, my question is, does the FCC take into account any of 

these so-called contractual obligations that will infringe on existing 

broadcasters when you approve of a new license or a transfer of a 

license? Do you in fact look at what the effect of it is? And, in many 

instances, it is only the town that is supposed to be the basis of 

the license. The only time that they have any relevance is when, 

every hour, they announce their call letters and they use that 

town’s name, because there is nothing located in that town whatsoever. 


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That is my first question: Do you have the ability to look at those 

kind of tying agreements in broadcast content when you approve 

the location of stations? 

And the second one is, is there any jurisdiction in the FCC to 

look at what might be considered unfair trade practices that might 

monopolize the public air waves? Or is this something that is within the Federal Trade Commission’s jurisdiction? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. If I could, let me pledge to get back to you 

on the answers to some of the technical questions about FCC jurisdiction. At a higher level, you are raising issues about a changing 

media landscape, competition in this new environment, the importance of local broadcasting, and the real interests of consumers and 

viewers. 

One of the things that I am trying to make sure we do is to make 

sure that we have an FCC that is smart about the marketplace, 

smart about the consumer needs, smart about viewer needs. So let 

me—I understand that this is an important issue, and we will follow up with you to understand it better and answer your questions 

about jurisdiction. 

Mr. DEAL. Mr. Chairman, could we be allowed to formalize these 

into formal questions to submit to the panel? 

Mr. BOUCHER. Without objection, the record of this hearing will 

remain open for a period of 2 weeks, during which time members 

can submit written questions to our witnesses. 

Mr. DEAL. Thank you. 

I yield back. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you, Mr. Deal. 

Mr. Buyer, we have got about a minute left on the floor. 

Mr. BUYER. I am going to be really quick so I can let all of you 

go. 

We are going down the line, yes or no: Do you support exclusive 

handset arrangements? Yes or no? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. It doesn’t lend itself to a yes or no. I apologize. 

Mr. BUYER. Keep going. 

Mr. COPPS. I would give the same answer. 

Mr. BUYER. That is a nonanswer. Keep going. 

Mr. MCDOWELL. Yes. 

Ms. CLYBURN. The same answer as the Chair. 

Mr. BUYER. I have got three nonanswers and a yes. 

Ms. BAKER. Yes. 

Mr. BUYER. Two yeses and three nonanswers. 

All right. On the issue that was brought up with regard to spectrum auction, you had mentioned that the 06 has not been a buildout. Hereis the question: I have a real problem, i.e., the Federal 

Government. Fidelity I think is a tremendous—it is a value of the 

virtue of integrity. And if the Federal Government—if we are not 

going to have fidelity and uphold our commitments to companies 

that actually give us money and we don’t free up that spectrum, 

should we consider a government penalty? 

Right down the line. Should we consider a government penalty, 

in other words, pay interest to these companies for the use of their 

money? 


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Mr. GENACHOWSKI. I am not sure I understand the question. If 

companies don’t comply with FCC rules, they should—— 

Mr. BUYER. How about, we are anxious to penalize companies, 

And when it comes to auction, we will take their money, but we 

are not freeing up spectrum. We are not—agencies are standing in 

the way. DOD, for example. So should we be paying interest on the 

use of this money when they pay it in? 

I am curious. Right down the line, yes or no. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. I would like the chance to speak with you 

further about it, because—— 

Mr. BUYER. A nonanswer. Go down the line. 

Mr. COPPS. Nonanswer. 

Mr. MCDOWELL. Yes. 

Ms. CLYBURN. Nonanswer. 

Ms. BAKER. Yes. 

Mr. BUYER. Wow. Interesting. 

The other is, Ms. Clyburn, I spent a couple days with your parents not long ago, a couple years ago, and you have probably heard 

this before. You look like your mom, you sound like your mom, and 

that is a compliment. 

Ms. CLYBURN. Thank you. 

Mr. BUYER. Everybody thinks it is your dad, but it is your mom. 

That is what I learned quickly by spending a couple days with her. 

When you go to Charleston and you do this little hearing, and 

I want you to think about the unserved, whether it is on Johns Island, Edisto, Walhalla. So when you are thinking about the underserved, think in your mind we do not want to bring shame into the 

system. Shame is, is when you—if you are at a buffet and 80 percent of the people have already eaten but 20 percent haven’t had 

a chance to eat, you don’t go get seconds and get in line before people who haven’t eaten. Right? That is shameful conduct in America. 

So as you make these decisions about the difference between 

unserved and underserved, let’s make sure that we are fair and equitable and we don’t embrace shameful conduct and behavior by us. 

Ms. CLYBURN. Absolutely. 

Mr. BUYER. The last thing is, in a market-based approach, please 

do this for me when you think about these judgments. Focus on 

consumer demand, and let supply and price work itself out. Okay? 

Ms. CLYBURN. I appreciate your guidance. 

Mr. BUYER. And I see the power of South Carolina on this Commission, so I will be keeping my eye on it. Thank you. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Buyer; And thanks to 

all the members for being expeditious. We, unfortunately, do have 

at least one other member who wants to propound questions. We 

now must recess the subcommittee. I would suggest that each of 

you have a marvelous lunch, and please return here at about a 

quarter to 2:00, and at that point in time well continue our hearing. It should not take very long after that. 

The hearing stands in recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. BOUCHER. The subcommittee will come to order. 

I want to thank the members of the FCC for their patience. I am 

sorry that we were delayed a little bit longer than I had predicted. 


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That is usually the case. But you have been very patient. I hope 

you enjoyed lunch, and welcome back. 

The gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Walden, is next to be recognized, and he is recognized for 5 minutes. 

Mr. WALDEN. I want to thank the Commissioners. I have enjoyed 

getting to know some of you over the years, and I look forward to 

spending more time with you. And I appreciate the cordiality that 

we are seeing on display today, your willingness to work together 

and talk together; and I realize, with many new members and leadership, it is a new FCC. 

I had not planned to get into this issue today, but the letter that 

has come forward from interest groups prompted me to do some research in the last 24 hours. 

It is troubling what I have been reading regarding a gentleman 

who has now been given a special position at the Commission, head 

of diversity and special counsel position, Mr. Lloyd. And I was just 

reading a document from the Center for American Progress where 

he outlines his various views, an article of July 24, 2007. And, you 

know, I think I have shared with some of you that my wife and 

I were in small market radio ownership for nearly 22 years. My father helped put stations on the air back in the 1930s and believed 

very strongly in the responsibility of licensees to serve their communities. 

So when I read that this gentleman says that commercial signal 

broadcasters want to be trustees of public property but without responsibility, I gotta tell you, I take offense to that. I don’t think I 

am taking that out of context. It is written right here. 

And some of the other comments that have recently been made 

available to me show me that you have got a person in there who 

I don’t recall over the years the FCC having that strongly opinionated a person in a position like that. The FCC to me has always 

been a very professional organization that didn’t go down this path. 

So I find this very offensive. 

Chairman, you and I had a very good conversation about fairness 

doctrine. You know my feelings on that. I received your comments, 

and I understand you are for not putting it back in, and I am not 

for putting it back in. It didn’t work when it was there. I happen 

to believe it is probably unconstitutional. 

The information from Mr. Lloyd would indicate he is not for putting fairness doctrine back in. He is just for a whole different 

scheme that gets to the same outcome. And his appointment occurred after our conversation. This is all bubbling up right now. 

But you want to talk about czars, I hope we don’t have a government speech czar in place. It is going to drive a whole different 

mechanism through the rule making and challenging the licensees. 

I am just trying to figure out what his position is, what his responsibilities are. Will we have an opportunity to ask him questions about these issues? I have got to tell you, I am out of the 

business now, but I am deeply offended by what I read here and 

troubled. And I open it up to any of you to comment. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. First, I did enjoy our meeting. I mentioned 

when you were out of the room earlier it led to some constructive 

follow-up. We took your idea around—I happened to have the 

media bureau staff meet with broadcast engineers that actually 


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produced some concrete suggestions. It relates to some of what the 

goals are with the staff of the FCC. 

In my opinion, an expert agency needs to have a broad range of 

people with different backgrounds, different expertise; and we 

talked about some of those people when we got together, people 

from the business community, a vibrant exchange of ideas internally. 

I understand some of the concerns you have, and I can say a couple of things. 

One is, to the extent there is a concern that the Commission 

would engage in any censorship of broadcasters or anyone in the 

media on the basis of political views and opinions, The answer is, 

we won’t. The first amendment prohibits it. It won’t happen. 

To the extent that there are concerns—you have indicated about 

the Commission not being aware of the economic conditions and 

challenges that broadcasters face. I can assure you that anything 

the Commission does would take that into account. The Commission needs to understand what is going on with broadcasters. 

Similarly, I appreciate your point about broadcasters and special 

responsibilities; and I know so many broadcasters take that seriously, provide very valuable services to the community. Americans 

value it, local news and information or emergency alerts, other 

emergency information, traffic, weather. So I actually think there 

is a lot of agreement around core principles. 

Diversity is another area where for a very long time there has 

been—I think there still is—a bipartisan consensus that it is an 

important objective of the communications policies and the FCC. 

The diversity goals are mentioned in hundreds of FCC decisions. 

They are explicitly in the Communications Act. The Supreme Court 

has acknowledged that it is a role, and the idea of having diversity 

as an objective to the FCC and having staff focused on it seem to 

be a natural extension. 

Mr. WALDEN. I do not take exception to that. I just begin to read 

what he said. There are video comments about Hugo Chavez. I 

mean, there are some pretty outrageous things being said, having 

been written in the past, and that troubles me, that somebody that 

is that opinionated to the extreme element that he is, from my perspective, it is not going to bring balance to that diversity position 

that you created. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. A couple of points, if I could. 

One is, the policy of the Commission is made by the Chairman 

and the Commissioners. Staff have many different ideas all over 

the map. 

Mr. WALDEN. Having been a licensee, we don’t talk to the Commissioners. We talk to the staff. You know what I am saying? They 

have extraordinary power in any agency to tilt the rules, to interpret them, to interact with different publics. And this just seems 

to be a very biased person. We all have our biases, but this one just 

seems to be out there. 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. The other thing that I wanted to make sure 

that you knew is, as I said before, Mark Lloyd is not working on 

these issues. He is not working on fairness doctrine issues, censorship issues. He is not working on these issues. He is working on 

opportunity issues primarily now around broadband adoption, foVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:51 Aug 15, 2012 Jkt 074098 PO 00000 Frm 00104 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A098.XXX A098

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cusing on making sure that broadband is available to all Americans. 

Mr. WALDEN. So he is not going to be working on the license 

issues, none of those things? 

Mr. GENACHOWSKI. He is not working on those issues. No. 

He is someone who is well-known to many people in the communications industry for a long time. He has been involved in these 

issues. He is known to virtually all of us here on the panel. He has 

taught at MIT. And, as I said, he is someone who, of course, we 

would make available to you or anyone to speak with if you have 

any concerns, as we would any staffer at the FCC. 

Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Copps? 

Mr. COPPS. I would just encourage you to take advantage of that 

offer to get to know him a little bit better. Every human being is 

a totality with a lot of different experiences and a lot of different 

ideas. 

We have worked very closely with Mr. Lloyd when he was at the 

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights—an incredible organization 

that is—under the leadership of Wade Henderson. He was of great 

help during the DTV transition with helping mobilize a lot of nontraditional stakeholders and helping get the word out on DTV. 

So he has a very distinguished record. Chairman Genachowski 

said nothing that I would disagree with. I would agree with everything that he said. We will be—the Commissioners will be making 

the decisions. 

But we want a place of intellectual ferment and different ideas. 

We have an organization of 1,800 people. I don’t think everybody 

is going to go in lockstep. And then we rely on the judgment of the 

organization and the people at the top of the organization to make 

intelligent decisions about where we are going. 

But as for the personal characteristics of this particular individual, I think they are of the highest; and I, for one, am pleased 

that he is at the FCC. 

Mr. WALDEN. Could I hear from the other Commissioners, sir? 

Mr. BOUCHER. Well, you are going on 9 minutes now, Mr. Walden. But if others want to comment very briefly, that would be 

good. 

Mr. McDowell, if you have a comment. 

Mr. MCDOWELL. Well, first are of all, I have met Mr. Lloyd in 

the context of my work at the FCC and in the work of the digital 

TV transition, so that is the only real context that I know him. He 

did, with the general counsel, have the courtesy to come to me last 

week. We had a very nice meeting. We talked about what his mission, what his portfolio would be at the Commission, and it was as 

the Chairman had outlined. 

I share your concern with the substance of his writings and what 

he has been reported as saying. I hope that does not become Commission policy. I certainly will be very vigilant in defending the 

first amendment and the rights of broadcasters and those who 

speak over the airwaves in that regard. 

At the same time, I do think that the Chairman and CEO of the 

FCC does have the prerogative to hire folks he wants to. 

At the same time, to your point, the career staff or staff below 

the Commissioner level can have great influence without us knowVerDate Mar 15 2010 04:51 Aug 15, 2012 Jkt 074098 PO 00000 Frm 00105 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 E:\HR\OC\A098.XXX A098

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ing sometimes; and that should be maybe part of FCC reform, to 

make sure it is as transparent an agency as possible and take the 

Chairman at his word that he will work in that direction. He has 

certainly taken some steps in that regard. But we will all be watching and mindful, and sometimes just shining a spotlight on an 

issue or concern can be very curative and very positive. 

Thank you. 

Mr. BOUCHER. Thank you very much, Mr. Walden. 

Well, I think we have answered this question. 

I want to say thank you to each of the Commissioners for your 

attendance here today and for the testimony that you provided. 

And I can say that I have tremendous confidence in your ability to 

undertake the difficult challenges before you and make outstanding 

decisions, and we all on this subcommittee look forward to our coordination with you as together we seek to advance American telecommunications policy. 

We will be having other hearings. We will invite your attendance 

from time to time and be in formal conversation with you between 

those hearings. 

So with the thanks of this subcommittee for your appearance 

today, your outstanding testimony, this hearing stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 2:30 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

[Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:] 


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jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 228 here 74098A.162
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jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 229 here 74098A.163
223 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 230 here 74098A.164
224 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 231 here 74098A.165
225 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 232 here 74098A.166
226 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 233 here 74098A.167
227 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 234 here 74098A.168
228 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 235 here 74098A.169
229 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 236 here 74098A.170
230 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 237 here 74098A.171
231 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 238 here 74098A.172
232 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HEARINGInsert offset folio 239 here 74098A.173