WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) delivered the following remarks at a second Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing on oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this year.
As Delivered
Thank you Mr. Chairman, good morning. Good morning to the chairman and to the commissioners. Thanks for your service to America. I know we have disagreements on some of these policy issues but we do appreciate the meetings we’ve had, the discussions we’ve had and the service that you’re providing.
You all heard me all along talk about the need for broadband in rural America. As Chairman Pai saw firsthand when he joined me in eastern Oregon last year, far too many Oregonians still lack access to reliable broadband internet service. They are not alone. Millions of Americans who live in rural America face the same sort of internet dead zones.
The Universal Service Fund is an important component in building and maintaining rural broadband service. As policy makers, our primary goal is to ensure that federal resources are allocated responsibly.
In that vein, we have to have accurate broadband maps to properly identify those places. We all express that in different terms of a different emotion. I started way back then when the Obama stimulus was going through this committee and the money was going out the door before the maps determining where underserved and served areas were. I even had an amendment to fix that but that went down unfortunately. So here we are an administration or so later or two later, anyway.
This committee recently passed two bipartisan mapping bills aimed at improving data collection and mapping efforts at the FCC. But there are some actions at the Commission that do have some concern for us.
We learned from a press release yesterday that the FCC is establishing a new, $9 billion fund, with $1 billion specifically for precision agriculture. It sounds good. I support the build out in 5G for rural areas, but I have no details on this plan. I do have a lot of questions. I’m also unclear as to where the $9 billion dollars came from and while still waiting for the maps to be adequately be updated. As you all know, we are the committee of oversight for the Federal Communications Commission. We take our job seriously. I know you know that. You take yours seriously but we expect to have a little more notice, a little more communication on some of these big announcements. So, I think that would be helpful and probably alleviate some of the questions that will come today.
Since we obviously need to be crystal clear about our intentions for FCC action from this committee, I’d also like to note the importance of ensuring that Federal programs outside of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction remain consistent with the Committee’s goal of promoting private investment in broadband infrastructure deployment. Sometimes, various programs trying to achieve the same goal are not always in sync as you all know. Last Congress, we appropriated more than $600 million toward broadband funding programs. As that money begins making its way out the door, I welcome an update from the Commissioners here today as to how the FCC is consulting with other agencies as we required by legislation last year.
Switching gears, I’d like to turn to spectrum issues that have recently raised quite a bit of attention. The FCC announced that they would pursue a public auction of spectrum in the C-Band. As the law stands now, any proceeds from an FCC auction would go to the Treasury for deficit reduction, rather than going toward bipartisan priorities like facilitating the nationwide transition to Next-Generation 9-1-1. I think that it is important to legislate and look to my colleagues on the other side to work with us on this issue in the coming weeks. As we have these discussions, we must work with current licensees, potential bidders, and others so that this auction moves quickly, and we preserve U.S. wireless leadership.
I have sought for years to find consensus solutions to spectrum challenges. As Chairman Pai well knows, one of these issues I have been focused on is how to address certain challenges facing our public safety officials and telecommunications as we continue moving into a digital world, including finding a solution to the T-Band auction.
At the same time, it is also imperative that we put a stop to 9-1-1 fee diversion so that states stop using fees paid by consumers to support 9-1-1 services as slush funds for unrelated programs.
At the last FCC oversight hearing, and other times over the last several years, I have floated proposals as to how to delay or repeal the T-Band auction process and welcomed thoughts on how to reconcile these related issues. I have not been taken up on that offer, so I must say that I find it interesting that just this week Chairman Pai called on Congress to repeal the T-Band auction mandate, which was not coordinated nor discussed with me or my staff, despite our efforts to find a solution. So, with the deadline fast approaching, I would like to take this opportunity to again repeat my call to affected parties to work with us and my colleagues on finding a consensus solution on this issue.
I realize it’s a real one we need to address but there are other issues. I led the effort to implement the 9-1-1 commission findings that set up FirstNet and did the auction in 2012. I know these issues pretty well. We have to take care of our first responders, and we will but there are other issues associated with this set of issues that we also need to address and we need to work together on.
Mr. Chairman, with that I will yield you back six seconds and thank you.
