investors, what are you going to tell them? ■u is going to happen to the conduit in the ground maybe recycle it, get pennies on the dollar, if there's copper in glass tubes, i don't know what we'll do, maybe run water in it, i don't know. we've got to get this right so o work together that we understand how important these conversations are in landing funding for the next year, but looking at the next five, 10 years, what do we do to land together to ensure that programsik across the country are going to hunger and demand for faster and faster and faster speeds which means you're going to continue to upgrade the revenue is going to be there to get that done. i think some good can happen, but it's one of the places we have to find a way to come together. i would ask. that's what i would understand.

we will always come to the table and we appreciate how you always go to the table and how u bring pk forward to working with you on connecting every american, every tribe and every corner of the country. so, i couldn't thank you more. >> well, thank you for your leadership. >> thanks, everybody. [applause]. [ina■■ib [inaudible conversations] >> hi, how are you? awesome.

sure, let me just go on the other side. got it? >>. >> i want to get everyone's attention and welcome senator marsha blackburn. many may not know this, but senator blackburn, it's hard for me not to say marsha. >> we've known each other since we were children. >> yes. >> we are from the same hometown. >> that's right, which is the center of the tv show hometown on hgtv and-- >> and ian you ever watch home and garden tv? you ever watch the show my hom

hometown. the young couple. raise your hands if you watch home and garden tv hometown", it's pretty amazing. it's about a city, a town of about 20,000, like small towns and cities it was in decline. there's a young couple who really wanted to revitalize the city they loved, the community they loved, and they were posting things on facebook and home and garden tv noticed it. andthem, would you do one of our fixer up shows like chip and joanne gaines in waco. so, social media that discovered our hometown that made "my hometown" that helped us revitalize our city. t's a great story. >> it is a great story and our parents knew one >> our fathers were in the same sunday school glass. >> right.

>> and i taught him ukulele lessons at the y when he was a but-- (laughter) >> yeah, i was hopingion. not the topic of the day. >> yes. >> well, getting to the topic of the day, you've been a emus leader on broadband and on removing the barriers to deploying broadband networks across the country. the incompas team has been working closely with your staff on real legislation that would help our tracks, go over the tracks, go under the tracks, along the tracks, to close the digital divide, and as many of you all know, whatever historical reasons, railroad tracks are kind of the dividing le in so many of our communities, and the only way to close the

digital divide in an affordable way is to permitting as fast as possible at a reasonable cost and an actual costnd unfortunately, too many examples are out there of those railroads who deliver critical goods and servis■÷ the sometimes they may not understand the broadband. oh, there we go. thot understand the broadband industry's need to move in a quick, timely way at a reasonable cost. talk a little about why y invol. >> right, i certainly will and thank you all for being here today and your interest. we think it's important. one of the things that we continue to focus on with our team is that you cannot have 21st century economic

development, health care, education, or law enforcementcc internet. it is a prerequisite and in my wonderful state of tennessee, one of the things that we have seen is some of these underserved or unserved areas are languishing and they're waiting for economic opportunity to come their direction. sod as we have worked on broadband expansion and closing this digital divide, tennessee has done a wonderful job, along with the grants and the money that we have put forward at the federal level, our statec0legisd 100 million dollars for grants that will go to helping communities close divide. and as we look at grant funding

and grant pools and things like that bd■s program, being certain that when people apply for this money, they're able to use this money. of you all just heard from senator lujan and as many of you know, he and i have been partnered on each were in the house and we're determined that we're going to get rid of hurdles. bureaucratic hurdles are such an impediment and they're such a source of frustration for communities that are trying to get access high speed internet to every premise. the rail hurdle because all of a sudden, it was you can't do anything that's going to interfere with operations and you can't do anything that is going to endanger customer safety,

points that we appreciate and fully unde by the way, we want to be paid for the crossings. so as s since i was in the house and dealt with pole attachments and the issues thought here we go. now it's going to be scooting under the rail bed and then a fee for so our legislation and lujan and i are working over in the house and we're trying to g this finalized so we can get it into a markup at commerce committee and then send it to t their actions. so as -- and i'm sure he talked with you about it, what we're trying to do is just get rid of these hurdles.

deal with the issue around customer safety, deal wh the issue around the rail bed safety and no interference of rail service and then make certain that there is a compensation model for crossing that track. and one of the things that i a clock and i believe in shot clocks when it comes to dling■ó i think that you have to give the bureaucrats a timeline and say you've got 30 days, whatever to make this decision, but then it's deemed done if you've not taken your a shot clock in place because many of these grants have to be used within time periods. and communities get grant and what happens when they get a grant is this they get their hopes up, and they're all

excited and they're ready to go. and the the-- i'm not here to be helpful to you bureaucrat to stymies the entire project. >> well, we an trying to help u deploy faster as a most coast effective way pos crossing the rail crossings legislation that we hope will soon be ready to be introduced on a bicameral, bipartisan basis in the state l >> that's right. >> one, we appreciate you. as you look at the overall infrastructure deed fundingnd as the 42 1/2 billion has now been allocated to the states, our state broadband offices have been putting plans in place. the math and the challenges are

occurring and allocations and awards will go out sometime starting later this year. anything you'd like to express about the process, principles and goals, tennessee has a great broadband office and they seem to be doingooke sure that of tennessee succeeds in the unfair, underserved deployment of broadband. >> yes, and we're really ntia right now because they should be involved in this deployment of funds with bead. and they've challenged virginia. they've challenged tennessee, what we are that they're trying to regulation, because they're being picky about low cast get it out there and have it accessible and and

usable and affordable and we arf this. i'm actually leading a this week to alan davidson, i think he was speaking with you all earlier today, but when these funds are there -- and ma times and of course, chip, you served in the house and you've worked with local communities and when they funding that is there for grants, or the ability to use it and they get their act together and they get these proposals and they put a lot of time into that and they're excited about doing their communities and broadband is one of those good things. i mean, it's taught us anything, you've got to have the access to high speed

internet. so, it is really frustrating to them when th meet a federal agency that will not make a decision in the timely manner so they can move forward w all of the work that they have to do in order to actually use the funds and it's frustrating for them. so, we're trying to make certain that a timeliness component with these funds. >> it seems like there's a common theme. how do quickly get funds-- the faster the funds, the faster the removal of barriers, th get good high speed internet. >> sure. >> one other area where you and senatolujan, senator markey have really been helpful is on the fcc proceeding on 12

gigahertz. >> yeah. ■ould8ç allow satellite and two-way high powered fixed broadband to could he exist, to share with good and rules to prevent interference, but you've said it's time to move and with the bead funding coming, with 500 megahertz ofnd there anything you'd like to say, you know, to the fcc about movingkly? >> where a minion. >> over there. [laughter] >> i know you're ut she knows there's always things that i have to say to the fcc and so enjoyed working with her and then have--

loved having gost all of that. you know, when you look at spectrum, that's such a valuable a and the 12-2 to 12-7 that we're discussing, this is something that of course you can-- you can share this. there is a way to do this andtr can utilize a portion of that w on that, too, because you're not going to be using it-- it's not like it going to be so highly trafficked a of that, you can put that rules of the road there. and the fcc should■"ov forward on how this is going to license out because i don't know of a

company-- i met every one of you in here looking for more spectrum. you would like to have the opportunity to bid on spectrum. an like wise, when you look at the mid band and you look at what can happen there with the spectrum that dod has,see, that's another area where we need to go in, inventory and recoup what is not being used because spectrum is too valuable to have people squatting on it and not utilizing it. and moving more of that to auction would allow for greater deployment and greater utilizion, especially when you look at the wireless and the options there are there, the way that way that 6g is developing. and the way you, as i said

earlier, economic th care, educ enforcement. you can't get there if you're not going to have access spectrum. and knowing that we have federal agencies and that's a place the ntia ought to be working is actually then developing a plan so that we can recoup and then take our actions so that the fcct30 move it to auction. >> as i look out in the audience, i see ga mississippi state grad. >> go dogs. where are you? right there■ ■1 in the room. >> it looks like-- so those mississippi state grads, i represented mississippi state. most of you may not know this, mississippi has more super computing capability than

anyplace in the south. georgia, florida --ississippi has two of them, the development and research center and then the space center. earlier today, we announced incompas is founding and establishing, creating a center for ai public policy and responsibility. we bring the f ai to places like tennessee and mississippi and how do we use our research, universities and and labs like at oak ridge-- >> and oak ridge is where we have the summit, which is the world's fastest computer, and we like having that capability there, and we have been doing round tables in quantum and on ai.

senator i-- and you'll hear from senator klobuchar, the no fakes bill, ai i entertainment community to protect the name, image, likeness and voice. so that's kin of the first bill out of the box, but in tennessee, i say we have the good, bad and the uglyai. a lot of concern from our entertainment community, but when you look at logistics, when you look at ma you look at with predictive diagnosis and disease analysis and protocols that are going to speed you through research, then this is where ai can play a role and we're really looking forward to the innovation that they are going to bring thatng

going to bring. now, i think it is going to be so important that we continue to work with o national labs and that we continue that research with our research institutions, ut has a lab over at oak ridge where we're doing some shared research and we've that's being done around some of the new work with space force, with hypersonics, and the utilizations that will be there for ai there are going to increase and really enhance our defense capabilities. t is exciting. >> and so we hope that our center will have leading

academic university industry, government leaders as part of that, and we'll want to engage with you, your stake holders in tennessee. >> how do we get ai right? how do we make sure that it's competitive innovation that we get the benefits and reduce the risk, and do it in a way that it's a light touch that allows the innovation that america has defined and americanen us the world leader in technology without doing it in a way that either stifles or stagnates or china and other rivals an opportunity to open a lead over us. >> right, and senator warner and i have filed a bill that tting. and we're just rolling that out. this is something we think is vitally important when we look alt china and the impact also, one of the things that we've been working on.

i've been working on this since 2012, peter welch and i, in the house, we didonline consumer privacy bill and i will tell you it's very frustrating to our colleagues in other countries that we have never established privacy and whether it's the eu, or i'm in the u.k. or ireland or meeting with our canadi, our australian colleagues, they said you all are all about a right to privacy, but you will not do privacy for the space. so establishing a right to privacy is the one thing that in every one hearings, at judiciary committee, the roundtable discussions that senator schumer has held, everybody, every one of those doing online privacy is going to be important for us to do. now, we're not going to do far

gdpr and they're having to go back and revisit that, but they've also done digital services, digital marketing ine that are slow to the game on that. and as we talk about data transfer and transfer rights and cross-border privacy plays into that and ai brings a new level to that and quantum and bring new capacity to that data which again says, you have to give people the right to protect their data in the virtual space. >> it is time for american policy makers or american policy to reestablish its leadership role in the world and not concede that to europe or other nations■/ so, we

look forward incompas, our members engaging with you as you all can tell and that the audience, marsha, senator blackburn is involved in all the critical issues. as a conservative republican, she surprises people with how many she can work with on the issues of broadband andnology. >> well, and if you really know, i say, look, i am always willing to have a conversation with someone that wants to make the american people better and my door is always open to that, and yes, all of this tech legislation kids online safety act, we've=ç worked together on that, and yes, it's important to work together in a bipartisan way because our nation has been kept free and

prosperous because we have always believed in robust respectful bipartisan debate and when you make decisions in a bipartisan manner, those are things that stick and you want , not the second, third, or fourth time. so as someone who conservative let's do it right the first time, we don't waste time, effort, energy and valuable resources. >> very well-said and we -- you know, the fact that you have so many good bipartisané relationships really is a tribute to your work and the principled approach you take and we're grateful with your relationship with ms closely wi and i have run a campaign on the broadband funding and deployment and i and

we look forward to working as an association, all of our member companies who are in tennessee and all around the ar advanced networks and creating advanced ai and applications of the future and the work force of the future. you're in a position to make a difference and we, thank you for coming here. >> absolutely. >> talking with us, that we could tell ourhometown story and our home state story. and importantly to work together to make policy. >> absolutely, t thank you. >> thank you all. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] >> c-span now, is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington. live and on demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of

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