measure up. i urged lawmakers too carefully designed days decide the rates during the continuing implementation i figure for the opportunity. >> thank you very much. . .

>> this hearing will come to order. and we welcome all our guests. most particularly julius genachowski, chairman of the federal communications commission which is a, seminal in washington, d.c.. broadband is more thanatology. it is a platform for social

and economic opportunity. with broadband networks we can change the way we approach job creation, education, health care. >> entertainment, and other things. we can change the way we connect with our communities around the world. that's why i fought last year to make sure that the recovery act included programs designed to bring broadband to everybody in this country no matter who they are, and no matter where they live. it is an operating principle. the recovery act included two major initiatives. one, a grant program to spur the adoption and deployment of broadband. and secondly, a broadband plan for the nation developed by the fcc. it's the broadband plan that we are here to discuss today. that's why we're here.

who gets what, when, how long, all of that. the fcc released the national broadband plan last month, and like many of my colleagues, i join the chorus singing praises for this effort. i think the document is a great start but i have concerns, real concerns. back in october when we held a hearing to discuss the broadband grant programs, i spoke about the prospects for the broadband plan. i said i wanted to see concrete action on the day that the plan is delivered. because i believe we need real broadband solutions for real people. and we need them now, a mere menu of options for the fcc and the congress with far off time frames is to this senator, not good enough.

i believe that in october, and i believe it now. the report has over 200 recommendations. but it takes no action and suggests no action. it is long on vision, but it is short on tactics. so i'm going to challenge the fc. i'm going to challenge the fcc to make the hard choices, for them, as a commission to make the hard choices, within, regardless of anything else on. that will help bring broadband to every corner of our country. i mentioned to, the chairman outside, that i spent much of the last week at a mine disaster in a rural part of west virginia.

amongst all of the horrible things that come out after experience like that, one of the most disturbing was the fact that not one person there, the rescue people trying to get inside mine officials, miners families, most importantly, trying to call people in detroit or akron or wherever they might be, couldn't do that. there is no cell phone service in that part of the state. and it is not the most rural part of the state. that made me angry. putting ideas on paper is just not enough. just seeking comment on a slew of issues is not enough. to me, 10 years after 9/11, it is action that counts. let me tell you why. in west virginia, one in

five households lack access to broadband service. as this plan notes,ly 71% of the state's population has access to 3g wireless service. every day that goes by, communities without broadband in west virginia and every state in the country, and no state doesn't have remote, rural parts to it, risks falling father behind. in this new century, broadband is promise of economic opportunity. it is exactly that. it is promise of educational equality and affordable health care. it opens the door to participate in our democratic dialogue people helpfully or unhelpfully talk to each other and do with dignity and where we are, where you live.

economic, geography, nothing has anything to do with this. before i con my remarks, let me take a minute to mention last week's disheartening decision by the circuit court of appease of the district of columbia. no doubt the messy situation that comcast has so generously put us in adds to the complexity of your task, mr. chairman. question about it. but for me, two things are clear in the near term i want agency to use all existing authority i don't care how many lawyers you have or don't have, i want, i want you to exercise the authority that you do have. comcast and others want to take that away. they love deregulation so they just can't even express

it. and in that there are a lot of other folks who represent companies have the same way but at least they didn't take it court. now that it has been taken to court and now that it has been shot down, it puts the whole national broadband plan at risk and the chairman of the fcc ought to be pretty upset about that. i know i am. and secondly in the long term, if there is a need to rewrite the law, to provide consumers and the fcc and industry, with a new framework, i, as chairman, will take that task on. that's the option where i think we're probably going to end. a lot of people sitting in this room who represent companies, who, love deregulation will do anything to get out of

anything do with government. we have had a history in the recent fcc of a lot of non-action on issues where action was needed. and, i just want to say, mr. chairman, to you, that this is a committee at least so long as i'm chairman, that is here to protect people, to protect consumers. most of the of the world can< take care of itself. consumers can't. people without cell phone service can't make that phone call to the mother of a deceased miner. they can't do it. so that's the way i look at my responsibilities here, and i think a lot of us feel that way. so in closing, i appreciate the challenges the fcc. i understand they're much more complicated now. don't let that discourage you at all.

bend the curve if you have to. i look forward to the chairman as testimony about how he is going to move ahead and how we're all going to do it in fact together and bring the wonders of broadband to every community in this country. that has to be the end result. i call upon the distinguished ranking mem from texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, first i want to extend what i know is everyone of us concern about that horrible disaster that happened in your state and i know that your being there was very comforting for the victims families but also, i know that it was probably very difficult personally to meet with people who had

experienced such a loss. so all of us relate to what you have done and said and we hope that there can be mine safety measures that will protect the people who work in those mines in the future. i do want to also address both the broadband issue, which of course is the subject of this hearing. but there's no question that we're going to discuss the recent court case that has been decided that is going to also have a huge impact on, i think, internet surviveability for the future. let me first say that there are some good parts of the broadband plan that the commission has brought to us today. and, certainly the series of recommendations on the reform of universal service

fund is because it provides support for low income americans to have access to tell communications capabilities. lower the cost of building infrastructure in areas. also i think the focus that the commission has on make sure that anchor institutions such as library is, schools and universities, and hospitals and have priority is also very good. i also believe there are concerns raised in this report. i will start with the, broadcaster voluntary effort to give back some of the spectrum. we've just complete pleated

digital television transition.ñi it was very expensive for broad taskers-- broadcasters but we've got enthrough it. some of the spectrum was reclaimed from broadcasters. asking them for more is probably not fair but what concerns me even more is the agency reference to involuntary measures that might require more from the broad cast terse after already gone through expensive transition in compliance with the requirements of congress. so, i know many of us will be monitoring the commission's activities in this area very closely. and i hope there will not be heavy hand of involuntary requirements. further, i'm disappointed there are not enough incentives for investment, for, private investment as

was suggested in a bill i introduced last year that i think would provide volunteer, truly volunteer incentive for broadcasters to invest in underserved or rural areas. and i think that would allow broadcasters and other providers to be creative and innovative and have an incentive to do it. my bill also would provide a review of the large number of federal programs that support broadband, to see if we can streamline some of them. that too was not adequately addressed in your report. so i think, taking some of the broadband that is available, perhaps, excess, using it, in a better way, to streamline and investment incentives should be a part of any plan going forward in the future.

the really big concern i want to address is the fcc's growing regulatory policy. you just heard of the other side of the argument from the chairman and i am very concerned that the commission is going to overstep its congressional authority and by means of bending the curve, perhaps to do it. i think that if you look at the history of the regulatory, really, soft touch, that, we have had on the internet, that that has been a positive. it has promoted innovation and we have seen, really, a good consumer out come, more consumers choices, at a better price because we have opened the doors, rather than having the heavy hand of regulation that would begin to restrict private

companies, that build and maintain a core communications network and to be able to manage their own facilities. i'm concerned there are more and more calls from the heavy footprint even though we've seen success of light footprint, which is or has been the fcc's policy starting in about 2002. now we have the comcast case, which, i think comcast certainly had the right to appeal. that the fcc did not have the congressional authority in the law to say that they could not manage their own networks and the court ruled in comcast's favor. now, we hear that there is a, an effort to now, go into the band area and, really go

back to, the old kind of regulation that i think is going to stifle the evolution that we have seen in the internet. companies that didn't exist 10 years ago are now titans of the industry. and, i think that, we have seen the good effects that. the proclamations last week that the decision left the band market without any consume protection agency, ignore the fact that the most robust consumer protection regulation industry the federal communications commission, had broad jurisdiction. the fcc removed common carrier regimes from these technologies and would be eliminated if the fcc reverses that decision and i think thereby, would harm

the consumers by reducing their available protections. in my judgment if the fcc that chairman genachowski appear to be reconsidering, reclassify broadband as common carrier service and without a directive from congress and thorough analysis of and potential consequences to investment the legitimacy of the agency would be seriously compromised. i hope, and i am asking you today, to step back, and consider the consequences of such a decision, and whether there are alternatives that we can work to clarify the authority of the fcc while preserving the environment that encourages up investment, and creativity is the unique quality of american technology.

i hope we can find mon ground. the as the chairman he is willing to dive into this as he believes that, that he briefs you don't have statutory authority or not able to get it. this will be a vigorous debate, mr. chairman and, i look forward to having it. i hope that we can do something in a way that will achieve the goal that i think all of us have which is more choices at a better price for consumers. and, also, make sure that we don't stifle innovation. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you very much, senator. and now senator ensign. senator kerry i'm told is on way. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and also thank you, mr. chairman for being here today. the plan that you put forth is an ambitious, thought provoking document, that aims high, doesn't sidestep the difficult politically

charged issue. the dedication and tireless effort of the fcc staff is on display throughout the 376s and mr. chairman, you and your staff are to be commended for all their hard work. despite all that effort however, i'm somewhat pointed with how the plan has turned out. the plan begins by saying the government should play a limited role in the broadband ecosystem but then it follows up with dozens and dozens of recommendations to do exactly the sit. as i learn more about the national broadband plan i see a lot more federal spending, a lot more fcc regulation and a lot more government involvement in broadband. there's billions of dollars for broadband subsidies, a brand new digital lit a core, mandates for cable tv boxes and broadband digital labels and suggestion that heavy-handed regulations like net neutrality

unbundling are needed. what i don't see many recommendations to get the government out of the way of one of our nation's most innovative, successful and competitive industries. the number of americans who have broadband at home has grown from eight million, in 2000, to nearly 200 million last year. even in the worst of times the private sector, wall street, continued to put money deploying and improving country's broadband networks. by the fcc's own data broadband providers invested well over $100 billion in their own networks over the last two years in spite of the recession. i simply do not see any signs of growth, market failure that might warrant the government spending tens of billions of dollars to sunsy dies broad or using heavier hand to regulate the marketplace. i'm not only one who can see the fcc's justification for all this intervention. "the washington post" editorial board agrees with me, saying quote, such an assessment is premature at

best. before it makes a single recommendation, the national broadband plan admits that technologies costs an consumer recognizes are changing too quickly in a dynamic part of the economy to make accurate predictions. that is a direct quote. and i completely agree with it. but then the plan spends next 300 plus pages making predictions about technology costs and consumer preferences in order to justify its 200 or more recommendations. while i do have concerns with many of the recommendations of the plan, i do want to give, don't want to give the impression that there's nothing of value in the report. in particular, i applaud the plan to place, places so much importance on finding more spectrum for wireless broadband. congress and fcc need to develop a comprehensive, long-term trump policy and the national broadband plan helps to start that critical

log. i look forward to work my colleagues and with the fcc in a bipartisan manner, to engage all spectrum stakeholders to assure america keeps pace with the coming mobile revolution. the plan would stop universal service fund from subsidizing multiple competitors. would reform, inner carrier compensation, would increase spectrum flexibility and have some interesting ideas on maximizing infrastructure utilization. i look forward to learning more about these recommendations and many other contained in the national broadband plan during this hearing and coming weeks an months. just one last comment on the comcast versus fcc decision. this is clearly had a major impact on the future of our country's broadband policy. the d.c. circuit correctly, in my view upheld the view that the fcc does not have the unfettered power to regulate the internet. i hope that the commission will continue its successful

light touch approach as was described by my colleague senator hutchison. to the internet and will now abandon what i believe was a mis-hit guided pursuit of net neutrality regulations. so i look forward to hearing from the chairman how he think the decision will affect other parts of the national broadband plan. one last comment, to you, mr. chairman, is that nevada is the most urbanized state in the country. what that means is, we have the most distance in our rural areas and probably, even though it might not affect a huge pop, we have a lot of people out there that have tremendous places, that, don't have coverage. having said that i do believe that the private sector is more the answer than the government in, in trying to reach those last parts of our population who are currently underserved. and i think through the right incentives the private sector will more than meet the challenge. i thank you for holding this hearing. . .

at no broadband at all, studies place the u.s. 18th when it comes to important attributes of broadband adaption and speed record showed roughly 65% adoption in the u.s. compares to much higher percentages over 90% in other countries in europe. one study links the u.s. a of innovative competitiveness and the 40 if all of the 40 countries surveyed in the latest change of innovative capacity. that is unacceptable. second, certain communities within the u.s. are lagging. for all americans, low-income americans, minority seniors, tribal communities, americans with disabilities, for these groups adoption rates are lower than 65% which is itself not good enough. altogether 93 million americans are not connected to broadband

at, including 13 million children and 40 million americans don't have access to broadband even if they bought it. again, and acceptable. our plan is a plan of action, a plan that is that strong as it is not a logical and nonpartisan. it to plan such imposition goals including access for every american to robust and affordable broadband service and to the skills it subscribed broadband speed of of least one gigabyte to at least one a library, school or other public institution of the country and affordable 100 megabits per second to 100 million households the real world leading renovation for the fast most extensive wireless networks of any nation access for every first responder to a nationwide interoperable broadband public safety network. in addition to these and other bulls the pleas of the most sensible and efficient action plan for achieving them. it proposes a once in a generation transformation of the universal service fund from

yesterday's technology to tomorrow. it proposes recovering and unleashing a license and on license spectrum's we can lead the world and mobile. it proposes ways to cut red tape, were the cost of private investment and exarate deployment of lawyer and wireless networks. it proposes initiatives to foster a migrant and content of markets and in power consumers and proposes a road map to tackle high level inclusion challenges so that everyone everywhere can enjoy the benefits of broadband and propose ways of which brought and can be deployed to solve many of the nation's major challenges including education, health care, energy and public safety. public safety designed to finally deliver on the recommendations of the 9/11 commission that reason are operable, indications for first responders and i am pleased the chair and vice chair of the 9/11 commission as well as of the bipartisan members endorsed the plan, the national world and the families of. against this backdrop, last week we announced a broadband action

plan to implement a broadband plan. i would like to note that we started to act even before we did the plan. we adopted rules several months ago to give more flexibility to schools, to have schools under the program be available for broadband and we adopted rules to lower the cost of investments by speeding up for mobile broadband so we've been acting already. in the plan be released last week which is an unprecedented step in the agency planning and transparency we propose a more than robust scheduled issues to consider and actions to take in the period ahead. not withholding a decision and the comcast case im constant the commission has the authority it needs to implement a broadband plan. whatever flaws may have existed in the special actions to believe the communications act amended in 1996 enables the commission before universal service to connect everyone to broadband communications

including rural areas and native american communities to take steps to ensure we lead the world of mobile for most competition and innovation on broadband networks, protect and in power all consumers of broadband communications, support a robust use of broadband to drive business expansion and job creation and safeguard public security in safeguard public safety homeland security. i believe it is vitally important of the commission acts on the broadband plan's road back to protect americans global competitiveness and helped deliver the extraordinary benefits of broadband to all americans. i believe it is essential consistent with communications act and i can assure the kennedy actions will be rooted in sound legal foundation designed to promote investment, innovation, competition, and the interest of consumers. i look forward to your questions. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i will start with senator hutchinson and senator jordan

and senator john heinz and go on from there in order of arrival. as i noted at the outset, mr. chairman the national broadband plan has more than 200 recommendations and whatever it is, 371 pages. it had recommendations for the department of defense, recommendations in the department of transportation can't afford a vacation, department of labor, a department of justice, national institute of standards and technology, academy of sciences, fruit and drug administration and is for mothers. in fact, it says bayh towns i got help on congress should 159 times. now, this just simply begs the question and effort of this magnitude, what are your

priorities for the fcc coming out of this plan? >> the priorities i think are clearly articulated in the plan. one is reform and update the universal service fund so broadband communications can reach every american including oral areas, respond to the issues you made in your opening statement with respect to those wired and wireless broadband. second, making sure we lead the world in mobile by having enough spectrum available to take advantage of the huge opportunity for investment innovation, job creation that we have. third, making sure we deliver on the 9/11 commission recommendations with respect to a public safety network and that the communications networks and data networks are protected against a tax. fourth, that we promote a vibrant competition on our broadband communications networks and fifth that we protect and in power consumers with respect to broadband communications wherever they

live. >> what i am interested in is at tool decisions and plans and things ready to go as i indicated at the meeting hearing we had some time ago when the plan came to us that there would be -- we would be off and running. i don't get that impression from this. what i want to see is real change and i want to see that happening for the real consumers wherever they live. on the fcc's legal authorities of the comcast, as you acknowledge in your testimony last week the district columbia issued the decision that creates new complexities for you, for all of us. to better understand this let's go back to the beginning the case before the court began with comcast customers discovering the company was interfering with

their use of certain internet applications. the fcc then found comcast had a, quote, significantly impeded consumers' ability to access internet content and applications of their choice. so my question is simple as a result of the court changes and the court decision what happens if comcast engages in the same practices today? >> mr. chairman the first in the case reminds us is that requirements to preserve free and open interest have been in place for quite some time. they were adopted by partisan commission several years ago before i got there. what we have been seeking to do at the fcc is make sure that there is a sound legal foundation under it. there were process issues and the decision and i think we see some of those the consequences of that. we need in my opinion to make sure the free and open architect

of the internet, the understanding that participants in broadband have that walking degrading taking advantage of consumers as unacceptable that we continue that. these are policies that have promoted not only consumer interest but investment, innovation, competition, and i think it is essential the freedom, the openness in the internet for consumers, speakers, entrepreneurs continue. >> that is impressive almost a one diet. what are the results? >> with respect to broadband -- >> when are we going to see things happening? it's a wonderful report and it has all kind of wonderful visions of life that i don't see how it helps any of my people when west virginia accept as a vision as a purpose. i don't see action plans. >> mr. chairman, if i could, we've released last week something that's been on president for the commission. detailed plans for over 50 real

actions by the commission that will help ordinary americans and if i may even before we release the broadband plan when we found a good ideas we could act on we took them so we identified a problem with of the program. where the schools could not use their facilities to support people in the community and rather than waiting for the broadband planned to be released, we said this is an idea that's right, let's do it. before we issued broadband plan we took that action and schools are now able to use the eve rate funding for a broader purpose is to help their communities. similarly with respect to mobile we identified over the course of the plan obstacles to mobile companies in some cases building of their networks to rule america and we adopted rules that are speeding up the towers that are necessary for mobile broadband to rule out. as we've already taken actions and the stuff of the commission is hard at work every day to

continue to act for consumers to promote investment to promote innovation and to extend the opportunity of broadband to all americans. >> sounds good mr. chairman. my time is up. >> senator hutchins. >> when you say that you are adopting so many different ways to improved the capability for more consumers to have internet access of broadband, why didn't you also include a recommendation to have an incentive for a private company to make these types of investments, wouldn't that vastly expand the opportunity for more consumers and couldn't it be a born of the very many recommendations that you made? >> senter if i made the plan

remains the because competition to incentivize greater investment. it takes a look at right of we issues, other obstacles to investment will bring the cost of investment to incentivize faster investment greater investment, broader deployment is a core objective of the plan and there's a number of recommendations in the plan designed to do that. i hope we call them. if there are any that we missed we would be happy to work with you because there is no question that private investment will drive the build of and deployment of broadband networks that incentivizing that making sure there is competition is essential. >> so you would look at another type which would be an incentive for private companies to make the investment so that the government wouldn't be the only source? >> we would be happy to work with you on that. >> on the issue of the net new trouble before making let me just add i sent you a letter a

while back saying is they're basically the need for this, are there a lot of complaints? is their something in the records that show that there is a need to start to being heavy in the regulatory area. my question is has the commission conducted an economic analysis that would indicate that there is the need for more regulation when the sort of later regulatory hand has produced so many good results in the last ten years? >> senator, the bipartisan commission several years ago adopted open internet rules and since then i think there's been large compliance with them. i agree in a light touch approach but i think the commission had already concluded that these kinds of steps are essentials. we launched a proceeding that was designed to address a number

of the procedural issues that existed and clarify it to bring a greater certainty and predictability to this area and to make sure that we preserve the freedom and openness of the internet for competitors, entrepreneur, innovators and speakers. i'm confident we can do that and i'm confident we can do that in a way that's consistent with a light touch approach to adopting rules in this area. >> i would agree with you that the commission policy that was bipartisan was to open it and basically have the light touch but i think the comcast decision by the court should be at least a warning flag to the fcc that it is a heavy hand that the commission doesn't have the authority from congress to actually use and that it overstepped its bounds and what

is your interpretation of the court opinion if you differ from mine? >> my focus has been on polis principles in this area like promoting investment in addition, promoting competition, taking seriously the need of consumers everyday and we've developed through the broadband plan and otherwise a set of concrete action steps to get their reforming universal service making sure that we unleash mobile promoting competition promoting the interest of small businesses, the engine of job creation and economic growth in our economy. there is a series of areas we've been working very hard to identify the policies that still will promote the global competitiveness of the united states and the interest of all consumers. that is what i am focused on. we inherited a landscape that had more unpredictability and stability than i would have liked. the court decision rewinds us of

that we have an obligation to make sure as we protect and in power consumers and promote innovation and investment that our decisions are on solid legal foundation and there are lawyers obviously hard at work on this. i'm convinced we can find a way consistent with a light touch in this area but consistent with being serious about promoting innovation protecting consumers and promoting investment that we can get to a place that works for the country and promotes the global competitiveness of the united states. >> i would just say that many of the commentators are concerned that all of this process is going to mean we are going to send dee dee to spend a lot of money on lawyers and not so much on innovation and it's been to cause more confusion and instability and investment than what i think you're stating and i agree with the goal is to have more investment, more openness, more competition and more availability for consumers so i

just hope you will keep the light touch as much a part of your thinking as all of the process and by trying to define so much maybe having more money spent on lawyers and innovation. thank you. >> thank you, senator hutchison. senator dorgan. >> thank you. mr. genachowski, first from abroad and plan i want you to make things happen and make good things happen, so i support what you're trying to do and i know that the devil is in the details but i want you to implement an aggressive broadband plan and i want to talk about this issue of net neutrality what i call internet freedom. i'm not a big if in of the light touch as a matter of fact and i don't want overregulation for sure but a decade ago we had regulators come to town boasting about a day with a light touch and at the end of the decade we

discovered six, eight, ten years of willful blindness by referees is not the way to deal with a free marketplace. the free marketplace is a wonderful place where the markets are important and you need a referee with a whistle to call fouls and the fcc is a referee and i want you to have a touch that is to protect the interest of the people and citizens to use the internet. this is an unbelievable innovation in our lives, unbelievable. let me ask a couple of questions. isn't it the case the internet was built, developed and began to flourish under the rules that existed in the rules, quote come on discriminations. the nondiscrimination requirement represented the way that the internet was created and the purpose of it was to make sure the marketplace would pick winners and losers not some gatekeeper or not some tollbooth that had the money and the size they would pick winners and

losers is that correct? >> that is correct. spread without nondiscrimination rules perhaps in a dorm room someplace ten years later they would become google might never have access to north dakota who wishes to access the web site because they perhaps couldn't afford to pay the tolls someone wanted to expect and let me quote mr. whiteaker the famous quote going back to at&t saying these are my pipes i don't want someone using my pipes free of charge and so it goes and so the question is who with her new idea has access to get on the internet or to present their idea to everyone in the world without discrimination so now we have a circumstance where the nondiscrimination rules are gone because the fcc determined that the internet was a communications service rather than telephone service and used i believe title i. but even when they did that, even that difference fcc said we

are going to establish for principles attached to it but forgot and left out the principal of nondiscrimination which is persuaded olympia snowe and myself and others to fight a very hard to say you can't possibly go down the road here and say that we are against a nondiscrimination policy with respect to the internet. the opposition is to say no we are for discrimination policies. the policy piece we choose and so but me ask the question about what does this court case mean and what are your alternatives to respond to it because i when you to respond to it aggressively to the end stage of which were able to develop the principles to recreate the nondiscrimination rules with all these existing we are buying these days as consumers bundled products internet, telecom service all in a big bundle of and now we are told welcome this internet, this unbelievable

innovation and the lifetime should be over here and not subject to the nondiscrimination rules under which the internet started and enforced. what are your options? >> i agree with your description of history and the description of what we are trying to do as preserving openness of freedom that has existed for a very long time that was made binding by the prior condition and that needs to continue. to me that is the focus. there are legal issues now that we have to address in view of the decision and lawyers. on identifying the way to move forward based on the legal foundation. i'm convinced we have that authority under the communications act and i trust our lawyers working with all the lawyers negative interest here to have an legal foundation for preserving the freedom and openness of the internet and make sure the next generation of

the entrepreneur is have a better chance and consumers of internet services are protected. >> i think there are two ways ahead. one is using your existing authority it was after all the fcc was decided to take internet out of title to it and put it in title i and thereby abolish the nondiscrimination rules so if you have that opportunity, a couple of other opportunities and of course the congress has an opportunity to address that but between now and the end of the year is likely that congress is when to be addressing it so i think we are going to have to look to the fcc to do it because the fcc unraveled in the first place. you have the capability using existing authority in different ways to address it but again i did want to just say that there's a lot of language are around network neutrality, internet freedom, all these things. really comes down to the plight of the head here that we have always had a nondiscrimination requirement saying that the big

interest that now can begin with a lot of this can not discriminate. and so that is the basis of the debate that senator snowe and i have worked on this for a long while and i hope the end stage of this is on behalf of american consumers to restore the nondiscrimination rules. i don't want to in any way injure innovation, the growth of the internet but the fact is it was created and grew under the very rules we are trying to reestablish so listen, i hope that you will not shy away from taking positions here and making tough choices of doing what you need to do on behalf of the american consumer as a regulator. that is the rule of the fcc. thank you for being there and for taking my advice. >> thank you, senator dorgan. senator johan stifel goodbye -- >> i thought i was next. i was here when you baffled.

>> well i'm not going to get into a fight. i am going to call on senator johanns and then senator john ensign and senator isaacson and senator begich. >> mr. chairman, thank you. chairman rockefeller i appreciate the fact that you take on these tough issues and this is a tough policy issue. mr. sherman with me if i might focus on a statement you made a couple of times and it's in your written testimony, and the statement is you believe that you have the power and the authority within the communications act to implement a broadband plan. now i read a part of that plan to talk about net neutrality and that is on page 58 in a plan.

now here's where i'm coming from on that. i look at the comcast case and there's something in this case in the very first paragraph that tells me a lot the courses in this case who must decide whether the federal communications has the authority to regulate an internet service providers network management practices and goes on to say in the second sentence of this very lengthy opinion and it has no express statutory authority over such practices the commission and the commission goes on to put forth this argument that you've got this incidental authority. now here is where i site us to that as i start my questioning today. as a former cabinet member there

were many things i felt were just in a fair and would be well received the first question i always asked legal counsel was to have the authority to do this. senator dorgan and i agreed on payment limits. we might have a different approach but i didn't have the authority to do that on my own and my first question to you is the commission has already conceded that you don't have that expressed authority to implement net neutrality under title one. isn't that the case? >> i don't agree with that, sir -- >> where is the authority? blight of the comcast courts find that authority? >> the comcast corporation found a series of problems with the process and reasoning by the commission and the comcast case which is clearly spelled out in

the opinion. let me say that there is a series of very important public policy objectives extending broadband to rural america protecting and in powering consumers making sure the business, but these boat together and it is the essential for our competitiveness, for the economy, for all americans that we to get rich to the conditions act that's consistent with the purpose of the connections act and stitch for language to your point of legal counsel completely agree we will not do anything that isn't supported by council where we can't make the decision and this is with a number of 40 of the statute. >> under comcast you've already been told. this case is very specific saying you don't have the authority to do this. even some of your own commissioners got to look commissioners are acknowledging it would not have the authority here we will go under title ii; is in that case? >> you have to ask my colleagues but i can assure you that

anything else we do in the areas concerning communication will have a solid legal foundation. that is our goal that that is our responsibility. islamic the second piece of me zeroth if i might on title, not to because one of the commissioners set looks good on the title ii route. here's my problem with that. i've reviewed the order of the commission, 2002, cable modem order, 2005, wireline broadband order. 2007, wireless brought an order and 2005 brand x case that again makes it very clear to me that there is no way legally the you could go under title ii to try to regulate here in a way that would get you see authority. would you agree with that? >> our council is in the process

of evaluating working with all of the outside counsels who are interested and i understand there are a number of different options and possibilities and prior decisions have closed the doors on a solid bases and communications act to proceed on universal service and small businesses consumers on promoting competition innovation here's the difficulty already i've run out of time and my hope is to have another round here but it is fundamental stuff but here is where you are at i think. i think even-handed the cat in your hand by the comcast case. i think under your own prior ruling and commission's rulings and under the brand x case you can't go to title ii. it would be like remaking the world a bottom line is this if you want to make policies would you need to do is pay the filing fee do a lot of parades', raise

money and start at this end of the table. it's just a situation where congress isn't giving you the power you are attempting to a search under portions of the broadband plan and we and congress should tell you that and so any court that the review this record i want them to understand that as a senator i don't believe you have the power and i think the courts are telling you that and the only solution to that is there for a come back and work for us to try to work through these differences of policy implications. does that make sense to you? >> i would look forward to working with you and the committee on a pass for word that accomplishes what i think our broad goals around that we've been discussing suggests. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you. now senator isaacson.

>> you spooked me. it says that right here. >> i think it's important to drill down on this a little further title i versus title ii. are you currently considering switching from title xii title ii? >> i've constructed our lawyers to take the recent decisions to raise logical decisions seriously and to evaluate what our options are so it instructed them to look at the policies i think the congress and the commission have been clear about and determined solid legal foundation in the past to move forward. >> would be my hope obviously i disagree with senator dorgan on this. he wants you to go to title: to because he doesn't think we have the time here and i would agree with that we don't have the time i hope once again is legislatively to enact net neutrality but if you take it

down that track i think it is a very dangerous thing to do. my personal belief is this is regulation looking for a problem. this is as senator hutchinson mentioned as far as the studies there's the economic studies to determine the this is a problem out there. i would ask -- let's just to get hypothetical the other direction. what if you had a large user of the pipes to the point where that large user actually degraded somebodies chance for getting on the pipes. under that scenario the person who is without having to come to the sec -- fcc to ask permission to regulate that and so that we are not degrading the person who is a smaller user shouldn't the person that owns the pipes people to manage those pipes in a way that makes sense that

keeps the internet free >> senter we try to be clear that reasonable network management is appropriate is consistent with principles of preserving free and open internet. it is a situation though what can happen in the world of networked a truck body that's been proposed out there is that you can end up with the situation of an unintended consequences to where networks can get jammed up. the more and more technology that comes out there the more and more users on the internet and sometimes these are large companies that can use the internet they make for a feasibility of others to have their services degraded to perhaps even the will to knock them off of it at various times of the internet and so the point

that i am making is i disagree with senator dorgan. i think the internet has been fabulously successful even since the case where it was taken from title ii to title i has been successful in fact we have had exponential growth and i think we are going to continue to have that with a light touch. if we get into heavy touch if there was a problem out there that was specifically of the studies and was showing economic harm to the country, you know, it might be a different story but we are certainly not seeing the kinds of widespread problems or hardly even isolated problems to address a major policy change such as network in trouble the. i hope you're cautious as we move forward and i agree with senator johanns this is something the congress should deal with with multiple hearings and make it the policy makers at your instead of taking it at the fcc so i appreciate all the work

you all are doing. i know you have a difficult job in this technical area. is to make is that it? okay. senter isaacson >> would you classify internet from number one to number two? >> we haven't settled on a path forward we are focused on the policy objectives abroad for america and consumers and small businesses that we have been specific. >> would have used the term we do you think it ought to be changed from classification one to two? >> i haven't made any decisions yet. we are evaluating the court decision and my focus has been on policies to promote economic growth, job creation and the issues we've talked about. >> and this is often difficult question. spaghetti with internet access from one to two would you to be consistent want to move reclassified internet services and other applications as well?

>> i'm not sure i ever stand the question but because we are in the process my focus has been how do we make sure that all consumers and small businesses and investors can have a claim that we maximize the benefits to all americans and there are issues included here make sure rural america had a fair chance and broadband small business is how consumers and these are central issues for us every day in central issues of the communications act commend the condition that makes it clear which of the conservative rural america and about consumers and small businesses and investment innovation and in a changing world these are difficult challenges and i acknowledge that. >> this is just an opinion question. when we went to through to the telecommunications questions we wrote the deregulation just to the kids or -- two decades.

among the new products and innovations in the company's common businesses that exist because of it. do you think too much regulation is an and had better to getting the benefits of technology like broadband and like the internet. i think it's important to make sure any rules and regulations in this area are narrowly tailored and designed to promote innovation and address economic issues as the ephemeral america and other aspects of broadband communications to have the tools necessary but no more >> i appreciate all of the words in that answer but particularly the word promote the one word of the internet is what we're looking to for the future but to the wireless broadband to get to the areas where the information

has never been before but why would call -- i've been reading your report and there is a variant on page 73 recommendations 136i will read the recommendation because it think the commission is saying to the recommendation but i am trying to say it says congress should consider eliminating tax and regulatory barriers to to work. this is a section where you promote a telecommunications, tell working is something maximizing the environmental and that and everything else but most of our labour laws overtime laws and many regulations that come under the department of labor are from the congress today actually are inhibitors and the work and the use of the wireless broadband or broadband technology. so in your own free part you reference the restraints that regulation can bring to restrict the expansion and the use of a benet at flake internet access and broadband so full that a long as you go through the decisions that you made

>> thank you mr. chairman. a >> center begich. >> i'm not going to get into them and a majority or freedom. i don't intend to be dated. as a bunch of my friends are and lawyers and i don't intend to be one either. i will leave that to the process you are going through. i want to be very frank with you in a very parochial and then i have a couple of questions i want to put on since i've heard some debate here but i know as you move forward on universal service fund and that is your first stage i know i have harassed you before but i hope that you can be in alaska prior to that because the use of the u.s. fund is pretty critical for us and i would hope that you can make that commitment again and you are working on it in your

offices and we are badgering you every week so to us that is important that you lived on the path aggressively on the u.s. fund and if you have a comment i would appreciate that. >> the other is with regards to as you world outdoor plan one of the things you had is the office of tribal affairs and tribal seats on the board was your timetable for that? >> let me get back with a specific timetable but it's very important to us to identify in the plan the incredible shortcomings on the tribal homeland native americans with respect to communications and we to get very seriously and we look for to working with you on moving forward quickly. >> please let us know the timetable, and again, coming to alaska yes, no? >> yes, as soon as i can. looking forward to it. >> before you go too far down the road on universal fund reform. >> i will do everything i can to

get to alaska as soon as i can and i am looking forward to it. >> we will be on the phone every three days. laughter could let me ask again, your plan is much broader than that and you have great stuff on education, health care which again for ballistic like negative 20 doggett balk hi, expansions and efforts there. but i want to go to the original question that the chairman asked and i know when we do plans when i was the mayor we we said the plan and then the workflow with specific details. i know you've laid out several things that you are aggressive about to get to you have a workflow scheduled that can say for example item a, b, c, just as you laid out in your release like last weekend the week before these are milestones. that is where i think the chairman was going to play and has a lot of stuff in there and there will be complaints and considerations that we want to get and put on but when we set

these out on specific timetables so we can be honest with you and hold the view accountable for what you said you would do. would you have something like that available? >> i think the bureau chief and office cheeps the fcc either have or are working very hard on specific work flows to implement what you saw on the implementation plan but i'm very proud of the implementation plan we've released last week on president in the history of the fcc to produce a transparent plan with a schedule over the course of the year and a significant volume of factions that was a breakthrough in the sec and i appreciate work of the stuff that went into that. >> i don't disagree i just want to get dates and times that go with it. for example i loved one of the examples you gave which was the utilization of the services that are in schools and that was in

alaska xm did plan. thank you for taking the example of using it nationally we thought the rules would be very blunt with you and we are foolish when they first were established. you've discovered that to the new role and need that national program to be appreciated. that is what i want to see and that is important i have to keep glancing at mr. google's clock because i do not have one. to see where i am at one of the concerns i have not only with yours but many others departments to allow the plants do you have a financial match meaning of the state's resources and as we all know for the years gone by of a lot of this we're in a world of hurt when it comes to the budget of this country do you have something that corresponds with this that says this plan will take this many years and by the way here is what it will cost for the agency

to implement this in here is the resources we hope to tap into and if you don't i want to give you the answer if you don't i would highly encourage you to do it because i don't care if it is in this committee or where a trillion plus and that this year in deficit, plans are great but if you don't have the money or the resources to based on the shelf we will be back at it again so give me your approximate and i think my time is up. >> with respect to the resources of the fcc this is an issue that comes up when i speak with the bureau chief about doing more and faster one of the challenges that they each have in doing their work are the resources at the fcc themself, so it is obviously something we pay for a close attention to, we have a budget cycle at the fcc also with respect to congress with respect to the funding like universal service fund is in a different area and of course we take the series with issues

there but you're point is well taken and i would like to follow-up with you on that. estimate the of a point, mr. chairman thank you very much for your presentation today. >> are you finished, senator begich? >> yes only because my clock is out of time. mr. udall moved his cup. i would keep going. >> which is a pity. [laughter] cynics senator pryor, senator mccaskill, senator brownback, senator soon and klobuchar. -- before mr. chairman and chairman genachowski good to have to be for the committee again and also want to thank you for coming to arkansas. it was a great trip and i appreciate you getting a sense of the lay of the land there. let me start with the universal service fund. i support the reform that you're talking about i'm concerned about the impact it may have on our small companies to offer land mine service because they do depend on the u.s. funding in

order to provide the quality and affordable service that they do. can you walk me through quickly how the fcc plans to ensure the local carriers still get with the small local carriers get with the need to provide service in rural areas and still accomplish the goals for trying to play out speed there was an extraordinary team that worked on these issues as part of the plan to find a way where broadband communications, high-speed data communications can be supported in fogle arkansas and other parts of the country to move from where we are now aware of the fund is supporting yesterday's technology to a world it is supporting today's technology but to do it with certainty without flash kutz that create more problems. it's a challenge and the plan lays out from beginning to end

starting right away but over ten years doing the conversion and i believe we can start making progress immediately to the offer companies but finding a way to shift the program to the new communications services the people really need without having slash cuts that would disrupt existing the alliances and dependencies on the program. >> do you anticipate having an increase to do this? >> the plan is to not increase the rate of growth of the fund that would be the easy thing to do to say we have this fund now let's add to it with broadband and we didn't think that is fiscally prudent. we also want to avoid flash kutz. and the design of the plan is to have the shift over a period of time without increasing the growth of a fund but without cutting it back. >> and can you tell the committee a little bit about the

mobility fund and halvey are targeted and how many states are considered below the national standard? >> this gets to a pitcher man started without the beginning. we want to make sure that as we are focusing on the next generation broadband communications that we are not leaving behind basic mobile services where i have an 18 year old driving and i absolutely want them to have brought and access where he lives in the country but if he gets into an accident how to make sure wherever he is we can call 911 on his mobile phone or me or whoever he needs of the plan sets out a path to tackle both of these challenges. not easy of course, not easy in a time where fiscal restraint is important. i think it will be an ongoing topic to talk about and work on together. but these are both very important goals i personally feel very strongly about. >> and this may be my last question because i may run out of time that the old issue of the enter carrier compensation,

i know that as you go through the reform process your note to me that is one of the things that has to be solved through the whole process with the trigger compensation and you don't want the carriers providing the services all the way for the system like you're supposed to and you are not being compensated for it so do you as you're working for the transition and changes to you feel like the fcc has a plan and a commitment to keep in tricare your compensation for the way it should? >> we have a plan and a direction that recognizes the multiple interdependency is and the complexities and i can't tell you that we have already solved every complex detail problem that's in here we will need help from all of the companies involved all of the stakeholders but we have focused staff understands us very well and it's very focused on the goals laid out in the broadband

plan to achieve this and that recognizes that we will need to rely on private companies in rural america to continue to deliver the services to people who were there. but we also are on a track as you with the universal service fund if we don't start to reform it, we face the danger of the thing itself collapses. so we want to get out ahead of that and we have had three good conversations with local phone companies who are coming in with different ideas and approaches to work on a transition and they are at the point now we acknowledge the importance of transitioning so they can offer all of their customers modern bride and communication. sprick before i relinquish the microphone here i want to thank the chairman and rest of the commissioners and the fcc staff for the hundreds maybe thousands of hours we put into reading this document.

a zillion different meetings and details worked through the thank you for doing that. >> thank you, senator. senator mccaskill. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to talk about the spectrum. i see how my life has changed over the last ten years as it relates to the usage of broadband and recently got jury recently my husband got a.m. ipad for his birthday and i have had my hands on it more than he has, and i will tell you i am confident that there will be massive changes in the way that we are entertained and where we are entertained in how we are entertained by products coming over broadband and i looked out a few minutes ago and almost

every head was down because they were all typing. the entire audience is transcribing this hearing and sending it to whoever they work for and whoever the company is interested and clearly this is finite. now if we have time we can talk about where this 300 are coming from and how we accept the tv stations are about the idea some of it is when to come from them. but at the end of the rainbow, we are all being used and when there is no more left what happens? to poor people get squeezed out and rich people who can afford to do with my family does, the big old hogs when it comes to bandwidth? much less small businesses that have seven servers in their basement and are not paying any more than my mom who plays bridge and checks your e-mail once a month?

while the plan is great i don't see you getting to that ultimate pressure point what do we do in this country when we've run out of spectrum? >> solving this problem is important for the economy, small businesses, consumers, and i don't think there is any single solution. recovering spectrum is necessary but it's not sufficient and i think that is the point of the question. we need to encourage and incentivize the new technologies that process information over the spectrum more efficiently. we need to find ways to do that near-term and also look at the longer term are and c-span and think about whether there is enough spending going into that long-term to solve this because it is an important challenge for the country. we have to look at all of our spectrum policies to make sure they are promoting the most efficient use of spectrum and secondary markets and we have to

make sure we have the climate and set of policies promoting business models and that have the right incentives so that a combination of smart policies in the market and technologies can solve this. if we solve it we can lead the world and in mobile and have it be an extraordinary engine for job creation and innovation for the united states for years to come. if we don't solve it we will be looking back in a number of years singing why do the other countries job ahead of us? right now we know that we can have the best mobile innovation and we are happy here in the united states. i believe we have to tackle the problems so that is true in five years and ten years as well. >> i know i just cd in the coming and i hope the technology is difficult that allows us to get more out of the spectrum we have without having to cross people out of it and that is touched on before but i am fearful and i think it is something the fcc really needs to focus on as you move towards the future of the economy in

this country and your role in it more importantly the role of the private sector developing the technology that would do that. let me quickly because i don't have much time left i know that you were talking about a voluntary giving up of the spectrum and we -- i may have questions in writing on that as it relates to the subject of grabbing more spectrum, but adoption, low-income adoption, 95% of households in america have access to broadband but only 45% of low-income households have at so there are some things in here could you briefly talk about what you see as the best things in here that are going to help us -- is that really in so many ways the keefer economic strengths and economic advancement by many people in this country is that the ability to cross the great digital divide to the world of

the internet in the low-income households, can you speak to that briefly? >> very important topic. our work shows there were different reasons for the adoption gap. in some cases affordability and in some cases it is relevant in digital literacy. so the plan that response to the actual cause needs to tackle all of the above. reforming the good of russell service fund would be a lifelong program that tackles for what it. competition policies will help with affordability by incentivizing lower prices. there is a series of other recommendations in the plan that go to relevancy and digital literacy and digital literacy corps thinking in a very smart we about government services, accelerating the rates at very high percentage of the community that are not the doctors are involved with a dry programs and so the faster that we move to electronic government services we not only save money for the government but we actually can make a dent in the options so i would be happy to follow with

you on this. there are a lot of great ideas and we need to pursue all of them and take us from 65% to the goal of 90% in ten years. >> thank you, senator mccaskill. now senator brownback who is not here. senator klobuchar. >> thank you for a much. chairman, i want to thank you for the planet and what you're doing. it's important like everyone else and who mentioned the court case and their concerns but i wanted to focus more on the some of the content of the plan we have to find a way to get it done as far as i'm concerned. the things i was interested in that you included the recommendation that consumers receive more pricing and performance information and broadband provider and it's something i offered a bill on with senator begich, digging

once when counties and cities and states are tearing up roadways that you then put the chondroitin and then finally the is a limit of the next generation of 911. i co-chair that 911 caucus with senator burr. ..

>> and whatkind of steps are you looking at? >> some of them go to best practices for networks. some of them go to issues with respect to outages. you know, for many agencies, including ours, there is a focus every day of developing the best set of strategies and tactics to deal with a fast-moving problems. very focused on this. making sure that we both identify the steps to take and that we have the authority to pursue them is essential. >> have a bill on peer-to-peer. i could not believe the stories i hear. one employee of a company does the market home. loaded a program on there. all of the companies got on to the internet and are taken from someone and a bunch of them

become victims of identity theft. i hope you will be looking into that as we go forward. i thought i would talk a little bit about the position focus on promoting competition by having transparency and the information available, as i mentioned before, so that consumers know how fast their internet is, what the price is. could you talk about the importance of that? >> sure. one of the findings of the work we did in the broadband plan was that the speeds that consumers actually get is much lower than the advertised speed. there is a lot of consumer confusion. one of the things that is, makes me optimistic about this area is that new technologies provide new ways to get information to consumers in better, more efficient ways that they can make the market work. >> consumers probably want to know not just what their speed is. in a vacuum that means nothing. what the average is, what speeds

are that help you to get certain things. >> yes. and we have already taken steps at the fcc in terms of applications that we have released that allow people to measure the speed that they do have. it is just the beginning. ultimately it should be easy for a consumer to be able to know their speed, other people's speeds, various competitors speeds so that the market can work as effectively as possible. >> can you comment. , how much, you know, what you have seen in other parts of the countries. >> listen. we were happy to include that idea in the plan. there were a number of areas where there are some obvious steps that can be taken. increase the speed and the deployment of wired and wireless broadband. this is one. it is an important part of the plant. >> for the 911 piece of this. what steps is the sec taking to move forward with an ip-based

911 911 system to nine people who are calling 911 are just using system to nine people who are calling 911 are just using land lines. they're not just using a land line. most have adapted to that. there are still some issues. they will be on the testing. they will be stuck in the middle of a snowmobile in the middle of minnesota and nebraska. lost or they break their legs. they can only text. we are not quite ready for that new world. >> there are many challenges. i think the goal to your point as well is very clear. consumers need to be able to contact 911 with whenever communications service they are using. there are a series of steps to make sure we can you the ability to contact a first responder. >> it really could be helpful for downloading a building for the firefighters. just the potential for safety if you can get pictures from the scene and then send it back to

first responders so that whether there are cops or firefighters. all this is going to happen. we have to figure out how to do it the right way. >> it is critical that we do it and it is critical that we have the ability to do it and move quickly because we can't afford to wait. >> thank you. i had some additional questions from our local broadcasters. i will put those in writing. thank you. >> thank you, senator. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, chairman genachowski, for being here today, accepting an array of critical issues with respect to broadband and how we are going to deploy broadband in the future. i commend you for the work that you have engaged in. on the question of neutrality. we have heard so much discussed here today on both sides of the equation. as you know i have been a strong proponent. organized and working on the drafting legislation from the previous congress. we do think it is important.

i think it is so often overlooked, the fact that nondiscrimination requirements have existed in our telecommunication statutes for more than 70 years as a requirement to ensure against unjust anti-competitive practices, unreasonable discrimination. that is what it is all about. i would say the innovation has really been compatible with those nondiscrimination principles since the sec took action in 2005 up until the time of the court case. frankly geico existed. the point is we have to make sure that we have the same freedom and openness. make sure all users of the internet have the sensibilities. there are and our way of groups that support that neutrality. consumers union, a christian coalition, gun owner

association, american library association. they are concerned. if you don't have those types of protection that you don't have the ability to infringe upon anti-competitive practices, you are going to deny the average person with a small business access to the internet as we know it today. it is not changing. it is what we had. we have had historically. i would like to hear from you what other ramifications. if we don't. frankly we are looking at one side or we don't want to regulate the internet. not trying to keep it as it is. that is the interesting part. there is even a growing consensus within the industry and stakeholders on this very question even though major carriers that have opposed that neutrality in legislation or a posted in the past are now coming around. so i would like to have your views in taking it from a different perspective. the ramifications without such protection. >> i think the ramifications could be that's our world and

innovation and entrepreneurship goes away. it is the freedom and openness of the internet that has created all these incredible success stories. tiny companies started in drives that now employ hundreds of thousands of people that create economic activity that are some of our major exports to other countries. my concern is that if we don't preserve the freedom and openness of the internet that we have had other countries will move forward and take our mental as world leaders and innovation. that is what i am concerned about. to your point preserving what we have had is all we need to do. >> maintaining the status quo. understanding the technology has evolved in very recent years with respect to voice and video. we have to accommodate that. the court did not say you did not have the authority.

the authority was not tied to any specific statutory provision. authority might have under the statute. you also have an open proceeding. so obviously you think you do have some options. >> reopened the proceeding because we wanted to make sure that there was as much clarity and certainty as inty as possibe about, in this area. the proceeding is open. you will be getting comments. we extended because of the decision. i know remember exactly. i do hope that can become a vehicle for getting to the point that you mentioned. i agree with you that and the last few months we have seen the area of consensus grow in terms

of what the fcc should do and the area of disagreement narrow. that is a very healthy thing. i am committed to continuing to work in that direction so that we can preserve the free and open internet that has been such a boom par our country. >> i hope that we get to the legislative front. in the meantime it is going to be important for you to be doing the work that you're doing. hopefully that can work and we can build that kind of consensus in reaching that accommodation. does the court decision denying you beyond the broadband plan over all other areas in which to extend, you know, broadband, for example? emerging technologies. where is it going to inhibit your ability to implement the broadband plan? >> potentially it raises questions in a number of areas including universal service to rural america, small businesses, consumers, public safety and cyber security. that is why it is so important that everything that we do has a

solid legal foundation. the communications act, i believe, requires the fcc to adopt policies to protect consumers in concerts networks whether they are traditional networks are newer data networks. they assume that the fcc is making sure consumers are protected, competition is promoted, innovation and investment are promoted and it will be completely consistent with the communications act for us to continue to do what the fcc on a bipartisan basis has been doing for quite some time. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator nelson. >> thank you, chairman. i would ask that my statement be entered in the record as an opening statement. >> will i have a chance to read it first before i rule on that? >> that is up to you. >> so ordered. >> thank you, mr. chair.

>> mr. genachowski, your plan has recommendations to provide the ultra high-speed internet to some select military installations. and, of course, we have quite a bit of military in this state of florida. so share with us, what makes large military installations an ideal test bed for the ultra high-speed internet connection? >> one of the things that i saw at our air force base in qatar when i was over there was how forward-looking the military is an understanding that broadband communications concern multiple objectives. keep our troops in touch with our families whether they are at a base in the u.s. or abroad. further distance learning, making sure that troops can complete their degrees. and as the military. further health care related objectives. when i was in arkansas, senator pryor is not here. i met someone from a military.

he had to take his paper records with him, his paper medical records with them. including the military as part of our test bed effort as thinking about the ways that we can identify ways that we can rollout broadband, share the benefits, and share learning was a very important part. find a way that they can participate in making sure that all americans can benefit. >> if we can ever get it sufficiently secure. we can have our military in the field be able to vote well its overseas. we have been racing. so when we find out how many military ballots are actually absentee ballots that are counted you will find it is a pitifully poor percentage.

something for your consideration. the small business. what initiatives to you have to move forward with immediately boosting the small business segment that can stimulate investment in the nation in job creation? >> we found that in small-business. the opportunity is huge. it on the internet, expand their markets, grow their businesses, reduce their cost by using services in the cloud with a real result of a greater revenue, lower cost, more profits, more jobs. we found that there are two obstacles, essentially, to small businesses and broadband. one involves literacy, understanding what is out there, and the other involves affordability. on the ledger is the understanding peas we have already announced -- chairman, i forgot to mention this before. the small business administration immediately start

providing better information to small businesses about the opportunities and how to get on broadband, administrative mills has been a great partner. with respect to affordability there are a series of competition issues that we need to address. they don't feel their choices are adequate. they feel their prices are too high. that is an area that we are moving forward on at the commission. it is complex, but it is important as more businesses understand the opportunity and that they have real choice. >> now, in your recommendations to reallocate the spectrum from various uses including tv broadcasting to commercial wireless uses like smart phones and high-speed wireless internet the question is are you going to treat public tv broadcasters like you would be commercial tv

broadcasters? >> well, the plan that we have suggested is a voluntary one where it is focused on commercial broadcasters that increases their options to share spectrum with another and the market. public media has been extraordinarily important in the country. even more so as the commercial sector has had to deal with the awful economy. that has had certain consequences on programming. public media becomes incredibly important both with respect to the traditional television. also making sure the public media carries the next generation of audiences where they are, the internet, mobile phones. we found that public television will be very interested in the partnership on the best and most effective way that they can

serve their audience and they're very important mission in the 21st century. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator nelson. senator cantwell. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman genachowski, it is good to see you. having a workshop. coming up here later this month. i know you're going to hear a lot about what we think about and the northwest as how fundamental it is for the future of broadband in the united states to make sure there is an open internet. we appreciate you holding that a field hearing. i always am amazed and i see these, you know, these reports says the decision, 53 percent of the public does not what the sec to regulate the internet. the institute is the public wants the fcc to protect them to

make sure that the internet is not artificially taxed by business preventing consumers access to content without paying more for a. the notion that somebody thinks they can spend this around washington, i guarantee you will your and your full when you go to seattle when they understand that access to content to the internet should not be artificially taxed. one of the things i am curious about is since we had our hearing about the comcast-nbc merger we have now had this decision. so the potential combination of comcast and nbc, how will that impact your -- monday you can't speak specifically. i am asking you to speak broadly about the commission in evaluating that deal. the mci verizon you were able to

condition post mergers, protecting the consumer using net neutrality. so how will you look at making sure that content is not blocked? content is not blocked unless it is things that will be very important for that decision. >> but as you indicate i can't talk specifically about the transaction. i take your views and i will make sure that they are incorporated in the commission's consideration of the transaction. >> do you have a concern generally that is harder now that the court decision? >> i am not sure that it is harder. there are many very serious issues and the transaction that will be taken one by one very seriously and looking at them in their own terms. i imagine -- i am sure that these issues will be considered very seriously as part of that. we have already heard from people on that issue. i am sure we will hear from

more. we will be taken very seriously. >> i know also in another decision with the third circuit's moving to stay on media ownership that came out. there is now an opportunity of the commission to start moving on the process. as i know you have a review of media ownership. to me it is very important that the commission start moving on this and make sure that you consider this in a comprehensive way. is that part of the plan? >> yes. we started the process of the review, the 2010 review and 29. there will be a commission action to get to the next stage. we will be tackling the ownership issue. >> thank you. we are eight plus years after 911. the notion of interoperable its communications systems were

for first responders is still more of a bold goal than a reality. in your broadband plan you have some objectives to meet certain petitions no later than the third quarter of this year. we are very interested in the northwest seattle, particularly pierce county. you might have seen this rash of police killings. it would be -- the law enforcement into was very interested. in these parlous state inspections 's trusts to be abls for building interoperable network. >> it is a vitally important issue. the plan has, it is a real action plan to move forward quickly and make sure we get a public safety network built. does require some actions by congress because this is an area where we don't think the private sector will get a public safety net for built. we have a series of steps to

take in connection with that to make sure that networks are hardened, interoperable. we have a unique opportunity that i am very hopeful that we can take advantage of. as we are building out our 4g networks if we can build up the public safety net for at the same time we will reduce the cost of that dramatically. if we don't move forward with the public safety network now and all the 4g network are are already out and we try to accomplish exactly the same thing letter the the cost will e much much higher. i agree with you that it is considered essential to move forward on a very fast timetable. >> by the third quarter of this year. >> we will make -- we don't have the funding available. we will make -- we will do everything that we need to do on our schedule. >> thank you. i would just like to echo my colleagues, you know, calls about unlicensed spectrum as it relates to the development

moving forward. i know you guys are looking at 20 megahertz. their is a lot lot bigger need. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator cantwell. we will go to a second round. >> of course. >> i was just saying to senator hutchison before she left i don't know how many times i have talked here about this position. and the 24 years i have been on this committee about rose. where the name was written in there. strikes me that i am not doing row america a favor when i do that. you talk about a looming spectrum crisis. you come up with, you know, the

nation needs 500 mhz and the next two years. i have this worry which goes along with what i said in the beginning about set out a large picture. there is sort of nothing. taking this 9/11 thing. i am so shocked. i am so embarrassed. you got the blessings of the 9/11 commission. but i am fairly sure they could not have read anything about interoperable, you know, first responders because really nothing has happened. there have been bids. nothing fundamental has happened in the most obvious homeland's security national safety to issue imaginable. now, i'd go back to my safety

disaster that we had. people could not call. it was really embarrassing, mr. chairman, to see the horizon technicians who had been obviously, you know, up for five days trying to string wires through landlines out to a place they rarely had ever been to before, if ever. maybe to the elementary school where the press was. but, you know, they were out there like crazy. it was almost comical trying to string up wires so that rural america could be heard in a genuine matter of life and death which turns out to be all death. now, i am not satisfied that you really are taking into consideration rural america. i think you're saying it. i think you are postulating it. you specifically define when you are talking about rural america.

you say that the looming specter crisis when you are talking about that, it is strictly an urban problem. you refer to it as an urban problem. and that is all of a sudden. the adirondacks, and essex's of california, hundreds of thousands of square miles of new mexico, colorado, north dakota, state of washington, every state has enormous world jaunt. the pattern of the telecommunications industry has been so clearly and so blatantly and so obviously to fold. one, we pledge to cover all of your people. how many times i have heard that from the different people who have been doing

telecommunications for the greater part of west virginia. they always do right to the cities, write to the businesses to pay their bills on time and right to the sections where the houses have the income levels so they don't have to worry about it. don't try and look for them in a rural west virginia or in rural montana or . they're just not there. and they're not going there. so when people say -- i get sick of this talk. this is meant to be about real people getting service. we got into a discussion about light touch versus of the touch and process and title one and title to and all of that is important when it comes down to it. but the real problem is getting that service to people who need it. there are every single state has rural people. i want to know what your plans are for that.

>> look, mr. chairman, i could not agree more with what your saying. i could make a couple points. the problems and borough america are very serious problems. the plan takes them seriously. proposes the first ever mobility find. >> i knew you were going to say that. go ahead. >> it is an important step to directly tackle the challenges in rural america. >> when will it be in place? >> as soon as possible. we will lay out a time. >> what does that mean? >> there is a timetable. i apologize. >> to you have an idea? that is a lot of america. >> as quickly as we possibly can. >> you feel the pressure, though? >> i certainly do. >> not me, but of rural america, underserved, and serve people speaking, needing new. if you need us to help you get

the authority that you need usance. have been, you know, i don't want to get into this thing, but chairman powell made your life a whole lot more difficult, a whole lot more difficult. let's just face facts. if you are going to need help to be able to do more you come to us. it may be a closed vote. it may be a partisan vote. i have no idea. it is a battle worth fighting. getting you out to where you can do what you want to do quickly, quickly. that is the main problem. and it is also yours. everybody expects some to be able to get everything done in the first year and have. peas in the world, prosperity in america. all the rest. you have some of that problem, and you ask for it. you are smart and aggressive. you surround yourself with a rather small group of people.

i don't know who you listen to from the outside. i don't know what your process for setting priorities and make sure that they are done. the work plan is really the only way you get anything done. it is not talking about a problem, it is doing something. ..

>> hof i love the free-market it is the best allocator of goods and services but it needs a referee. you are the regulator. when i say i am not for the light touch i don't want over regulation by what you to use the right touch to make sure the referee is doing with the referee must do to keep the free market free. with that i wanted to send your questions about the internet and broadband and indian reservations and the very difficult problem is there they are way behind also service reform including injured carrier compensation which is very important that reform

carefully and thoughtfully and also i will send you some questions about the 100 megabit 2020 which is called 100 squared and the plan calls for universal service. my question will be as i send you questions come up what part of america will be served with 100 megabits? isn't that a substantial digital divide? water the consequences of that for economic opportunities in the region? but a very short story. growing up in a town in a small house with two bedrooms and negative shut out from. i had not been at that house and saw was a teenager i knocked on the door and the baby than answered by absurd you mind if i have seen this home. this is where i grew up. as i enter this shed i saw a

bunch of cardboard and tape and as i walked into the kitchen i saw a camera on the kitchen counter and a little stench with the bracelet and singing and i said what you doing? caretaking a photograph of the bracelet. because i sell on the internet. really? i sold jewelry i buy from what others then resell, and i said is that what the a cardboard boxes are for? so here in my home, a very small home it is a woman that reaches the world. she is on the internet and someone from moscow can access what she is selling. i said her you doing? she said feinberg, has been drives the gas truck and i make a decent income selling on the internet. that would not have been

possible previously. she has international business capability but she has that because no one has the opportunity to say you are too small or we will impose a fee on you or some impediment that does not allow others to see you unless you have these three requirements to pay us to get on the provider network. nobody could do that originally under the rules of the internet because it was under title two and included nondiscrimination. that is why this is such an important issue and i come back to it again prescribing the genius of the internet is the ultimate democratic tool for everybody in the world to reach everybody else without any interference. when someone of significant clout said i don't want this user that user using my

pipes, that tells me wait a second. tollbooth and the gate keepers who might want to find ways to get revenue that is why this is so important to. the firms involved in doing in ovation, a god bless them. i support them. i am not anti-big but i want this to remain free and open and i worry back for the financial issues over the last decade and see what happened under blind regulators. we need the effective regulation not to retard the innovation of major remains free and open and that it protects the free market. i just want to tell you the story because that is replicated all over america and that is a genius of people saying i can start a business in my kitchen. let me ask you finally my

time expires but it is the case to reaffirm that the origin of the internet, the construction and a growth occurred under a series of principles that included nondiscrimination. is that not the case? >> i believe that is correct. >> the chairman indicated the fcc under a different chairman decided we would change the rules and described as other than the service under title ii the way it had been regulated. that was no service to you did in my judgment the american people. i posted at the time we need to find a way to restore the act which always existed and has always existed with telephone service. it is the right way to protect the american people at the same time and allow the internet to flourish and grow with the free

enterprise system to work the way it was meant to work flaky for spending your time with us today. >> senator johanns and. too really good 22nd questions -- 20 all-out second questions. this is not a question of whether these are good or not good a bunch of what senator dorgan says many of us myself included could agree with but the point* is this is where we base policy. you are not elected nobody voted for you. and it is very, very important that federal departments exercise the authority granted to them. comcast has said very, very clearly you have exceeded

your authority there is no way around that opinion. a second piece of this to go back to title ii with the history based on factual determination than tried to change the world i think will only buy greater litigation, more lawyers and you will be stopped in the end also. the point*, mr. chairman, that i want to make as a wrap up, there is a way to do this in the american system. you are a bright guy and i have some much admiration for your background and skills. i cannot think of anybody who is better qualified but it is hear that this policy is argued out to. of the words exist in the english-language to give you the power to do that to

neutrality and manage in that way if we choose to do that to you comcast said you did not have that power. under the title ii rulings of the fcc itself and under the supreme court decision relative to one of those rulings, i think the decision has already been made that part b and is the information service not telecommunications service and i think that change will invite again the courts will step in and stop you. i look forward to sitting down with you to have this great discussion. >> two quick questions. will you decide on all open myspace issues with the reconsideration of the database order no later than the third quarter of this year? >> i believe that is right. >> i know the recommendation

of the education recommendation there was discussion of different technology to reese's and you believe in neutrality? >> technological neutrality? >> yes. govett is important. thank you, mr. chairman. >> the meeting is adjourned. "

measuring the movement." we are in a new his -- a new century with new circumstances and we need tangible results, not just one-liners and sound bites. today, we hope to start that a new conversation. we must hold everyone accountable, from government to our own institutions. we must be accountable from the white house to your house and my

house. you must be accountable, too. in that spirit, the president of the united states has sent a message. president obama sent a message to us that will be read by a young african-american staff member who works with him in the white house every day. me welcome michael blake shot may well come michael blake. [applause] >> deer river chart and -- dear reverend, the president regrets that he is unable to join us today. [applause] this has been one of the most challenging times in our nation, but because of the work on the

recovery act and policy is that we have enacted, we are starting to see the beginning of the signs of economic recovery. however, we are aware that there is a high unemployment rate in america. we understand the critical need to create jobs and develop pathways of opportunity. that is why we have provided $1 billion in capital for minority businesses and underserved communities and all the rise in other programs to develop more than 100,000 jobs in more than 21 states. we are also investing in a skills agenda by increasing the amount of pell grant awards so that workers have the tools that they need to be successful in to take advantage of future opportunities our success in enacting health care reform will serve to reduce the alarming

help disparity among african- americans. new benefits like for a preventive care and increased access to community health centers, in addition, no patient can be denied, ever again, for a pre-existing condition or lose their health care. [applause] more than 32 million uninsured americans will not access to health care and millions of them are african american. another important part of our administration agenda is working on a world-class education system that supports the aspirations -- [applause] -- of all americans from big cradle to the grid. we have drawn a much-needed attention. in the schools across our nation, jobless rates are too high and expectations are too low.

we are calling for more rigorous accountability in our schools. we will reduce our dropout rates and we will raise the bar and improved outcome for our youngest children before they reach kindergarten. we will chart a new course for a better life a bit brighter future. since its founding, the national action network have been without help and without hope. your organization is working to see this carried out. at today's forum, offers the opportunity for the challenges we face as a nation. we know that too many communities of color were living on the market even before -- before the recession hit.

we will significantly increase the lives of many throughout our country. congratulations on today's events. sincerely, president barack obama. >> thank you, michael. let's get to work. >> live, this is the reverend al sharpton special election network forum. >> i have the host and managing editor. >> i am tom joyner and i am thrilled to be here to set some goals to move our community forward. >> this is not a chat session. that indeed is obvious. we are with some of the top leaders, thinkers called politicians and activists for a

two hour working session to discuss what needs to advance the black agenda as to how they will achieve goals over the next 12 months. >> this is not about [inaudible] is about what the nation's first black president should be doing. it is about what everyone, including the president and civil rights leaders an unnamed balks should be doing to answer the call. if you are looking at this as a discussion were we would meet, talk and discuss, you are at the wrong place. this is about folks coming together to mobilize and to act. but not just the folks in the room, but also those of you at home and online.

everyone has a role to play >> as we know that the government cannot solve every problem. but i will always be honest with you about the challenges that we face. i will listen to you, especially when we disagree. above all, i will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way that it has been done for 200 years, block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand that by calloused hand. [applause] >> the folks on this panel will also be asking for your help as well. this conference showcased the most powerful and important people in america. these well-known folks were here in new york for a variety of panels and networking but the

time for talk is over. at the time for action is now -- and the time for action is now. >>[applause] >> we want people at home to participate as well. we will be getting comments from audience members. will be sharing the input all throughout the two hours past the two hours of the show. -- the two hours of the show. i will be back with the first question from the audience and the first of our web comments in just a few moments. let us introduce our panel spirited -- our panels. >> rev. al sharpton and the third highest ranking democrat and the highest ranking african-

american in congress. mark morale, danny bay quells senior is also known as the -- of denny's bankwell sr., also with us today is tamika malory, angela sailor, dr. scott, the chairman of the national black caucus, the mayor of philadelphia at, the cofounder of the all stars project. [applause]

. .

>> we can get a rhetoric on that. we are going into six of the main and critical states in the midtown elections and we are going to register voters and do voter turnout. this is a commitment. we will increase turnout in those states by 5%. people can go with us if they want. we are going into ohio, california, illinois, and we will up the ante. we will set the stage for the defeat for the president in 2012 if we do not win at the midterm elections. >> the reality is, we are

pushing it on the web and our radio show. why do we need somebody to call us when we are most affected by the mayors in the cities? the same numbers but added for obama. we would have had a black mayor in houston. at some point, when do we truly exercise our power? >> what is real is that people are trying to keep their families -- can you hear me now? what is real is that we have to ask why we have been fighting for 100 years to push people out to vote each time. you have got to get out, go

door-to-door, and educate people. if you care enough, you should be working with people to sign up and volunteer to turn folks out. >> i would think that we have to recognize that we need -- many of these politicians are not addressing the needs in our communities. [applause] they are not dealing with the health care in our community. you give money to general motors and aig but you do not have money for black folks. we need people to deliver for us. if you deliver for us we will deliver for you. if you do not deliver for us we

are not doing anything. [applause] >> how many people in the rams' supported president barack obama? [applause] how many people in this room had been to a town hall meeting? that is my point. when it came time to demand health care, we did not show up. at one. -- what point do we say that we have to be in the game as well? >> what we have proven since the 2008 election pledge to the fact that we need a double wake-up call. the wake-up call for ourselves is the president is not an emperor or a king. therefore, you do not elect a president and then go back to be political spectators. [applause] we have got to be engaged in

every single election process because voting needs to be a habit. we do not need to vote like we get to the movies or light we listen to music that we do not like. danny's point is very well taken. there has got to be a better degree of engagement by elected officials of both black and white to pay attention to our community after the election. [applause] it is a double wake up call. it is a wake-up call for us that if we do not sustain our petition -- participation levels, we will lose ground. it is a wake-up call for elected officials that once you get elected, you have got to keep coming back, yet got to keep in beijing, and you have got to keep delivering. >> we have got to take a break

right now. we now know about the loss of momentum in 2008. the question is how do we get it back? we will answer that right after this break. [applause] we are back at the first corinthian baptist church in harlem. >> i have four kids, 12--- 12 through 17. i cannot afford any of the summer programs or the camps that their schools offer. what should i do? philip from detroit. >> we're talking about this whole issue of politics, when it comes to some of the critical issues for african-americans, what will you be trying to drive

through congress? >> thank you for having us here. let me focus on what we need to do to regain our momentum. we did lose momentum. when we got around to being real, knowing the other side was not going to give up the filibuster, and we got the 50 percent plus one, what we did was health care reform was the first step in regaining momentum. a lot of people missed it. at the same time we were doing health care reform, we did tremendous reform to education. we have gotten pell grants. i think we have taken two

significant steps to regain momentum. >> what is next? >> the next is to do financial, regulatory reform. it will be brought to the senate next week. we are going to do something. we are going to do a big summer jobs program. >> relative to the reclaiming of the election and the momentum, every movement for social justice in america has been spawned and developed on the camera -- college campuses of this nation. we have 55 historically black universities in america. we have students who are ready to take on the leadership. we understand that many of the parents are working several jobs and cannot go to the meetings. our college campuses or the spawning grounds for the next group of leaders.

relative to the sisters question about what to do with her students, by strengthening college campuses, our campuses or the epicenter of activities in the communities. there are problems -- predominantly black institutions all over. our campuses are places where our students can come to use the facilities. the nation's historic elite black colleges and universities are the answers to all of our issues. whether it is the economy are building activities. >> i think we have to do what we were told to do 80 years ago. we have to start talking about black street, not just main street are wall street.

it was grass roots organizing door by a door. we are not doing that. i submit that we have to start a new movement and i would like to call it the cocoa party. every time the tea party shows up, the cocoa party must be there. >> it is very simple. the folks of the tea party are taking advantage of constitutional rights. other folks are sitting at home. i say, shut the hell up. from a political standpoint, what is happening in our cities?

congress is one thing. >> i want to thank reverend sharpton for the opportunity. the question was, the lady has four children and cannot afford the ymca. i am not suggesting what the mayor should do. they need to find an alternative. that is on the ground. what really has to happen in cities, we talk about jobs. jobs are going to happen in cities and the metro areas. i appreciate the work that our majority whip did. in many cities of america, those dollars have not gotten to the cities. you want to put people to work. they are going to get work in the cities. the recovery at, the dollars are

flowing, but we need more. >> do we need a jobs bill? >> we absolutely -- i agree. >> we do need a massive jobs bill. >> we need people to go to job training programs. >> of what some of that cocoa. [laughter] >> it is different than -- in harlem. [laughter] >> this president and this congress passed $817 billion stimulus package. it is there. you're not getting it because governors are not getting it to

the cities. we have to make the president accountable. i know he is better than anyone else on this panel. i know his heart and his soul. he likes criticism. so let us tell the president what we want and what we need. he is not on the supreme court. but, he is someone will make an enormous difference in our economy. tell that sister that we will put her in touch with her congressman. we have the resources. let's talk about our own people to get something happening in our own community. >> this is a comment not a question. are you going to be on the short list for the supreme court? >> we want to talk about

bipartisanship to be focused on the people. >> my concern is that political activists -- what do we do about partisan politics? we need to reach out more to each party. i want to ask our political leaders to get back on one page. not just the party page, but the people page. >> when we come back, i want to go around the horn and a talk about what we are going to commit to in the next 12 months. whether it is the policy.

we will be back in a moment. you can shoot us an e-mail at blackamericaweb.com >> we are going to go back to tom joyner. >> italia from charlotte. i have diabetes and little help insurance. i may be dead by the dog the help for care -- health care reform bill kicks in. >> one of the questions from the artists -- audience dealt with by partisanship. >> when we start talking about getting this on the ground and turning things out to grass- roots advocacy, we are open for

business. our community needs to know that we are open for business. we are inviting the community to come to us. >> what are you going to do in the next 12 months? >> our candidates are ready to hear the agenda of our community. we are going to push that agenda. what we need is for the great leaders on this stage and the ones who are not here to help push our people back to our leaders to say that this is what we need for our life and our liberty. >> this is all about commitment. from a political standpoint, what is the naacp going to do in the next 12 months? >> we have 2000 volunteers in 100 places increasing the census count by 5%. that is what we are doing right

now. >> at the national urban league we focus on jobs. we are going to commit to try to assist 10,000 people in finding employment in the next 12 months. [applause] >> the black press is going to get the word out to our people in every community throughout this country. we are going to make sure that the black community agenda is not only in the homes of black people -- we are going to put the black people's agenda on the agenda of the politicians. >> nothing else will do. i need a specific. of the individual commitments made here, are you going to send out your people to regret what you say?

what is your one commitment when it comes to politics? >> we want to teach people that they are not just democrats and republicans. in new york city i will be working over the next 12 months on a non-partisan election. there are 1 million registered independents that cannot vote. 20% of them are african americans. 25 percent of them are under the age of 30. reverend sharpton will join me in this fight. we will get black leadership. people are locked out of the system. >> i have talked to reverend sharpton and we want to have

more collaboration and cooperation between the naacp and black activists. we need better cooperation between the public side -- these organizations influence public policy. therefore, the agitation is not in the washing machine. with that in mind, we want to get to the heart of the matter. we must marry politics and community activism. that is what planes at the close is the agitation. >> we are committed to putting 500,000 students out in the community for elections through the national coalition of black student participation. we are also committed to the pipeline in bringing in the next

candidates. >> the specific right now is 500,000 students to cover the next election. >> you have to have a pipeline. mandatory early childhood, upward bound programs -- >> i have to go to our next topic. we will come back and get some specifics. send us an e-mail: twister. -- e-mail: twitter. we are at the first red the and baptist church in harlem. [applause] the commitment from the national action network in the next 12 months -- >> we are going to increase

turnout by 5%. we are going to lay out an agenda. we need to demand what they are going to do on education. the third thing is, i think that we ought to have our own immobilization in the communities. i do not know if this is going to call -- if we are going to call it the cocoa party. we need to build up towards mobilization on financial reform. we are going to work with the urban league and the naacp. we need to go out into the streets. we need to register and recommit to those numbers. we need to not stop talking about young of leadership.

jamaica mallory is not even 30 years old. -- tamika mallory is not even 30 years old. >> we're going to chance for from politics to economics. >> we gained political freedom. >> pure and simple. the assistant professor of finance at syracuse university is joining us. we had the president of the black nurses association. georgetown university professor and author is also joining us.

[applause] recently i talked to the congressional oversight panel. 50% of black wealth could be wiped al as a result of the all foreclosure program. let's be honest, it has been a failure. when it comes to economics, what do we need to do when it comes to the home foreclosure issue to deal with black well not be wiped out? >> excuse me for being frank, but when i spoke to the white house recently i told them that president obama is the economic a visor's should be removed immediately. the reality is that no matter how much academic training you have, if your heart and your

conscience is not in the right place you do not have the ability to solve the problems. when i look at the president's economic the advisers, the reality is that our issues were not put on the table when it comes to economic concerns. when you look at unemployment, i see you are putting money into everything. the proof is in the potato salad. black unemployment has gone up. we need a better solution. >> the president said in a terms -- in terms of economic plan, when you talk about education you have a targeted program. if you have an hiv problem, you can say here is the overall budget and we will target those who are most in need.

the economic plan must be specific to the unemployment rate. >> we did do that. if you look at the recovery package, you will see that it targeted every community. 20 percent or more of the people were beneath the poverty level. can% of the money as well as the tax credit must be targeted to those communities. that is in the bill. it is amazing to me that people are not aware that we did indeed target that money. >> with the stimulus funds you mentioned earlier, the reality is 1% have gone to black firms.