federal government about who actually can plan fees for the politician involvement in bayh will take my answer of the air. thank you. >> guest: there isn't a requirement for the involvement of the state agencies typically do have nutrition professionals working with the district and the of the potential to work with to set the standards and the usda has a sample meal menus. >> jessica is the project for the healthful food project from the web site calfee school food board for more information. thanks for talking to the viewers.

joining us this week on the communicators as representative joe barton a republican from texas, former chairman of the energy and commerce committee and currently the co-chair of the congressional privacy caucus. representative barton command a few days and then the lame-duck sessions of the 112 congress, do you foresee any action on the issues of privacy? >> being handled? >> i've asked the chairman of the commerce committee to consider moving the do not track kids online privacy bill the congressman markey and i have introduced. i don't have a commitment from him to do that, but that bill is a possible, especially in the lame-duck. in the regular session we are probably not bring to have that

more legislative days. succumb if we have one bill, though that would -- that is the one that i've asked the chairman to consider. >> would you like to see more comprehensive legislation? >> i would. i think the public is ahead of the congress of privacy and companies like microsoft building in their default positions to have more and more privacy, but in the congress we are still behind the curve. we have gained a lot of ground in the congress and our privacy caucus in the house the co-chair with me and the republican democrat we have got 30 members, not quite 10% of the house so

that is a sizable number and it is bipartisan about half republican have democrat. estimate also joining us on the communicators is howard buskirk is as yet managing editor of communications daily. islamic let me ask a question. that is an issue that you have been very involved and. tell me how that has resonated with you. estimate the of the tea party now and they are big on the strict interpretation of the constitution. but i was in the tea party before there was a tea party and i think the fourth amendment can be a privacy amendment against the insurgencies here in the home. that due process, and i strongly think that the privacy protections that the founders took for granted in the telecommunications age you can take for granted and what just

like them to make it happen pie feel very strongly that the information about yourself is yours unless there's a law enforcement talk-show reason to the order of the privacy screening. >> we just celebrated or commemorated the 11th anniversary of the september 11 that tack. it looks like it is going to get some kind of a broadband network, the first approved by congress in february. are you satisfied with things now as far as first responder communications? what do you think of the status right now? >> it shouldn't have taken ten years to get going but i do think the current law that we passed has resulted in the first

is conceptually excellent, the proof is in the pudding and they don't need until september 25th the first board meeting, but if everything works like it is suppose to, hopefully within four or five years we will have an interoperable first responder network in the country, and that definitely would be a good thing. >> something you are going to be working closely and having questions about where first met ase? >> i have a lot of questions by have to give them the benefit of the doubt. let's see what they do but they don't have a lot of bureaucracy getting that works up and running i would be fine with it. estimate another time the issue the republican platform that was approved if the convention but this is on the internet freedom

spectrum it was much more detailed than what some of the previous thought firms have been and i wonder how does that bode for the romney administration if he is elected? >> i'm one of the original supporters on the internet freedom and the title medved neutrality and regulations as promulgated i don't think are necessary. i think that you have an aggressive open markets which reasonable guidelines which they had adopted before the adopted a dennett neutrality principles. i think that is more than sufficient and i go back ten or 15 years ago in the commerce committee where he became a

german in the securities and exchange commission and put an amendment in and you can't tax the internet. more information to more accessible, more transparent it's better for democracy and i haven't studied the platform and what they've done but if it is as you say it is that is a good thing. >> you mentioned taxing the internet. that is an issue that seems to be popping back up to you for c auction on may be potentially taxing? >> i think there is an issue as there are more internet sales and if you have a sales tax and estate, the brick and mortar store collect a sales tax on the transaction in a store the consumer should advise the same over the internet it's not a

sure thing that there will be a sales tax collected so that is an issue where people like me who don't want any taxation of the internet could reasonably support the collection of a local sales tax but other than that, i'm still no taxes, no new transaction tax, no user tax just to get on the internet. >> what about reallocating from the telephones to broadband? >> i very much support the true universal service reform, including abolishing the universal service fund. the america of the 1930's where you had to have something like the fund to get the telephone service in rural america is

different than the america today where almost everybody in the country has a cell phone or iphone or ipad and we have multiple service providers with the 3g and 4g networks and i see no reason for the fund as it was originally construed, and it's debatable if you need it at all faugh. they represent a rural district that want to use the service of broadband into their areas and when the issue came up last time in the committee of congress and now senator of missouri offered some amendments to require that

we provide if you're going to do broadband universal service to underserved areas that amendment was defeated, so to my mind, it does show little bit of hypocrisy in the concept. >> the act does require them to have the usf. is that something you would favor changing ... all? >> i don't want to regurgitate. >> many of the universal service fund 70 years ago and they won the case then and may have been necessary. you have a tough time making that case today. if you choose to live in some remote area, you don't have an entitlement to broadband.

you don't have an entitlement who might argue that you need a land line telephone for wireless and all that we have today i don't think you can make the argument to do usf for broadband in rural areas. it's not a necessity. it's an isotope. >> have you been falling any of the changes that they have made over the last year or so? >> from the reform standpoint i would say progress is being made and some of the caps and some of the things we take down are stepping in the right direction. >> and the taxes that you talked about in the contribution reform which enters into the republican commissioners who's been urging you to move towards the contribution reform which would be broadening -- >> anything that proves the

reform i am supportive of. it's just the political support especially in the senate if you have two senators and come from a largely rural state it is tough to get reform through the senate. >> i want to talk about social media. does your do not track kids bill centered around social media, and why just the children? why not adults as well? >> that goes to one of your questions about the comprehensive privacy bill. the possibility that you should protect children there's not any republican or democrat subset of

the caucasus that doesn't want to protect the privacy of children on the internet so it is a no-brainer. congressman r-tn bayh chose children's privacy because we thought would be the way to get the ball rolling to a bigger bill, and as i said there is a chance that we can do that in the children's privacy bill in the lame-duck session. it's not a done deal but it's a possibility. >> to get to the said and the president's desk. as the mcginn the normal sense the answer is yes that when there is no co as the mcginn the normal sense the answer is yes that when there is no controversy once you get on the track that's the kind of bill that could move very quickly and could be done quickly. i'm not saying it will be but it could be.

>> you mentioned that neutrality and internet freedom. there is annette neutrality order imposed in december 2010. >> they voted to repeal that. >> you were not expressing your displeasure with that. they said this week that's actually been helpful and it's kept the internet free and dennett neutrality role do you agree with that? >> how hard is it to pat yourself on the back for something that wasn't necessary? i don't put much credibility and then patting themselves on aback. i don't think they've done much harm with it but i don't think it's necessary were very good. i can't point to an example of something that wasn't done because of that would have been done that would have infringed on the use of the internet. semidey you see does something that will stand all of the land

or will there be more efforts to overturn that? >> it depends who wins the election? >> you think that is something the from the administration might revoke? >> republican house, republican senate, republican president. i believe it is reasonable to assume that we repeal and the majority leader mcconnell would be favorable but again, when you don't count your a legislative victories before you have elected victories triet >> we respect the will of the people to make those decisions. >> representative, next week on the communicators we are going to be talking to julie bedle of the ftc and mary "don't ask, don't tell" of congress about the applications and the new guidelines the ftc came up with when it comes to privacy.

are the guidelines enough when it comes to protecting the privacy or would you favor more -- >> i would favor a more definitive statutory approach, but i am not opposed to what the guidelines are. i think the ftc has done very well in trying to do within their scope as much as they could for privacy. i don't -- i am not - on what they have done. >> speaking of the government agencies, what is your great for the german genachowski's leadership and congenital? >> chairman genachowski is a very bright person and very intelligent and very hard working. i think that he does his homework. i don't agree with his philosophy. i think it is regulatory and he's tried to stretch some of the older laws in ways that are

a political purpose of president ilana who's very close personally, so i don't agree with him on his philosophy but in terms of intellect and integrity i have a very high opinion of him. >> as a member of the commerce committee have you had much interaction with of the chairman other than just at a hearing? >> he is a visible and accessible and has been down to visit many times. we traded phone calls, we had several phone conversations. he and the other commissioners have always been willing to visit with me on this. this is not a telecommunications congress where the committee has done a number of hearings. i think that he's done a very good job in moving what could be

moved into doing oversight on the various aspects of the industry. but legislatively this is not an act of the congress. >> a couple years ago there wasn't a lot of talk about the need and there's a lot of focus on that and, you know, we are not hearing much about that right now. what forces are out there is their anything that could have engaged congress on matt? >> there is no process. the reform act is 1996. most of the players and john dingell. most of the principles of retired and the industry

significantly different for all intensive purposes there wasn't an internet in 1996 to speak of, and salles phones were big boxes. of course the ipad was still a figment of somebody's education. so, today there's not -- there's nobody in america who doesn't have some sort of a mobile telecommunications device if they want it and there's people who don't use them, but when there are more cellular phones than hard line phones, the world has changed and you can begin strong intellectual case that we need to have revisited. all of the telecommunications act we are still operating in some cases.

>> as a follow-up question to that we need to cover the energy industry and it took a long time to get the title through and by the time finally something got past, everything had changed and the industry dealt with a whole bunch of different issues. how hard is it for the congress to move and it might not doing more harm than i would do good. estimates difficult but it's supposed to be difficult. the good news it is not in possible across the political spectrum of the problems are so then you can look on solutions. they serve and texas the congress can find the time to deal, with all these issues we

don't agree on the problem identification. you know, most democrats don't think that spending is a problem and most republicans on health care issue, the obama administration and the people like congressman waxman and dingell in the house, they really want a universal coverage, the republicans didn't think the coverage was a big issue they thought the cost was we are not going to agree on the problem solution and the country -- when the country gets a consensus the congress can find the consensus. on some of the bigger social issues we have to try to begin to find solutions in the

telecommunications it's not in a crisis you could make a really good case this would be the time to reform the basic structure. >> when it comes to another issue that's been out there the past year so cybersecurity during as of today if you would on your thought process and what you think about the president being an executive order. >> for cybersecurity, i give the intelligence committee and in the house the german mike rogers and michigan, he's done an excellent job of trying to identify the problems and put together a solution matrix. but where i think the sires security hasn't been quite as robust as it needs to be is one aspect of it and that is the reason the bill hasn't gone anywhere in the senate. if we can address the privacy

issues, we agree we need to do a cybersecurity bill. i think it is problematic and it's going to get done in this congress but hopefully we can build on that. >> i want to ask about the spectrum. everybody is talking about what it is now and the of administration we felt -- lead of the plan for the wireless brought abandon ten years but so far it's made relatively little progress. what kind of report card would you give right now in identifying and making more spectrum available for wireless profit? >> i would give them an incomplete. the fact that they acknowledge something needs to be done is a good thing. it's hard to do these things as you know, people in that aspect

how they are using it they seldom want to get up in the private sector or the public sector and then trying to get them to agree on how delicate the spectrum as it is being used is never easy because it is such a valuable commodity the people that want to use it try to position themselves in the marketplace and they get the first choice so it is not an easy thing to do. the good news is what the market spectrum has is really providing lots of product sand choices to the american consumers to use, and again, you know, who would have dreamed these networks even five or six years ago. >> this scheduled the spectrum

legislation faugh kick broadcasters would have a chance on the airways. i'm wondering would that be very successful in getting this done? [laughter] >> that is a tough one. the traditional broadcast market and local level has a tougher time of it than almost anybody in the silicon indications investor in the last ten or 15 years. there's a decision on the case by case basis. each local station decides whether it is better to keep it or try to give value added or the future use or whether to what it to go and monetize and i can't speculate. >> what about the government

ownership or management of spectrum and not putting that into play as well? >> almost by definition you would assume the spectrum the government uses is the least efficiently used because the government is a free did and it's allocated to retire would have to say the best of intentions not a located in the most sufficient fashion as allocated more. but the reality of the political situation in the various agencies of the time of the allocation so, i don't have a solution on how to reallocate and reprivatize its use but at some point in time that almost inevitably has to happen >> finally, congressman barton i want to ask about domestic drones is that something the privacy caucus is concerned with and is looking into?

>> they are so new that we have had some discussions about it and i have been briefed locally and they have a license to operate but since they are near the international airport the license is so restricted and it's literally been flown in a field like arlington they don't have the ability yet to even do traffic surveillance up and down interstate 30 or interstate 20. so, i see both sides of it and i see a real law enforcement keep devotee going after the traffic violators and drug dealers and things like that. but on the other hand, too i can see privacy issues that need to be addressed. what is ironic about the drones is that the city has a license but it's so restrictive that

they basically can't use it. but i can do to a store in arlington and the body of ron with almost no restrictions on what i use it for. i could fly it over to my neighbor's backyard as long as i don't finally public access that they are poor or something like that. so, they have so much capability we almost have to find a way to use them that we are going to have to put reasonable prescriptions so we protect the privacy. >> barton is former chairman of the energy and commerce committee. he's been our guest on the communicators along with howard buskirk, assistant managing editor of communications daily.

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