likable industry standards or it cooperating procedures than the most effective response will be through more consistent enforcement rather than administrative burden and confusion of another layer of legislation regulation. with regard to the safe drinking water act measures have been proposed to acquire good design and construction standards, least detection, inventory control, emergency response, training, integrity inspection and financial responsibility. within the terminal industry and in my experience regulations

requiring strict adherence to policy provisions are well-established and would seem directly applicable to freedom industries. thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony and i am happy to respond to questions. >> let me thank all seven panelists. i thought was very helpful to us, the information that you supply it. i couldn't agree with you more about the need for infrastructure. the state revolving fund is inadequate to deal with the challenges of modern water treatment so we need to to get adequate funding. the committee has worked hard to try to increase the funding under the revolving funds and reauthorize with more updated leads of different states in our country and we need to find

creative ways because in today's difficult environment it is tough to get the resources necessary, but that is part of prevention, part of having the capacity to deal with the day's challenges. there is the common theme i hear from all of you. that is you need, mr. fewell said you need better and more specific data which is absolutely accurate. you have got to have accurate information to respond and that is not available today in too many watersheds. it is interesting because the law is aimed at crosser -- proper classification of the 80,000 chemicals we have in america. that number grows every day, and the safe drinking water act is aimed at making sure we have delivery of safe drinking water in our communities through a variety of methods.

i want to agree with you on federalism, federalism does say we believe in the states, we believe the government closest to the people is the most responsive but we also need to recognize safe drinking water is an interstate problem. maryland can do everything reasonable, the district can do everything reasonable, water from west virginia and west virginia doesn't do what is reasonable people representing maryland are at risk and the people in the nation's capital to depend upon us in the national level are at risk so there is proper balance on federalism but i couldn't agree with you more and that is why we are always reluctant to preempt local government. that issue is being debate did today. we are always reluctant because things change quickly. chemicals change quickly and the government closest to the people needs to be able to respond and that is why we are very reluctant to ever take away that

authority from the state's. on the other hand we need to have national guidelines. as you said, guidelines on getting better and more specific information is an area where the federal government needs to fill in the blanks better than we have today. i want to get to -- you raise the point about the damages people are sustaining. our first objective is to minimize the risk, particularly here where you had storage facilities so close to the elk river, they are a red flag and obviously the information was not known and the response was very difficult because first of all just think if this chemical didn't have a unique smell, what would have happened? the fact that that unique smell the public was able to determine something was wrong. if it didn't have that unique smell and had the same type of damage it would have been several days before the source would have been determined and

more people would have been put at risk but a lot of people were damaged, their health was damaged, their homes were damaged, the company is in bankruptcy. i hope that during your work that you do on west region you will come forward with suggestions to us as to how we can minimize the cost to the taxpayers, the rate payers, the individuals and find ways to hold those who are responsible accountable for the damage that they have caused. any thoughts on that? >> sure, senator. there have been efforts may already. as i talked about how devastating this is that our confidence has been shattered. when i receive letters from a father whose wife is pregnant and this is supposed to be an enjoyable time it has turned into a fearful time for them. most certainly as anyone who understands who has children when they're going through in this situation and what we have

done within the secretary of state's office is i talk about being on the front lines, those businesses so we're trying to help. 96% of our economy is small business. when i talk about business and made reference to a specific one, think about what is behind those businesses, it is people, those employees and i was on those water lines as folks were waiting to receive water, to get their water jugs filled up and that is where i met so many of these people who are minimum-wage employees who are off the job, missing a shift means perhaps missing a payment on your car or missing utilities and so i have worked hand in hand with the secretary of state's office, west virginia legislature to have a piece of legislation, small business emergency relief fund where the governor, along with several agencies have the ability, would have the ability to promulgating

emergency rules that would aid those businesses and aide those employees and those workers who have lost their wages. >> thank you very much. >> secretary tennant, in your opening statement you raise these frustrations, a number of frustrations in the aftermath of this bill about lack of clear guidance, lack of consistent trustworthy information. on january 24th papa group of 24 western genius scientists sent a letter to epa and cdc voicing very similar concerns and saying among other things, quote, if the government had been more forthcoming about what is not known about the leak chemicals, citizens and local officials would have been able to make better choices about the actions

needed to protect their families and communities. do you share those concerns? how would you like to rectify that uncertainty and lack of trust? >> i share those concerns and that is why i have taken action on many different levels, taken action in directly writing to the cdc and asking and saying tell us what you know so west virginians will know, at what level you think that is safe for the water and how did you get to that level? be open and forthright with the citizens. as i said i have sent a letter and now have petitioned with western virginians and we are working from within the secretary of state's office, working hand in hand as we register many of these

businesses and added oversight for the secretary of state to have indicated whether a particular company holds chemicals and spores chemicals and how we might be able to indicate that on our database that we have. we have a very transparent agency within the secretary of state's office and i pride myself on the efficiency and transparency and that is what we continue if we had that requirement through our state code. >> secretary huffman, thanks to your comments. mike dorsey in july voice similar comments. i assume i want to highlight some important things in that work. i assume you agree, if you want

to comment on it that the a shouldn't have to affirmatively find unreasonable risk as they do now under current law in order to move forward without the important in your mind? >> yes. one of the things that created more confusion in a time of uncertainty in the first 24 to 48 hours was that lack of information about this particular chemical. it was very frustrating and very frustrating to try to explain to a concerned public who has been informed they can't use their water what you don't know. they want to know what we do know and that was very little, about this particular chemical and it somewhat degraded from there but having that information about this chemicals or any chemical within a zone or

range of impacting public water supply is information we absolutely must have. >> seems to me it should be a big priority. it is with me in our efforts first of all that the state have a clear role in dealing with epa and telling them what they think, what you think should be the priority. secondly, that lack of health and safety information as in this case, be a criteria for prioritizing. and third, that we use a risc based systems so that path factor like proximity to drinking water supply can be a clear factor in prioritization. those would seem to be lessons from this incident. would you agree with that or want to expand on that? >> you said it all. that is absolutely true.

>> thank you very much. >> i agree. i would support your point, if a chemical is bored by drinking water supply and could get into the water i think we should prioritize it, absolutely critical. as the law is currently proposed is not the case and i want to read from your testimony if you don't mind to say how much i agree with this. the problems that are illustrated by the chemical spill in west virginia would not be fixed by chemicals safety improvements act as introduced and in some respects made worse. the bill as currently written would provide the public with the illusion of an effective federal program to regulate chemicals while tying the epa and knots and taking away existing state authorities. the chemical spill in west

virginia is an illustration why we need to strengthen the bill. is not a justification for a flawed bill. i want to say in my view, this says it all to me and the last thing i want to do is give people the illusion of protection. that is why as we go forward i was going to say, this particular spill should give us a lot more, i think, urgency to get that right and not pass of bill that is a phony deal so i feel very strongly about it. i was very taken, madam secretary, with what you said about your ability, wants to make sure i got this right, through your office because you deal with small businesses and the business community, if you license them, what do you do?

you created database of all the businesses. >> we registered businesses, corporations and limited liability companies a yearly they file an annual report to keep up-to-date. >> what i thought i heard you say is you would look at trying to find out which of these companies for chemicals. is that what i heard you say? >> under the jurisdiction of the dp to monitor and have oversight over those companies but in an attempt for added transparency, added information. >> information is what i am getting at. >> as i said, we have a wonderful database and the more information you put into it the better it is for the public to be able to see and and that is one step i am looking as a result of this crisis. >> we have 80,000 chemicals out

there. we know very little about these chemicals. when we know we have certain chemicals along the drinking water path this is a red flag and despite the point about regulations the truth of the matter is there is no regulation except for the above-ground oil storage. we had to move forward with regulation and i think the chairman here has pointed out there is a lot but no regulation. that is why senator mention's bill is critical. we could -- i love lawyers, my father was one, my son is one comment your philosophy is interesting but it doesn't get to the point of where we are which is we have got people suffering at this time.

without arguing about federalism although i agree with you states should have absolute flexibility to move on this, i would rather see if we can first of all help you solve the problem which i think, since you have the responsibility under current law, states have the responsibility to declare whether the water is safe, sounds to me like you need some help here in monitoring and measuring and i wanted to get to that in a minute but we want to make sure in the future with these 80,000 chemicals out there, do you have any idea how many chemicals might be stored all over this great nation at various water supplies? do you have any idea? >> how many? i can speak to our member facilities which i do know about and we look at the concern that the product and leaving the

property commack as far as the terminal industry is concerned the harm is done if the product gets off site and so if the product is -- >> well -- >> we consider that -- let me just -- i am asking you if you know and i will ask mr. olson if he knows. i don't know if he does. do you have any clue as to how many above-ground storage tanks, putting it in simple terms, are loaded with chemicals in them. we know some of them have salad oil in them. we are talking about chemicals. how many of these are located along water supplies? >> it is impossible to know that right now. we have reviewed scores of these stores water assessment and everyone of them has some

storage tanks near water -- near the surface water, often done because it is convenient. >> i will close with this point. we had a massive problem. we don't know how massive is but we know because the people of west virginia and my heart is out to them and we will do everything we can to help you get the information you need so after this please let us know how i can help. if you need more help in ascertaining the safety of the water supply i want to help you but we need to have an assessment and i think the quickest way is the manchin bill. is a huge problem. mr. weaver has no clue. mr. olson who is an advocate for the folks doesn't really have a clue. how many of disease operations

are out there waiting to cause havoc frankly. and as was pointed out by the chairman if there hadn't been a smell to this we still might not know so the manchin bill would say every state, you make an assessment, we will help you. let's have a plan for inspection carried out by the state for emergency plans, standards of these tanks which mr. weaver was eloquent about how that was taken in his industry and you have a road operator like this who absolutely -- they are cowards. and running away and leading the people is an outrage conlan absolute outrage. people are frustrated. people are upset and always turn to the government, why don't you do more?

how about having some corporate responsibility, making sure that you as a a good corporate citizen ensure the safety of the people, not hold a press conference to say i have to go now. i have to go now, i can't really talk to you and file for bankruptcy. it is a violation of basic human decency what they did. and we have to protect the people. that is our job now. i am so grateful to the chairman, thank you for cooperating with us and we are going to move forward and pushed this legislation, the responsibility to the states, the states, to make sure that they have the resources and we have their back as they move to

protect the people from the most basic right to be able to take a glass of water and not worry that your kid is going to get cancer. let's put it that way. i just want to say to the people of west virginia through mr. hoffman and mr. mcnulty and the great secretary of state, and how much i want to stand by you in this crisis and i thank you, mr. chairman. >> i had mentioned earlier, and i thank you for that. i acknowledge you had a conflict earlier, nice to have you sitting next to me at the committee and give the opportunity. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate you holding this hearing about such an important

topic. we have people literally all over the world, some heads of state that i had to visit with. thank you very much for putting up with me. i would like to kind of follow up along the same lines as senator boxer, mr. mcnulty, you mentioned the importance of public disclosure of potential sources of contamination to allow the public to prepare or regulate them. which i agree. i am very much in favor of doing that. do you or any other witnesses have any thoughts how we can balance that, the value of public disclosure with the need to protect the site in the post 9/11 world? we don't want to create a situation where we some how

publicized what potential targets for terrorists or whoever would cause this? >> thank you, senator. there needs to be a balance with post 9/11 era that we live in now. in reality, this information is out there now. you can comb the web, find information on most every drinking water utility in the united states i believe, find out information about where they're located and so forth, how we would go about keeping information confidential but engage in the public and making them part of the solution, taking their source water i don't have a full answer to that. >> anybody elsecomment

? >> the management of hazardous substances for which companies required to file and that information is maintained in confidential data bases at state and local levels and seems to me perhaps that information could be made available to water companies in proximity to those facilities and the same confidential database that exists forever. >> let me ask you, you explain in your testimony that more data is necessary for response preparation it is important to use the information effectively rather than just dumping massive amounts of data on a small water system. can you explain what you envision in that regard

especially with improved notification to small water system operators? >> one of my concerns, some of these watersheds are hundreds or thousands of square miles with many industrialized facilities. if legislation or a requirement these public water systems be provided emergency response and information related to hundreds of facilities that is a lot of information for any public water system large or small to digest and understand and figure out how to respond to so what we heard here this morning about prioritizing, those facilities in close proximity to water intake structures or drinking water supplies those are the ones that are critical for that information to be in the hands of water providers downstream. >> i agree with that. as was highlighted earlier today a lot of these assessments have

been done so a lot of the facilities have been flagged already. the water utilities have some information available. the key is to get more detailed information to them. the bill that has been recently introduced by senator manchin and boxer and rockefeller would take a major step in that direction to force somebody to deal with that situation at the state level and that would be a significant step forward to actually get action taken to deal with these immediate threats. >> anybody else? very good. i do appreciate your leadership, mr. chairman, enjoy working with you on these issues, this really is an important topic but hopefully we can deal with it. >> i appreciate the cooperation on this committee, we try to do everything we can in a non-partisan manner because it involves public health of the

people of this nation. i will give each of you an opportunity to respond if you want to. you heard in the course of this hearing information that would have been very helpful. you heard of the failure to exercise reasonable caution by the property owner in a manner in which it dealt with above-ground storage. and epa currently publishedes 90 contaminants as far as regulations on how to deal with. chemicals are one aspect of contaminants. there can be other sources, but 90 is a small number compared to the total risk factors that could enter the water system. and as has been pointed out, if you ask for too much information none of the information will be terribly useful. we have before us a specific

bill, the bill authored by senator manchin, rockefeller and boxer, i would like to get your specific use what that bill represents the right priority as you see it for federal action or whether there are other areas you would like to see us look at. >> start with secretary huffman. >> as with most successful environmental laws, rules and policies in this country establishing minimum federal standards for which the states must meet is vitally important. we don't want too much disparity across the country in how anything is regulated or we simply see various industries moving around the country to find areas that may be least regulated. the thing about the manchin boxer bill, it does that but the other thing is the prevention

piece of it. we talked a lot about understanding the chemicals and emergency response and planning and all of that. the key to this is prevention and that is what this bill does. it does other things of course, but looking from environmental regulator in the state of west virginia we have to keep this stuff in the tanks, if the tanks, we have to keep it in the secretary containment. that can be done. we can do this, but the other thing is we have to stop looking at chemicals in the form of whether it is oil based or hazardous classification. we have learned that anything that has the potential to negatively impact the water supply, however it may seem on the surface we need to regulate. in the state of west region you we have 3500 tanks that are regulated or not, the way the freedom tanks are regulated. 1000's and those are in the zone

of critical concern over water intake. the only way to get that kind of certainty that we can keep this material in the tanks and in secondary containment is to have annual or some other frequency of testing and inspection and certification. if we can do that we can minimize the risk of this happening anywhere in the country. >> let me go to mr. weaver to get the different stakeholders. >> thank you, senator. with regard to the proposed bill, as i have observed all the proposed measures are currently addressed to various degrees with existing regulations as they consistently apply to the vast majority of storage tank operators. with regard to this particular incident it may well be that exemptions could have enabled them to escape that collection of regulations. it is also possible there may have been violations of those

regulations. once we know the results from the investigation report, i think we will have a much better basis on which to begin acting. specific reasons will be understood for the containment of failures and how the product got on the site. at that point that is when measures to prevent recurrence can most effectively be identified, addressed and implemented. greatest effectiveness for refinement and simplification of existing -- many of which are the web to navigate and ultimately our objective is to keep the product contained as opposed to adding layers of administrative effort. >> we do have authority in one petroleum based storage but some of the other contaminants and chemicals we do not at the current time. >> there are some exemptions for

many chemicals, certainly in the membership that the facility gets brought into the regulation at a low threshold of petroleum products so within mice fear there are very few facilities that do hold these chemicals that are fully exempt because petroleum products are electrical transformers. that could be a way to utilize those existing regulations. >> it is not petroleum based products that caused the problem but a cleaning product. >> petroleum based products under the clean water act, and it is not issued standards for spill prevention control. that is the big gaping loophole. dimension build definitely would move things forward at least for those tanks that are near

drinking water supplies. the other thing worth mentioning is one that you mentioned, state revolving fund. we need an investment in our infrastructure and this is another reason to highlight that. this treatment plant simply didn't have the resources or the technology to deal with this type of skill, a lot of others across the country. >> one of the things, i haven't heard about an act that is important, i think, at least in this hearing we haven't talked about it. that is the community right to know act that was passed by this congress in response to the incident many years ago that involves notification and procedures by which persons and the community become aware and know how to respond to particular situations by virtue of notification and although i hasten to say i am not an expert on act i will say it would be

worth comparing those systems so that there is not a significant amount of duplication of effort and burden imposed on the communities if the bill is passed. >> i would echoes that. that is what i think is so important for citizens not just of west virginia but across the country that these guidelines be made public, what the chemical is, what the emergency plan that is put in place for the storage tanks and companies that hold the storage tanks to be made on transparent database that is easily accessible to the public. i would also mention in particular for west virginia as we tackle this crisis how do we make sure it doesn't happen again? for us, i want to emphasize once again the proposal to have the ten year study, long-term study we might be able to put in place that we need to start today the

long term study for the health care and the health of the people of west virginia so confidence starts today, we have an understanding what might happen over is this ten year period. >> the secretary's comments, if senator manchin have crafted a really good common sense approach here to help solve these problems. >> mr. fewell. >> chairman, i want to reinforce a couple things that have been said. whenever there is a spill in excess of reportable quantities established there are three touch points, an media called the national response center, local emergency planning committee's first responders in state emergency response commission, i think it would be reasonable to expect one more call, local water facility downstream. i think one of the benefits too

in making bulk chemical storage facilities understand the risks, may also help understand where the local water closest water intake structure is. if they are aware of that and a requirement that local water provider be downstream that could go along way. >> i really don't have anything else. i was really curious in the loopholes. and covered that well, and real problems we need to address in the future so hopefully we can work together and work with you and this stuff does need to come from the ground up. we worry about unfunded liabilities put on people that don't have any resources now.

as you mentioned, most of our municipalities, most of these treatment plants are struggling now. hopefully we can work together and come up with a good solution. >> i want to thank all seven witnesses, senator boxer pointed out we want to work with you and figure out how to be helpful. our first priority is to do what we can to prevent these types of episodes from happening again we will take steps at the private sector level as well as the governmental levels. we also want some make sure the we have knowledge, that we know with the information out there and when a company fails to perform they should be held accountable. we are concerned about the business aspect of this company

and the steps it has taken to avoid its responsibility as senator boxer pointed out. i hope we can work together to minimize these risks. they're always risks, to minimize the risk and do it in a way that is cost-effective. and it really works. we don't want to do things, and working together, glad to see that is being done by west virginia legislature, expect the same response in congress that we could be a constructive partner to the efforts to the people of western virginia so thank you for your testimony and with that the hearing stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

>> it is really an instrument of the president and that is always the case, the president is always a master. i mention in the book presidents -- each come to view it as directing it to do things in secret, don't have to worry about normal congressional appropriations process. and is convenient and attractive and overly seductive pull in the president's foreign policy arsenal. >> from shadows to the center of political controversy look at the cia saturday night at:00 eastern and sunday at 9:00 on afterwards. part of booktv on c-span2 and

online at booktv's book club comment on last month's in-depth guest, read of women's history for beginners and join the conversation. go to booktv.org and click on book club to enter the chat room. >> live coverage of the c-span networks this morning includes on c-span2 the national prayer breakfast at 8:00 eastern. a few minutes after word on c-span3 a political discussion on congress and energy policy. speakers include members of the house and senate energy and environment committees. on c-span3 at 9:30 eastern the house oversight subcommittee hearing on the irs targeting of conservative groups and look for your comments on that hearing on facebook and twitter. >> commerce secretary penny pritzker says the internet is essential to the growth of the

economy. she spoke recently at a conference by the internet education foundation. we will show you as much as we can until live coverage at the national prayer breakfast. [inaudible conversations] >> so again, a packed agenda rolling along a few minutes behind and i am the least interesting person on the panel so let me do a quick introduction of the next speaker today, we have with us secretary of commerce, the secretary of twitter accounts for all of you out there and commerce so if you can't read that that will be appreciated. penny pritzker was sworn in last june as the 38th commerce secretary. she heads a department that

literally has tremendous amount of weapons in its arsenal when it comes to promoting innovation and internet policy from u.s. pt 0, commerce department houses some of the main government entities that help us promote internet policy innovation and entrepreneurship in america. by my count the secretary has been busy since she was sworn in last summer. by my estimation has been tweeting five tweets today crisscrossing the country. a few months ago opened the first permanent outpost in silicon valley for the u.s. patent and trademark office and that was welcome news to many of you in the room. no wonder the commerce secretary, miss pritzker is enthusiastic about internet policy and entrepreneurship, she was raised and schools inside the valley, in silicon valley where she went to middle school and high school in the valley and getting her mba at stanford

university so no wonder she is enthusiastic about technology. this is part of trademark, silicon valley, part of her open for business agenda which she has been promoting aggressively throughout her tenure. we are so thrilled to have the commerce secretary with us today and we appreciate it. let me introduce commerce secretary penny pritzker. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. how are you? thank you very much, great to be here with all of you and thanks to everyone at the internet education foundation for all work you are doing to bring the keyboards together and internet policy. kim said i grew up in the bay area which i did. i hate to date myself but i grew up in silicon valley, silicon

valley was cherry orchards. i have seen a lot of evolution in my day. most of your too young to have heard of fortune systems but that was the first computer i ever used, way before apple so it is great to be here, great to be in this job and i want to say good morning to everyone. this is really important conference for all of you and us at the department of commerce. i want to thank all of you in this room for your efforts to ensure that the internet continues to drive commerce and to create jobs throughout the united states. in particular i want to thank the congressional internet caucus and its co-chair senator leahy and congressman eschew, tremendous leadership on internet policy has never been more important and more valued. a few months ago we launched the commerce department's new

priorities at a local incubator in washington d.c. called 1776. i am sure many of you experienced the energy and excitement at that innovation hub in the city. that incubator and many others across the country grew out of the president's startup of america initiative which is celebrating its third anniversary. just this week. throughout the country entrepreneurs are launching web based start ups and these unique hubs. as a result, truly revolutionary ideas are finding their way into the market. internet companies are gaining traction in tandem with the overall growth in our country. with ten straight quarters of gdp growth all-time record exports and 8.92 million jobs created over the last four years. looking back, i spent 27 years in the private sector started

five companies myself but the internet heavily influenced how we operated. i will give you two examples. one term we had in the real-estate development business our team was able to do once the products were developed initial size business, virtually rather than having to travel, we were able to do them virtually instead of in person and that saved an enormous amount of time and expense. i was executive chairman of a company called trains union. we marketed many services we had over the next and over the web and that was highly affective programming for us. so now as secretary i get to see firsthand how the digital economy is becoming an interval factor in some many sectors of the private sector and allowing those sectors to innovate and create jobs. for example like many of you, i

was at c s in las vegas and walked north to see how the internet is serving as a dynamic platform for powerful devices ranging from smart phones to a thermostats to cars and so much more. fact are compelling. today, 6 million americans work in technology and innovation fields. more than half a million jobs have been created by apps since the iphone was created in 2007 and just yesterday the commerce department released new data that shows that $357 billion in services exports were digitally deliverable in 2011 which represents more than 60% of total service exports. all of these facts lead to an

obvious conclusion. policies that support the growth of america's digital economy are critical to the growth of america's overall economy and that statement has deep implications for how the federal government should partner more closely with leaders like you. the good news is that our president and the people in this administration get it. and the commerce department for example, new open for business agenda includes priorities such as driving innovation and unlocking more federal data. both of which are closely tied to the digital economy. also we have a number of challenged people that the department who make up our innovation team. they are proactively working to support ecommerce and smart internet policies. these people include pat gallagher, my deputy, who serves as director of the national

institute of standards and technology, larry strickland who i think is here today who lead our national telecommunications and information administration, michelle wie, acting head of our patents trademark office who came to us from google, kendall behrman, deputy general counsel at the center of democracy and technology, ted beam, deputy assistant secretary who lead our efforts regarding the safe harbor, jim hauk, who came from 463 communication and what policy advisers on all things internet and innovation, andy grove and josh mandela and others as well. we look forward to continue collaboration. partnership is critical for us and for us to be successful on your behalf. given our renewed focus on

supporting the work that you do i thought this would be a good moment to introduce the commerce department to this community. many of you know it's and pieces about what the bureaus do but when we put it together we get a clear picture of a department that is broadly committed to supporting the right internet policies and resources and to help on for print ors and businesses sensible society leaders and other stakeholders. at the most basic level commerce department helps provide strong infrastructure for the digital economy to operate and grow. this is best shown in the work on broadband and spectrum. with $4 billion from the recovery act, in the eye aid laid broadband and communities across the country. this is bringing opportunities

for entrepreneurs and others to tap into high-speed internet where it simply did not exist before, in places ranging from inner-city to rural native american communities. i am pleased to say we recently hit a major milestone, 100,000 miles of broadband laid since 2009 and i should note that these projects have connected or upgrade it around 10% of america's schools and libraries, an important down payment on the president's recent pledge. so congratulations to larry strickland who lead that effort. indy i a takes the lead on spectrum management. the president's goal is to free up 500 megahertz of federal land nonfederal spectrum for wireless broadband by 2020 and made significant progress in taking

the first step, identifying the spectrum for relief. so far it has identified more than 400 mhz for this purpose. we are working closely with the fcc, the defense department and other agencies to meet the goal of freeing up the spectrum. in addition, also brings together stakeholders to form consensus on the emerging issues. last year the president had asked to hear from leaders like you about consumer privacy issue is. we began that discussion by focusing on privacy disclosures for mobile apps. brought together 300 keys stakeholders on this issue. so to get there is a developed a voluntary code for apps developers. ultimately this code of conduct will enhance privacy notices on

apps helping consumers make better decisions about which apps to download and use. this year, ntia is taking the same approach to secondary as, facial recognition technology. if you are interested in privacy issues surrounding that technology please make sure we are aware of your ideas. as well my team is engaged in the recently announced presidential review of bid data and privacy being led by john podesta this will help all of us understand how to promote the free flow of information while also supporting privacy and security. ntia's highly collaborative approach is the same approach being used by a second commerce department bureau, the national institute of standards and technology.

as you might know, this works with industry to protect the seiderssecurity of america's critical infrastructure. including companies that support our nation's water and energy needs. nist held meetings across the country each of which were attended by hundreds of leaders of industry, government and other stakeholders. we also received hundreds of written comments. over the past year we have published several drafts of this framework. the most recent of which was posted on line. the final framework is due out in a few weeks and i am confident that we will deliver a framework that is possible, scalable and cost-effective for industry. the commerce department with the tech community, the patented trademark office. part of our mission is to

protect the creative ideas that form the backbone of business and our digital economy. and the information age that we live in. these are important for content creators. calculated the impact of arts and culture for the first time. we announced this creative industry contributes $500 billion to annual gdp. obviously crucial but we support song writers, artists and others who depend on strong intellectual property protections. we recently conducted the most comprehensive analysis copyright policy in 20 years. appended trademark office and

and she i a what to partner with you to develop smarter copyright policies for the twenty-first century. the first effort is to improve the process for removing online content that infringes on intellectual property rights. the take down system. we need leaders from this community, your community at this table including internet service providers, consumer groups, copyright holders and other creators to participate. i am pleased to say we will launch the new form. >> we are going to cut away from this program to take the live to the washington hilton in washington for the annual national prayer breakfast. president obama among those speaking is walking in now. en usaid administrator will deliver the keynote and grammy-winning gospel singer yolanda adams will perform the closing song sponsored by the

house of representatives prayer breakfast. live coverage right here right now this morning on c-span2. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> it is nice to have the president of the united states here, isn't it?

[applause] >> it is great to have the first lady. [applause] >> thank you. nina may be seated. we will begin the program, we are glad you are here today and for our foreign friends. there are a lot of things we appreciate in england. and the second person plural and we had to fill that in. we are glad you are here.

that includes everyone here as well as hundreds in the overflow room that join us by video. includes the c-span audience. we have many faithful people praying for this breakfast right now in the upper air room. together dennis and i lead the house of representatives prayer breakfast every thursday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 in session. this is just an adjunct for what the senate prayer breakfast does on thursday and house prayer breakfast of congressional measures on thursdays but one thing is sure. those singing today will be much better than we had at our breakfast. and again i will not be singing today. that already makes it better.

i have to say the breakfast is better where we each than this. >> they paid a lot of money for this breakfast. >> i wish it were really true that you get what you pay for. >> you can see the trials and tribulations. i came to congress 2-1/2 years ago and when i stepped off of the plane in washington d.c. i remember reflecting on the great words of jesus, turns the other cheek, forgive 70 times 7 and i thought that will get me through the first week. i grew up, don't know how many

of you grew up with a red letter bible but highlighted words of jesus and i thought about that a lot too. this is the jesus who said love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly. he said everyone who makes themselves important will be made humble but everyone and makes themselves humble will be made important. he said whoever wants to be your leader must be your servant and jesus said if the sick people who needed doctor, not those who are healthy, and not come to invite good people but to invite sinn ears. those words used to be easier to live by before i came to congress. fighting for leadership and sound bites and making the evening news is common practice around here. the house is a p