so could you comment about the fcc's role as a watchdog of this area? >> senator, i look forward to working with you on this. i am an optimist, a believer in the potential of mobile for our country, for the u.s. to have world leadership and mobile. at the same time, we need to make sure, one, and the fcc can work with you and the committee on doing this, that we minimize confusion, that we maximize competition and choice and that we do everything we can to deal with complaints that consumers have and respond to them effectively. >> thank you. >> you know, the complaint right now and this is why we had this hearing is just concerns about some of the prices right now. fcc website, you and i talked about this and how it used to be this model of development and innovation and now it's lagging behind. you want to talk briefly about what you'd like to do with that? >> senator, if confirmed, my goal would to be have the fcc

website and its new media operation be a model for the rest of the government. the fcc should have that. it should be a 21st century agency for the information age. i've been around this area enough to know that i won't be able to snap my fingers on day one if i'm confirmed and make it happen. it will take some time. but the opportunities are great to have all of the various constituencies and stakeholders interested in thefcc. ordinary consumers, businesses, academics around the country, others, be able to get online to get information easily to have it be searchable and accessible. this is all achievable. i'd like to see the fcc achieve it and i'd like to see the fcc be able to use new media to communicate clearly and in plain english with the public about what it's doing. >> thank you. now, of course, the question i really want to ask when senator

schumer was here and we could pretend you were under oath. we could do this whole thing when he said the credit card box at he really it should have been the genachowsdi box intend of the schumer box. i wondered if he really offered you that. but i chose not to do that because you had such a nice and positive hearing, we won't end that way. thanks, mr. genachowski. >> thank you. anybody else have any other questions? thank you very, very much for your time here today and for making yourself available. and i know you visited with many of us if not all of us privately in our offices, and we appreciate that. and i also think something that others have alluded to is very true and that is this agency is extremely important and will really benefit from your leadership and your management style there.

and i just think it's going to be a great era for the fcc. so thank you for your public service, and if there are no more questions, we'll excuse you and your family. if you would like to stay, you can. if you'd like to leave, that's completely up to you. i will say one last thing before you leave is that we are asking all the senators who have follow-up questions to get those to you or get those to us by 6:00 p.m. today. and that's a good sign for you because that means we're going to try to expedite your confirmation as much as possible. but tha you very much for your time and i'm going to call up the second panel, if the committee doesn't have anything else. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> as he is departing, the table there and as mr. mcdowell is coming forward with his family, there's going to be a little bit of a change here. so we'll give everybody just a

minute. again, welcome to the committee. i want to thank you for your past and current public service and i must say that i hear very,

very positive reviews on the things you've done there at the fcc and i think you've been a very positive force there. and i know that you have your family here. looks like we have a member of the phillies organization here. and if you want to introduce your family and make your opening statement, that would be great. >> i'd love to. thank you senator pryor and hutchison. it's a great honor to be here today and a great honor to accept the president's nomination. and, yes, with your permission, i'd like to sort of introduce the members of my family. first of all, you know, without their love and support, i couldn't do this job. it is they who really bear the brunt of supporting an fcc commissioner. so my love of my life, my bride, the rock of our family and the wind in my sails is my bride jennifer. and then also my son griffin who is suited up to play in the

beginning of the vienna little league town championship. their tournament. and so he's been hitting in the .700s all season. applause is welcome. he pitched a no-hitter and as you can imagine, his coach is very eager to have him there on time tonight for the start of the town championship. so he came all suited up ready to go. they will leave, his entourage and he will leave shortly . daughter mary shay. our youngest son cormick who calls himself coco. and my sister tina and my nephew glisten as well is here and our good friend bonnie motes is going to do the honors of escorting them out as soon as we're done with the opening statement. so -- and, of course, i owe everything to my parents. my father, bart mcdowell, a native texan, passed away just this past january. and my mother martha mcdowell passed away not quite four years

ago and our thoughts and prayers are with them always. but especially today. i would also like to extend my public congratulations to genachowski and his beautiful family on his nomination and if we are both confirmed, i look forward to working with him in the same bipartisan manner i pursued for the past three years. furthermore, i want to acknowledge the warm friendship and support i've received from acting chairman mike kopps and commissioner jonathan addlestein. i've enjoyed work with them and especially in the past six months. although we don't always agree, our disagreements are almost always pleasant. in fact, while the three of us have enjoyed this collegial time at the commission this year, folks have started calling us the three amigos. if confirmed, i look forward to continuing to work with mike at the commission and jonathan just down the street at the rural utility service, should he be confirmed for that post. while i'm on the topic of us

working together, i'd be remiss if i did not discuss with this committee the digital television transition. as of midnight last friday, 100% of our nation's full power television stations are broadcasting only in digital. except for a few analog night light stations providing educational information for those still not ready and we have heard of three or four that are having a little bit of trouble making the transition. but for the vast majority of consumers, the benefits are wonderful and include better picture quality, better sound quality and more channels, all for free over the air. nonetheless, up to 3 million households remained unprepared as of june 12th. the fcc working with other government agencies, the private sector and community organizations is acting rapidly to locate and help these consumers in our own version of a search and rescue operation. i appreciate the continued support we have received from congress as we implement the switch to digital, and i look forward to our agency staying

folkused on this issue as our number one priority until all over the air consumers become digital ready. in preparation for this hearing over the past few days, i've been reflecting on my three years at the fcc. the fact i was appointed to the commission the first time underscores the maxim that sometimes it is life's surprises that offer the best experiences. this position came as a surprise to me. i never pursued this office, but the opportunity to serve the american people in this way has been the highest honor of my life. what we do at the commission literally affects the lives and liberty of all americans every day. the evolution of the communications marketplace has been nothing short of amazing. especially in the past three years. for instance in 2006, the discussion regarding a wireless only america was just getting started.

today, nearly 1 in 5 american households is wireless only. in the meantime, 23% of all businesses are expected to be wireless only by the year 2012. in 2006, 57 million americans subscribe to broadband services. today, fe the number is closer to $80 million. a 40% increase in three years. the fastest growing segment of the broadband market is wireless broadband, which has grown by nearly 400% since 2006. in fact, american consumers account for nearly 30% of all mobile web surfing worldwide making the u.s. first in the world. many analysts predict internet traffic could quadruple by 2011 and mobileless wireless technology will account for a large share of that growth. three years ago, social networking sites such as facebook, myspace and twitter were in their infancy while

traditional media such as newspapers and broadcasters enjoyed healthy bottom lines. when i first started at the fcc, the market for online videos was just starting to germinate. today, americans watch nearly $17 billion online videos each month. and that figure is growing at 16% per month. furthermore, nearly 15 million americans are watching video on their mobile devices and that figure is growing by more than 50% per year. at the same time, traditional media have witnessed a dramatic decline in the face of the competitive pressures coming from new media. so much has changed so fast. increasingly, america's economy rides on the rails of the communication sector. as the government contemplates policies to help promote sustainable economic growth, the role of the fcc is more important now than ever. in the coming months, the

commission's primary focus should be to foster economic expansion by helping shape an environment that is attractive to capital investment so that the creative brilliance of america's entrepreneurs can continue to bear fruit to the benefit of all consumers. during my time at the commission, i've tried to promote economic prosperity, competition and innovation by supporting initiatives to make it easier for new entrants to compete in the video marketplace, spurring the roll-out of broadband by, among other things, taking steps to open up the use of the television white spaces and fighting to ensure that inventors of new wireless medical devices are not restrained by government red tape. america's technological future could be brilliant if we, as policymakers, make the right choices. the wireless sector is one of the most promising under the fcc's purview. if you look at the wireless market through the lens of the

wire -- we all know the name of the inventor of the wireline phone. alexander graham bell, of course. but few can name the inventor of the wireless phone. a device used by more than half of the world's population. his name is martin cooper. mr. cooper estimates that the technological innovation has enabled us to double the amount of information transmitted over the spectrum every 2 1/2 years. as a result, we are 2 trillion times more spectrally efficient today than when the radio was first invented in 1997. this concept is known as cooper's law. this powerful trend should continue indefinitely unless the government adopts policies that frustrate rather than foster innovation. if i am confirmed you have my commitment to support policies that will promote and not stifle

freedom, competition, innovation and more choices. if we adopt such policies we'll create boundless opportunities for american consumers and entrepreneurs alike. additionally if confirmed, i will commit myself to continuing to conduct the affairs of my office in a bipartisan and ethical manner. and i will continue to make decisionses as an independent commissioner at an independent administrative agency. furthermore, i will work to support policies that promote vigorous growth to ensure all americans have access to the promise of high-speed internet services and to ensure that the internet remains robust, open and safe. the fcc's broadband plan due to congress in february will play a crucial role in america's broadband future. if confirmed, i will also continue to advocate for reform of fcc processes to make the commission more open, transparent and user friendly. for instance, it would be

helpful if notices of proposed rule making actually contained proposed rules. we could also serve the public interest by following congress's mandate to get to work adjudicating the backlog of over 1.2 million broadcast indecency complaints, some of which are older than my children. also if confirmed, i will continue to work to reform the universal service and intercare regimes to contain sky rocketing costs will ensuring all americans have access to quality, affordable services as directed by congress. finally if confirmed, i will continue to work to clear away unnecessary regulatory underbrush and barriers to entry that inhibit the creation of a dynamic and free communications marketplace. these are just a few ideas we have much, much more to do. in conclusion, i have cherished every day i have served as a

commissioner. i have been honored to work with not only some of the finest people ever to serve on the commission but the hundreds of talented career professionals who work at the fcc as well. and if confirmed, i would be humble to serve with them again. senator pryor and senator hutchison and other members of the committee, thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. this concludes my statement, and i look forward to answering your questions. >> thank you, commissioner mcdowell. what i'll do now is turn it over to senator hutchison who has an appointment she needs to get to. senator hutchison. >> yes, and i want to especially say good luck to griffin. i am very impressed, and i am going to make this statement publicly. tonight, i am going to be watching the university of texas longhorns in the college world series. and i am asking you right now to consider going to the university of texas and playing baseball because i know you have a

future. so consider it a recruitment. good luck tonight. mr. mcdowell, i want to ask you a couple of the questions. first of all, on the fairness doctrine, that is something that is very important to many people. and reinstating it is something that everyone i know thinks would be a bad idea. and i wanted to ask you if you see any signs of commission -- the commission moving in that direction through the localism effort and what is your view about what is going on? >> first of all, senator, i have spoken out for quite awhile about my concerns about any reimposition of the doctrine. some call it the censorship

doctrine, others the speech doctrine. i call it the doctrine in order to be fair. but i believe it probably is unconstitutional. i don't have any concerns at the moment that the commission will pursue it. i take mr. genachowski at his word. but there are some other concerns i have regarding heaping more obligation on broadcasters, especially at this time. but throughout as well. the broadcast industry is really taking it on the chin right now due in part certainly to the recession. about one-third of their advertising revenue comes from car dealerships alone. and, of course, we all know the fate of car dealerships. there are more and more stations, broadcast stations in distress these days. and then there's the whole aspect of all the new media competition i sort of outlined in my opening statement. the eyeballs and ears and ad dollars are going to new media.

i think we need to be mindful of that before we impose any new regulations. >> thank you. i'd like to ask you the same question that i also posed to mr. genachowski regarding the media ownership rule. the newspaper, broadcast, television station, fcc parameters and ask if you think that it is time to look at those restrictions in a new light. i said earlier that i have never liked having too much ownership in too few media outlets. i don't think it's healthy. but so much has changed in the last five years, as you stated in your opening statement. and i think perhaps now with newspapers in such dire straits that lifting some of those restrictions and letting

broadcast and newspaper owners have the capability to bring their revenue up so that they can both stay in business. and i'd like to know how you feel about that. >> thank you senator. >> in december 2007, i voted for relaxation of the newspaper broadcast cross ownership ban. especially looking at the top 20 markets but also the below 20 markets. markets 21 and below with different standards. both standards would help preserve the diversity of voices. and i think that's really what our rules are all about. to make sure there's competition of voices and interdiversity of voices so no one company or small group of companies can dominate the news or information or entertainment in a particular market. but i think our communications marketplace is awash with a plethora of choices for consumers. in fact, we are awash in so much information the texting acronym is tmi or too much information

sometimes. so i think we need to take that into account. of course, that order we voted out in december of '07 is being litigated at the third circuit right now. looks as though that court will sort of freeze review of that until a new fcc is constituted and that we move on with our review which is scheduled to commence next year. so pragmatically speaking, i'm not sure if anything will be done before the next review. but, of course, the chairman controls the agenda at the fcc. that would be his prerogative to schedule that or not. >> last question would be the net neutrality. how are you going to approach net neutrality? >> i think it's a healthee very healthy to have this debate, first of all. the concern is that there's primarily been a duopoly in the last file for years in broadband. cable company versus the telephone company. and the fear there has been maybe one of those companies could somehow control or both of

them could control the content that flows over the pipes as we call them in the vernacular. i think the best way to resolve that is to ensure there's more competition in the last mile. and since i've been at the fcc, i've worked to do just that. to help create opportunities for the construction of new delivery platforms. be that through our video franchising in order december of 2006 to make it easier for new entrants to get local franchising authority and lay new fiber and create new last mile facilities that way. and that's not just incumbent phone companies but also new builders and entrepreneurs as well. or well weather it's through our 700 megahertz order where hopefully we'll have six new entrants per farket or six new players per market to mix things up. then top that off with what we did to open up the television white spaces to unlicensed use and the further work ahead of us there. that really helps provide competitive safeguards. coming over the horizon or the

aw-s1 auction. coming over the horizon, we have a multitude of opportunities for competition in the last mile, and i think that will help be a check and balance against anti-comb petitive conduct. i hope we can change the dialogue from merely discrimination, the word discrimination certainly has many negative contexts or meanings, but talk about anti-competitive conduct as well. and the intent there. so as we go forward, i look forward to working with this committee and my fellow commissioners on that issue. but i think what's best for consumers is competition. >> thank you very much. thank you, mr. chairman, for your deference. i appreciate it. >> senator thune. >> thank you mr. chairman. i wish i could have been here for mr. genachowski. we had an armed services subcommittee hearing of which i am a ranking member. but i'm glad to be able to welcome and congratulation mr. mcdowell and -- on your

reappointment. i look forward to continuing to work with you upon your confirmation on a lot of issues, obviously, that many of which have been touched on. national broadband policy, applying indecency regulations, net neutrality has been mentioned, spectrum allocation are some of the issues that confront the commission today. and i think that the range of issues that you deal with, the importance of those issues can't be overstated. it's a very important position and i hope that we continue to make progress on some of these things. and i would say i understand you've already had a lot of -- i'm sure a lively discussion about the fairness doctrine. i hope the commission can put a stake through the heart of that once and for all. it will certainly reduce the number of amendments we consider up here if we don't have to deal with fairness doctrine amendments on appropriation bills. but i do want to ask you about the -- some of the national

broadband policies because as you know, the fcc is required by the stimulus bill to develop a national broadband plan. and i know that there are grants and loan guarantees in the stimulus bill. but i'm just curious what your thoughts are about deploying broadbanto rural areas of the country. >> well, i would hope the focus would be on unserved areas. certainly first. now the fcc has an informal advisory role with the department of commerce and the department of agriculture who actually have sortev the spending authority for the $7 billion. and it's not a written role. it's very imformal. the chairman and the career staff of the fcc working with agriculture and commerce on that. i would hope our focus would first be on unserved america. i know in south dakota there are a lot of areas still unserved. we also have what will be now nearly an $8 billion universal service fund at the fcc.

and that fund is growing despite a cap we voted last year on the competitive eligible telecommunication carrier portion of that fund. that's a mouthful. cetc portion. the contribution factor or the sort of tax sorts is -- has grown to an all-time high of almost 13%. so that is something we administer and i think we need a full audit of that fund and how it's used, as well as all fcc operations, by the way. but that would be part and parsele to any part of any broadband reform. >> well, and i know that universal service fund generates a lot of controversy. the only thing i guess i would ask of you as you take these issues on that you take into consideration the impact on rural areas and making sure that rural areas in the frontier, so to speak, isn't left behind. i think there are just some

wonderful applications of technology that are leading to incredible increases in productivity and job creation and everything else in our economy. but it's obviously going to be very important, in my view, as we move forward, that we do it in a way that takes into consideration some of the unique and particular needs that rural areas the country have as well. so i don't have any questions beyond that, mr. chairman. i want to congratulate you, mr. mcdowell. i look forward to working with you. as you know, i will be focusing in on some of those rural issues. so thank you and good luck. >> thank you, senator thune. >> thank you, senator thune. >> let me dive in, if i may, with just a few brief questions. first about erate. this is a provision in the '96 act that senator rockefeller and senator snowe worked on. just one of the things the chairman is very proud of

because of the effectiveness in closing the digital divide. when the telecom act of '96 was passed, only 14% of the classrooms in the country and 5% of classrooms in low income communities had access to the internet. thanks to the e-rate program, today more than 90% of all classrooms have access to the internet. the question would be do you support the e-rate program as it's currently laid out in the statute? >> yes, sir. >> and do you think there should be any modifications, either changes or enhancements to it or do you think it ought to just stay as is? >> well, i've called for early this year complete audit, like i said before, of all fcc operations, financial operational, everything. and that would include e-rate and the whole use of funds. not for any particular reason, but i think it should be done periodically. and the private sector, when you

have a merger or acquisition of a company, there's a due diligent. obviously, now, we have a new party in charge of washington. i think there should be due diligence on the entities that are getting new leadership. and that should be part of it. >> speaking of mergers and acquisitions. i know that that's one of the things that the fcc does. it's very important. and, you know, when you look at a merger or acquisition in a given industry, there could literally be billions of dollars at stake and there's a lot of capital investment. and you need to consider that aspect of it. you, obviously, need to look at the consumer and whether the consumer will benefit. but you also, i think at least, should look at the economic impact it will have on given communities because oftentimes when there is a merger or acquisition, one community is a big loser in that prospect. so my question is just a general question. how do you balance all of those