captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. the state department warned americans today to postpone unnecessary travel to parts of mexico. this caution came after the weekend killings of two americans and a mexican with

ties to the u.s. consulate in juarez. on their blue print to expand broadband access. >> the stakes are huge because the rest of the world isn't standing still. we are lagging behind globally when it comes to our broadband infrastructure. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by . >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? every day chevron invests in people. in ideas. seeking. teaching. building.

fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. >> oh, very funny. you got me. >> we are intel. sponsors of tomorrow. >> bank of america, committed to help the nation's economic recovery. >> bnsf railway. >> mon sandt owe. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation, dedicated to

the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations and this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: federal investigators in the u.s. and mexico joined today to investigate the weekend murders of u.s. government employees in juarez. it was a dramatic escalation in mexico's ongoing brutal drug war that drew international condemnation. investigate the car carrying the american couple and their infant daughter was ambushed near a bridge crossing the border into el paso, texas. leslie, an american staffer at

the u.s. consulate in jaurz was shot and killed alongside her husband on their way home from a children's party. the husband worked at the county jail in el paso. their baby was unharmed but the woman had been pregnant with a second child. in what appeared to be a coordinated attack, the mexican husband of another u.s. consulate employee was gunned down minutes earlier leaving the same party. his two young children were wounded but later released from the hospital. mexican authorities pointed to a gang allied with the jaurez drug cartel. but the f.b.i. said there is no information the victims were targeted because of their u.s. connections. president obama, secretary of state clinton, and mexican president calderon all condemned the killings. the state department authorized consulate workers to evacuate families to the u.s.

>> this is a common challenge. there are violence along the border at various times it has spilled across on to the u.s. side of that border, but i think we are determined, as are mexican authorities, to get to the bottom of this particular tragedy but also do everything we can to restore the rule of law in mexico. >> ifill: the focus is a series of cities along the 2,000-mile u.s. slash mexican border where cartel-driven violence has ex-poded from tijuana to jaurez and also near the gulf. mexico's drug war has killed nearly 20,000 people since calderon put the army in the streets in 2006. jaurez stands out with more than 2600 murders just last year. hundreds more have died so far this year. but jaurez is not alone. at least 27 people died in the pacific vacation spot of acapulco last weekend.

some of the victims were beheaded all of which raised concerns for american college students on spring break heading for mexico's resorts, beaches, and parties. >> we're actually going to have body guards . >> ifill: both state and federal officials in the u.s. have now warned americans to avoid unnecessary travel to mexico's troubled border region. for more on this latest outbreak of drug-related violence in mexico, we turn to angela kocherga. she's the border bureau chief for belo newspapers and television, and has spent the past two years covering the story in juarez. we've heard before of this kind of violence but not of u.s. government employees being targeted. what's different about what happened this weekend? >> well, this really stunned people here along the border because there's a sense, maybe false sense of security on the part of u.s. government employees. the thought is that the drug cartels would not go after such high-profile targets

because it would draw a lot of attention and response from the u.s. government. that's exactly what we've seen. we have both the u.s. and mexico condemning these attacks and working together to solve the murders. >> suarez: what do we know about the victims in the this case? do we know what they did at the embassy or whether there was any special targeting of them. >> both governments are sayinging they don't know these people were specifically targeted. the woman, there was a u.s. couple, the wife worked at the u.s. consulate. her husband was a detention officer with the el paso county sheriff's department. now whether they were targeted or not specifically because of their jobs, they were chased to the international bridge and gunned down in their vehicle. another separate attack coincided almost moments later in a different location. he was the husband of another consulate employee. they were all coming from the same social function. it clearly looks like they were after these people but nobody is sure if it was because of their u.s. government jobs. >> ifill: you have been

covering this story for a while. help our viewers understand the scope and the ... of this violence over time. >> well, it's been absolutely devastating. the city that borders el paso has seen thousands of people killed. 2600, more than 2600 just last year. and the killing has continued unabated. we're talking about shootings in broad day lie, beheadings, dismembered bodies left in front of school yards. most people feel like they're prisoners in their own homes and you have thousands of americans who criss-cross this border to visit relatives in mexico because they have business in mexico. really at this point most people are only going if they have a compelling reason to cross the borders. >> ifill: what's the difference between a cartel and a common street gang? >> well, there really is some blurring. the drug cartels are cross- border international criminal organization.

but they often employ gangs in both countries to do some of their hits. some of these hitmen are gang members. for example, in this region the ez tech as are two gangs on both sides of the border involved in killings. there's another group which is the enforcement arm for the jaurez cartel. these cartels are battling another cartel in this region in a bloody turf war that really has claimed so many lives and turned this into a virtual war zone for the residents who live here. >> ifill: we heard about president calderon putting troops on the street beginning in 2006. where does that stand now? what is the government of mexico doing about this? >> well, in jaurez alone we've had nearly 10,000 soldiers, military people and federal police virtually taking over the duties of policing jaurez. part of the problem was there is a deep-seated corruption in the local police force. those forces are still here. but the killing has continued pretty much unabated.

what you see is that when there's a troop surge it goes down for a little while and then comes back up. right now we're seeing again as many as a dozen people killed in the streets. of course these high-profile weekend killings of the u.s. consulate employee and relatives. >> ifill: because u.s. consulate employees were involved in this one, can we anticipate a higher u.s. presence? what has the u.s. presence been in before up until now in helping mexico cope with these killings? >> well, the u.s. government is heavily involved in training and trying to help mexico in the effort to restore rule of law. of course it's up to mexico to police its own streets. the u.s. is helping train some law enforcement, providing some equipment, and of course is deeply involved now in this investigation and has said it will do more in terms of intelligence sharing to help mexican law enforcement target the cartels and stop some of the killings and really restore some law and order in these pockets of lawlessness

that tend to be along some very keyboarder areas. >> ifill: how difficult is it for reporters, especially reporters in mexico, to cover a story like this when so many journalists have been targeted as well? >> it's very, very dangerous for mexican journal i haves who are based in these border cities. we were in mexico a week ago. that's another area where you've seen a surge in violence lately. what's happened is that these newspapers and television stations in those cities have admitted they have to censor themselves in order to survive. reporters have been kidnapped. they've been killed. we saw recently as many as eight reporters were abducted. some of them missing, presumed dead. one we think was beaten to death. a television news crew from mexico city, they were abducted for a few hours , pistol-whipped and sent home pack packing with the warning if you come back to the border to cover this story we will kill anyone from your news organization. very, very dangerous. >> ifill: angela

kocherga, thank you so much. >> thank you, gwen. >> woodruff: now >> woodruff: now, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: the electoral commission in iraq reported today it has counted two-thirds of the votes in the march 7 parliamentary elections. it did not release any new results. the official tally had shiite prime minister nouri al-maliki and his coalition leading in seven of the 18 provinces. former prime minister iyad allawi was ahead in five provinces. the religious shiite alliance and the main kurdish coalition led in three provinces apiece. in afghanistan, a rocket attack killed one person at bagram air field, north of kabul. it was unclear if the victim was a soldier or civilian. over the weekend, taliban bombings killed 35 afghans in kandahar. the group said it was a warning of what's to come if nato begins an offensive there. the u.s. pressed israel today to drop plans for expanding jewish housing in east jerusalem. the israelis announced the plans last week while vice president

biden was visiting. on friday, secretary of state hillary clinton condemned the move. today spokesman p.j. crowley said clinton is waiting for a formal israeli response. >> they involve not only specifics about the project in question that was announced last week, but really more so about the willingness of the parties to engage seriously in this process and jointly create conditions for success and be willing to address the core issues at heart of the peace process. >> sreenivasan: israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gave no indication he'll cancel construction of the 1,600 homes. instead, he told the israeli parliament, "the building of those jewish neighborhoods did not hurt in any way the arabs of east jerusalem." the settlement issue also brought extra israeli police into the streets of jerusalem's old city. and palestinian shopkeepers closed their stores for several hours to protest israeli

actions. the president of chile warned today his country could face more power blackouts due to damage from last month's earthquake. a massive outage last night left millions of chileans in the dark. it hit as a concert for earthquake victims was under way in santiago, plunging the entire venue into darkness. the outage affected a 1,200-mile stretch of the country for an hour or longer. today, president sebastian pinera said chile's main power grid will be "unstable" for at least another week. there was no let-up in the heavy rain across new england after a weekend of downpours. a huge nor'easter flooded roadways across the northeastern u.s. over the weekend. it was blamed for at least nine deaths. hurricane-force winds also blew over trees and knocked out power to nearly half a million people. meanwhile, the northern plains states braced for major flooding later this week. the red river was threatening cities in north dakota and minnesota. toyota cast doubt today on a san diego man's claim that his prius zoomed out of control last

monday. james sikes said the car raced to 94 miles an hour on a freeway before a california highway patrol officer helped him slow to a stop. in san diego today, toyota said its engineers inspected the car and found the gas pedal and backup safety systems were working properly. >> while our analysis is not final, there are significant inconsistencies. as i mentioned, this self- protective system was working as designed and would've stopped the vehicle. >> sreenivasan: the national highway traffic safety administration also checked the sikes car. the agency said today inspectors have been unable to duplicate the incident. for the record, toyota is a newshour underwriter. the obama administration will send congress a wide-ranging overhaul of the "no child left behind" education program. it calls for states to adopt

standards that ensure students get ready for college or a career. that means shifting away from math and reading tests that emphasize grade-level achievement. education secretary arne duncan said the new focus is "a well- rounded education" that also includes social studies, science, and the arts. wall street had a relatively quiet day. the dow jones industrial average gained 17 points to close at 10,642. the nasdaq fell 5 points to close at 2362. and the price of oil slipped back under $80 a barrel for the first time in nearly two weeks. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the newshour's web site. but for now, back to judy. >> woodruff: now, financial reform on capitol hill. the house already passed its version of a bill. tonight the chair of the senate banking committee makes his case. more than 18 months after the financial crisis and after lengthy negotiation, connecticut senator chris dodd unveiled a new financial

reform bill that he said would protect the economy from excessive risk. the laej lags would give the federal reserve blank the power to regulate the biggest players in the financial system. place a new consumer protection agency in the fed, and end government bailouts for firms considered too big to fail. >> never again should the american tax payer be asked to write a check because of an implicit guarantee that the federal government will bail out a company when it collapses , will threaten the stability of the economy as a whole. >> woodruff: dodd's bill would have the fed oversee any firm, not just banks, with more than $50 billion in assets. but the fed would lose its power to regulate any firm with lower levels of assets. states would still be allowed to write their own consumer protection rules. and the treasury department would oversee a council of regulators to monitor financial threats to the economy.

the new consumer protection agency would have a head appointed by the president who initially wanted the agency to be completely independent. now many consumer critics are concerned that it would be housed underneath the fed. >> i'm extremely disappointed in senator dodd. it pains me to say that. >> woodruff: john taylor is the president and ceo of the national community reinvestment coalition. >> it's tough to legislate ever having a crisis again. but it's tougher if you don't have a consumer protection agency that really has the enforcement authority and wherewithal and staffing and capabilities to make sure that these kinds of, you know, predatory usurious unsavory kind of lending practices don't ever happen again on a wide-scale level that they did. you need to have that agency. >> woodruff: dodd had hoped to win bipartisan support. but neither party seems ready

yet to fully embrace it. senator bob corker, the one republican who had been negotiating with dodd recently, said last week he was disappointed. he contended that dodd was trying to quickly pass a bill through committee before attention in the senate returns to health care reform. >> i know this for a fact. the elephant in the room is reconciliation. and trying to get a bill out of committee prior to that time. look, the fact of the matter is i think he is a victim. he is a victim of health care policy. >> woodruff: president obama issued a statement today saying the bill provided a strong foundation for financial reform. but he also indicated that his administration would work to toughen a final bill. for more on this we talk to the senator who oversaw drafting of the bill banking committee chairman chris dodd. thank you for being with us.

>> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: how confident are you that if this is enacted it would prevent another collapse like what we had? >> fairly confident. we'll have other economic crises, judy, in our country. anyone who is suggesting that we'll write legislation to stop that from ever happening. the difference is in this bill we're creating the tools that will limit a crisis having the kind of impact this crisis has had, the worst crisis since the great depression. 8.5 million jobs lost. seven million homes in foreclosure. trillions of dollars of wealth have been lost. retirement accounts have been exhausted. way beyond obviously what should have happened had the regulators been doing their job and had institutions that did not have regulation had regulation. so this bill does a tremendous amount of the most comprehensive reform since the 1930s of the financial reform system. we believe it will do the job it's designed to do. that is give the tools to see to it we don't have the kind of magnitude of problem that's been created by this crisis.

>> woodruff: you've got critics coming at you from both the left and the right. >> which is good news, judy. that's good news. >> woodruff: but a lot of focus on this consumer protection agency. we just heard john taylor with this consumer reinvestment group saying essentially it's too weak. it's not stand-alone, which is something you wanted initially. he's saying it's under the fed, the federal reserve, where he says there are extensive conflicts of interest. which will prevent that agency from doing the job it needs to do. >> let me urge john to read the bill. it sounds like he's reading press releases not the bill. i said there were four principles that i wanted as a part of a consumer protection agency bureau division. one is that the head of it be appointed by the president, confirmed by the united states senate. two, it would have an independent source of funding which is the most maybe significant piece here, having the resources to do the job. third, that it would have the rule-making or fourthly the rule-making independent rule- making authority. and the authority to do the examinations and a part of the

whole effort to enforce those regulations. this bill does exactly that. there were not the votes for an independent agency. but this agency housed at the federal reserve is all it is. it's housed there. the federal reserve has no authority over this. the provisions of the bill couldn't be clearer on the subject matter. those who are arguing that somehow it's under the thumb of the federal reserve just haven't read the proposed legislation. i would urge them to do so before suggesting somehow it's otherwise. >> woodruff: but why house it at the fed? after all, this is the agency the critics say didn't stop the financial collapse from happening. >> well i was one of those critics. in the last couple of years they've done a better job. again, missing the point. it's being housed there. if it's not going to be free- standing, the votes don't exist for that, which of the regulators do you locate it? at the o.c.c.? consumer groups don't like it at all. the fdic? there was some support for that idea. the fed made good sense.

it was proposed by senator corker and others. frankly one of the reasons why it's important is because this agency will be funded out of fed funds, reserves, not that the fed has any control over those funds. if i went and asked for assess ments on financial institutions or depended on an appropriation to fund the agency, we've seen what other administrations in congress... and congresses can do in starving things like the federal trade commission and others. i felt this is probably the best choice of the choices available to me. again we'll go through a debate and discussion about this. i think it makes better sense there than the other alternatives other than free- standing for which there didn't seem to be the support. >> woodruff: quickly, you also give the fed say-so over institutions, the biggest institutions those with over $50 billion in assets. >> there are about maybe 60, 70, 80, 90 of those institutions in the country. we also have limitations on the auditing functions of the fed. we insist that the vice chairman of the fed be exclusively responsible for

supervise ory function report to the congress with frequency on those issues. the argument being when you don't have a single prudential regulator which is what i advocated earlier but the sfats and the others wanted to maintain the dual banking system began to break down the idea of a single regulator. the idea was to create clarity and account accountability which is what we've done with this bill. the fed has jurisdictions over non-banks with assets over $50 billion. national banks will be controlled by the o.c.c.; state banks by the fdic and holding companies of less than $50 billion would be under their jurisdiction. in the past, judy, you had overlapping jurisdictions creating a lot of... a lack of clarity, a lack of accountability, people pointing the finger at different regulatory bodies as to whom was responsible for not doing their job. >> woodruff: let me.... >> sorry. >> woodruff: you've referred in this interview to what you had to do or what you couldn't get support for. a lot of decision-making driven by politics. >> it's true. i don't write the bill myself.

i have 22 other members of the banking committee. and members have done a great job. we sent thousands of hours. it was two years ago today, judy, that bear stearns was collapsing. six months later to the day on september 15, lehman brothers went into bankruptcy. we can't wait much longer. we've got to put a bill together. we spent a lot of time discussing these issues. i can't write a bill on my own. i need to have support. obviously when you do that, you need to listen to other ideas many of which have great merit. many of my colleagues democrats and republicans have contributed significantly to this. >> woodruff: at this point you don't have anybody else standing with you. >> i made the choice to stand alone today in doing so. but i've had great statements made by members of the committee. you heard dick shelby earlier this morning say that he thinks it's about 85 or 90% agreement on the bill that i've proposed. by democratic colleagues have issued very strong statements in support of it. the white house. barney frank has. nancy pelosi has. i wouldn't judge this by the fact that i stood alone. this was not a bill i drafted

on my own. i worked very closely with my colleagues in doing this. >> woodruff: what do you say to senator corker's charge though that this is all driven by health care. he said you're a victim of the process. >> i appreciate that. >> woodruff: and the timing of health care. >> bob corker has been a good partner. in fact all of the sections-- there are 11 titles to this bill. on nine of them they're either a total agreement or substantial agreement. the one where there's almost total agreement is on the systemic risk council as well as on "too big to fail." bob corker and mark warner did a tremendous job in crafting over many many weeks the proposals included in those two sections as did judd gregg, jack reed and charles schumer. bob corker talking... clearly that's an issue that could create a toxic environment in the congress. we know that. we need to get our job done. we have 60 legislative days left up here before the adjournment comes for the elections. we no longer can wait. frankly the american people deserve an answer. jobs have been lost.

homes, retirements have been lost. the economic carnage is significant. we need to step up and do the job. >> woodruff: senator chris dodd who predicted today that this bill will pass this year. senator, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: a footnote. later this week we will get the views of a republican critic of the bill. >> ifill: much of the capital's attention is focused on what the white house is hoping will be a climactic vote on health care reform as soon as this week. it's all coming down to twisting arms and count votes. congressional correspondent kwame holman has our report. >> reporter: the president arrived in a cleveland suburb facing a make-or-break week to be health care refoorm and a critical point for his young presidency. mr. obama chose strongsville ohio close to the districts of democrats dennis

kucinich and john cherry. the town is also home to a cancer patient who wrote to the president saying she had to give up her medical coverage because it was too expensive. the president said her case and many others are the reason americans demand action. >> they don't want us putting our finger out to the wind. they don't want us reading polls. they want us to look and see what is the best thing for america . and then do what's right. so i'm calling on congress to pass these reforms. i'm going to sign them into law. i want some courage. i want us to do the right thing, ohio. with your help, we're going to make it happen. >> reporter: as the president was making his case in ohio, democratic leaders back in washington stepped up the pressure on house members who remain undecided. those conversations continued in private while the house budget committee began working on a health care bill containing changes under the

process called reconciliation. the way forward for democrats called for the house to pass the bill approved by the senate last december. then a dekd bill would need to be adopted to make changes house democrats have demanded. that bill would need only a simple majority in the senate instead of 60 votes. as the house budget committee met this afternoon, democrats defended the process while republicans objected. >> we're taking the next step in a long, arduous process to resolve the debate on health care reform. critics may suggest that the process is moving too fast. congress has been considering how to reform the health care system and expand coverage for more than one year. >> you can't pass this health care bill the right way and so now you pass it the washington way. we are not governing here today. we are greasing the skids. for an abuse of the budget procedure intended to control the size of government not expand it. >> reporter: with republicans firmly opposed to the health

care bill, it needs 216 house democrats to vote yes. on sunday, their chief vote counter majority whip james clyburn said they're not there yet. >> we don't have them as of this morning. but we've been working this thing all weekend. we'll be working it going into the week. i'm also very confident that we'll get this done. i have been talking to members for a long time on this. and they have the will to do it. >> reporter: but house republican leader john boehner made clear democrats also will feel pressure from the bill's opponents. >> i'm doing everything i can to prevent this bill from becoming law. plain and simple. so what i'm doing working with my colleagues to keep the american people engaged in this fight. >> reporter: at the same time white house officials backed off a demand to drop special deals for individual states. senior advisor david axelrod said sunday they can stay in if they apply to more than one state. >> the principle that we want to apply is that , are these...

are these applicable to all states even if they don't qualify now, would they qualify under certain sets of circumstances. >> reporter: in turn senator republican leader mitch mcconnell accused democrats today of going to any length to win votes. >> apparently they determined that removing the deals might jeopardize efforts to pass the bill. so now the white house says it won't object to all the special deals, just some of them. the white house says it won't object to all the special deals, just some of them. what that means, of course, is that some senators and house members are getting special deals on top of special deals. >> reporter: the final vote in the house could come by this weekend. democratic leaders are hoping to push it through before the president leaves for his trip to the south pacific on sunday. >> woodruff: >> ifill: still to come on the newshour, getting broadband internet access to everyone. but first, this is pledge week on public television. we're taking a short break now

so your public television station can ask for your support.

>> woodruff: finally tonight, a government plan for the future of high speed internet service. jeffrey brown talks to the man in charge. >> brown: with more and more americans checking their email, watching movies and tv on fly and demanding high-speed internet in their homes and offices, questions and concerns about the nation's broadband capabilities , networks that move the written video and voice data, have also grown. one issue, the speed of and increasing strain on existing networks. according to a 2009 study, the u.s. ranked just 15th in the world in broadband speed. another problem: access and affordability. recent study by the federal communications commission showed that 4% of americans, mostly in rural areas, still don't have access to high-speed internet.

and among the rest who do have access, about a third, some 93 million americans, have chosen not to be connected with most citing cost and lack of digital literacy as the main reasons. >> it becomes like any other utility. water, electricity. >> brown: as part of last year's stimulus bill congressman dated that the fcc come up with a plan to expand broadband speed and reach in the u.s. for many months, the agency has held a series of forums to hear and debate ideas. >> what's the minimum set of applications that we expect every united states household to be able to have access to? >> brown: some public interest groups have called for the fcc to take a stronger regulatory hand and treat internet service providers or companies that sell access to the internet more like phone companies. >> broadband innovation and investment.... >> brown: a number of those providers recently responded with tv ads to fend off any new regulation on the private sector. >> so as washington works on the national broadband plan,

policy-makers should build on what's working. >> brown: this week the fcc is rolling out that plan. among its highlights, reallocating some of the broadcast spectrum for use by wireless broad band services, taking money from the $8 billion universal service fund that now goes to help subsidize rural phone service, and using it instead to subsidize broadband services for consumers who currently lack access. and requiring new consumer protections such as more information on bills to make clearer what services, including actual internet speed, are being provided. the report does not include regulatory changes for internet service providers, but the agency says it will look for inequality in service around the country and then address any issues it sees with unfair competition. the commission report sets a goal of getting 90% of people to actually use broadband by 2020. it says that bringing high speed access to all u.s. homes by that date is possible

without new funding. but the congress could speed up that process by allocating more money. this morning, i sat down with fcc chairman julius jancow skchlt ki. how do you define the problem you're trying to address with broadband. >> the stakes are huge because the rest of the world isn't standing still. we are lagging behind globally when it comes to our broadband infrastructure, our high speed internet infrastructure and its adoption. other countries have moved ahead of us. inside the united states we're lagging. some communities aren't using broadband or don't have access to broadband in numbers that are significantly higher than others, rural americans, kids, low-income americans, seniors. but the critical thing is is that the costs of digital exclusion, the costs of not being on our broadband grid are high and getting higher. >> brown: how should we think of broadband access now? is it like the phone?

is it replacing the phone or broadcast tv now or sometime in the near future? how do you think about it? >> in terms of universal service the answer is yes. we recognized with telephone service electricity, other services that they were essential for our economy, essential platforms for innovation and job creation, and they needed to extend everywhere geographically in the united states and that we needed to set a policy that made sure that all americans adopted it. broadband is exactly like that. >> brown: why has the u.s. been slow on this? why have we fallen behind in. >> it's a good question. i think one of the reasons is that we haven't taken seriously the need for a plan. we haven't set goals for the country. we haven't said this is important. we haven't analyzed the gaps. we haven't developed a strategic plan. >> brown: a lot of what you're doing is reallocating some funds, some spectrum. that means making decisions to switch technological

priorities in ways that some industries will gain, some industries will lose. >> well, we need to be technologically neutral in how we move forward, but there are some things that are very clear obstacles to our success around broadband. we want to promote both wired and wireless broadband. let me talk for a minute about wireless. we have the ability to lead the world in wireless broadband. the smart phones that people are using. connecting your computers to air cards. fixed wireless broadband access. we can lead the world. but there's one very large obstacle. that is will we have enough spectrum which is the oxygen for all of these devices to meet the demands? we're very concerned about that. we think we have to move with urgency to free up enough spectrum so that we can lead the world in mobile. when it comes to other parts of our infrastructure, we still have policies that wake

up every day and promote old telephone service. we need to finally take that program , cut and cap the money that's going to old telephone services and transition that money to support a new broadband infrastructure. >> brown: when you say we, who what is the role of government in this vis-a-vis the private sector which has developed most of this infrastructure? >> absolutely. we will not succeed in our broadband goals if we don't see massive investment from private sector companies. it's why some of our core goals involve removing barriers to private sector investment, lowering the costs of investment, cutting through red tape. we need to take very seriously the fact that in this country, our infrainfrastructures will be built by private money. there's areas where government needs to act. if we don't make sure that there's enough spectrum available for mobile broadband, we have real risks of not leading the world in mobile

broadband. >> brown: even if some of the broadcasters don't want to give up some of that spectrum. >> there are real issues with respect to that that we've developed a plan that's win-win. where broadcasters can move to sharing frequencies with other broadcasters, save operating costs, and free up spec spectrum that can be used for mobile broadband and that can be auctioned for the benefit of the american people. >> brown: some public interest groups wanted you to go a little further in regulating the internet service providers, to treat them more like utilities or phone companies. you don't seem to be doing that in this plan. >> we're focused in this plan on the right policies to promote universal broadband deployment and universal broadband adoption. they include things like unleashing spectrum, reforming the universal service fund, removing barriers to e have, promoting universal adoption, making sure we have a public safety network for our cops and firefighters and other first responders. we will make sure that we have

the ability to move forward on those policies, but the first thing to do is to make sure that we have... we know what the policies are that are designed to produce global leadership for the united states when it comes to broadband. >> brown: how do you ensure competition sufficiently to bring down costs for people who want access but feel they can't afford it? >> it's vital that we have strong competition policies at the fcc. this is the best strategy in our country to produce investment and innovation, to produce lower prices and better services. we'll be moving forward with a series of initiatives that are in the plan. i'll give you one example. consumers right now are confused about many parts of their broadband service. what speeds are they actually getting? how do different parts work? often what consumers see is advertised speeds, but not what they actually get. our broadband team found that what consumers actually get

can be much lower. one of the things we'll do is move toward giving consumers more disclosure , more transparency, greater clarity about what service they're actually get sog that they can make the market work. the second thing we're going to be removing barriers to competition so we can have robust competition. we're also going to be fixing finally the data that we get at the fcc so that we understand exactly what's going on in multiple markets so that we're in a position to act. >> brown: and what's the goal? i mean what will constitute success in, say, ten years for you? >> our goal is to lift adoption this country from about 65 to over 90% in the next ten years. that would be moving three times as fast as penetration for telephone service. we have goals around speed. right now on average people are getting about four, five, six mega bits per second. it's hard to understand but that's what we're ... what

you're getting now. remote diagnostics where whether it's an ambulance person or a doctor in a remote office can diagnose you remotely. or the best the teachers have to offer, remote tutoring, remote teachers. we'll need to get those speeds up dramatically. we've set a goal of 100 mega bits to a hundred million households by 2020. >> brown: that's like 25 fold over what you're saying. >> a very significant increase over where we are now. it's ambitious. but i think it's what we need to do as a country to make sure we have the world-leading market for broadband is a that we keep our great entrepreneurs and innovators working here in the united states. >> brown: fcc chairman jum use jan... >> ifill: the other major developments of the day. federal investigators in the u.s. and mexico join to investigate the weekend murders of two americans in drug violence in jaurez. democratic senator chris dodd rolled out his financial

reform bill. it called for a new consumer protection division under the federal reserve. but not as a separate agency. and house democratic leaders work to find the votes for passing health care reform this week. the newshour is always online. hari sreenivasan in our news room previews what's there . >> sreenivasan: on our web site, should the u.s. talk to terrorists? we get two different views from mark perry and lee smith, who both have new books about terrorism in the middle east. you can find those on our rundown news blog. also on the rundown, a conversation about the new f.c.c. plan to modernize the nation's broadband and wireless networks. finally, in our continuing series "the next chapter of reading," jeffrey brown talks to science writer james gleick, a member of the authors guild about author's rights in the age of google books. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org.

>> woodruff: and again, to our honor roll of american service personnel killed in the iraq and afghanistan conflicts. we add them as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are nine more.

>> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

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