our gears is blair levin and former fcc broadband plan executive director now at the aspen institute. joining us as well is eliza krigman of "politico". >> guest: thank you so much. let's talk about another component of the broadband plan, universal service reform, transforming that from traditional tornado watch lines to broadband. there's an order by the end of the summer, is that possible, and how do owe see this process coming along? >> guest: it's possible. i don't think it's likely, buttic they should be forgiven if they miss deadlines by a month or two. that's not as important. what's important we move in the right direction, and we move with some speed. here's what's happening is that the industry is currently negotiating among themselves and hoping to give the commission kind of a consensus document. i think that there's, you know, it's roughly 50/50 whether they'll succeed with that, but i think that -- this are a lot of things to be optimistic about, and there's some that cause me some concern. the things to be optimistic about is the general consensus to move to broadband,

our guest, blair levin, former fcc broadband plan executive director. he is now with the aspen institute. guest: thank you. let's talk about another component of the broadband plan, universal service fund reform. the commissioners have set an aggressive deadline of putting out an order by the end of the summer. is that possible? guest: it is possible. i do not think it is likely. i think it should be forgiven if they miss the deadline. what is important as we move in the right direction. here is what is happening, is that the industry is currently negotiating among themselves and hoping to give the commission a consensus document. it is roughly 50/50 whether they will succeed with that. i think there are a lot of things to be optimistic about. and there are some that caused me some concern. the things i think we can be optimistic about is there is general concerned about the fact we need to move to broadband, that the old paradigm does not work. we need to reform both universal service and intra-carrier comp, which is an arcane system by which a phone c

>> blair levin, former fcc chief of staff, former broadband plan executive director, now at the aspen institute. mr. levin, thank you for coming back to "the communicators." >> guest: thank you very much. >> host: also joining us is eliza krigman of politico, a reporter there. it's been about a year since the national broadband plan which you spearheaded was introduce today the country. give us your assessment of the past year and its progress. >> guest: well, first, i think you have to understand what the plan really was, and what the plan was was an agenda-setting and target-clarifying device. that is to say, it was supposed to say here's the things we need to do over the next few years, and also here are targets that we either need to shoot for or shoot at. that is to say here's some really concrete proposals to move us toward action. and i think in that way it's been a very successful year. every debate that's going on with the exception of debates about mergers are really debates that are very, about how do we accomplish the goals of the broadband plan. and i think that in terms

. >> blair levin, who led efforts in the national broadband plan, asells the status, as well as other pending issues, tonight on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> this morning, the executive director of the national association of state budget officers will discuss state fiscal situations. then walter olson from the cato institute and maya rockeymoore talk about house republican efforts to stop the government from requiring school meals that are more nutritional but also more

. >> blair levin, thank you forgiving us your views. we look forward to having you back. eliza, thank you as always. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> executives for sony and epsilon testified at a house hearing examining the issue. this is a little over an hour. >> in the wake of massive data breaches at sony and epsilon, we are painfully more aware this same information can be used to falsify your identity. the time has come for congress to take action. the chair now recognizes herself for an opening statement. with nearly 1.5 billion credit cards now in use in the united states and more and more americans banking and shopping online, cyberthieves have a treasure chest of opportunities today to get rich quick. the federal trade commission estimates that nearly nine million americans fall victim to identity theft every year, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars annually, and those numbers are growing steadily and alarmingly. in recent years, sophisticated and carefully orche

congressional chronicle at c- span.org/congress. >> blair levin assesses the status of broadband todayt on "the communicator's" on c-span2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joshua gotbaum is our guest. thank you for being here. guest: nice to be here. host: how endanger american pension plans? -- how endangered our american pension plans? guest: the fact is, the vast majority will be absolutely fine. one thing is, you have a lot of money invested in the stock market, so when markets go down, the plans are underfunded. one of the things about markets is, stocks go down, stocks go up. eventually, they return. the vast majority of pension plans are and will be fine. but it is hard to tell them right now because right now, the market is in bad shape, the economy is in bad shape. these kind of pension plans are underfunded currently. what let's talk about your pension guaranty corporation does. someone has a private pension and they expect to see -- receive that. if you have defined benefits, you will get a certain amount of money going into retirement, but your company goes bankrup

. >> host: blair levin, thank you for being on "the communicators," we look forward to having you back. eliza krigman, politico, thank you. >> host: thank you so much. >> guest: thank you. .. honorable senators, members of the house of commons, ladies and gentlemen, i begin by congratulating all parliamentarians on this opening day of the 41st parliament of canada on my own behalf and on behalf of her majesty queen elizabeth ii, queen of canada, who sends her congratulations and warm good wishes. many of you are returning to your duties as members of the house of commons, and over one hundred of you are about to take your places as elected representatives for the first time. together, you have been entrusted with a profound responsibility, to serve the public interest on behalf of all canadians. [speaking in french] >> translator: in the months since my installation as governor general, i have had the privilege of meeting with canadians in their communities, and at rideau hall and la citadelle. it has been an honor to answer this unique call to service, and i want to share with you som

[cheers and applause] >> blair levin who led efforts in the development of national broadband plan assesses the status of broadband today on the on the communicators on c-span2. >> negotiations continue on capitol hill on raising the federal debt ceiling and how to lower the federal deficit. today, members spoke about the deficit and the economy. next we'll hear from charles grassley and senate minority leader mcconnell on the debt ceiling. >> when it comes to doing oversight, i think i have a reputation of doing just as vigorous oversight when we have republican presidents as much as when we have democrat presidents, and what i'm speaking to the senate about today has no partisanship in it because i could have said the same thing and did say about the same thing when there was a president bush or a president clinton or a president reagan. i speak today about watchdogging the watchdogs as i've done many times in the past. i first started watchdogging the pentagon back in the early 1980s when president reagan was ramping up defense spending. then, a group of defense reformers were examining