. >> when we spoke with chairman julius genachowski a few weeks ago on this program, we talked with himce fund. we want to play a little bit of that interview and get your reaction to what he said. >> the bad news is, the program is struggling, given the changes in the marketplace. as the contribution based for the program shrinks, there are other issues creating stress is on the program. there is a wide bipartisan group that has sought reform in the universal service fund for quite some time. the last element of the program that needs reform is that, as you said, is targeted at the kind of communication service that we had when we were growing up, ordinary telephones. what we need to do is reorient the universal service fund to support the next generation of communication services. that is something that is widely recognized as desirable. there are a lot of hard questions in theory at how we get from here to there. -- in figuring out how we get from here to there. it will take awhile to devise a way to inform universal service and implement it, but there is widespread agreement that we

and, ann veigle, we'll get to you in just a second, but just a few weeks ago we had fcc chair julius genachowski on "the communicators", and here's what he had to say about network neutrality. >> there's no question that the internet will remain free and open and, also, that companies that are managing networks can engage in reasonable network management practices so that together we can create a climate and a set of incentives for ongoing investment in the network to make it robust and smarter, and that also generates investment and innovation on the edge of the network so that any entrepreneur can come up with an idea and put it out on the internet and have a chance to compete and to make a business. this is a real issue, for example, for small businesses who in the internet have the opportunity to either grow existing small businesses or to start new ones. it's a real opportunity, also, for speakers, content creators of all sorts because the internet is a platform where you can develop an idea and reach a very broad audience. that's the internet that everyone understands. >> host: mr. erickso

de la vega, when we spoke with chairman julius genachowski a few weeks ago on this program, we talked with him about universal service fund. we want to play a little bit of that interview and get your action reaction to what he said about usf. >> the bad news is the program is struggling given the changes in the marketplace. as the contribution base for the program shrinks, there are other issues that are creating stresses on the program, and there's a wide group, bipartisan, that has sought reform of the universal service fund for quite some time. the last element of the program that needs reform is that, as you said, it's targeted at the kind of communications service that we had when we were growing up, ordinary telephones. still, of course, very important, but we need to reorient the universal service fund to support the next generation of communications services broadband. that's something that's widely recognized as desirable, there are a lot of hard questions in figuring out how we get from here to there. it's something we'll be looking at as part of our broadband plan. it's go

de la vega when we spoke with german julius genachowski a few weeks ago on this program we talked with him about universal service fund. we want to play a little of that interview and get your reaction to what he said about usf. >> guest: >> the bad news is the program is struggling given the changes in the marketplace. as the contribution base for the program shrinks, there are other issues that are creating stresses on the program and there's a wide group bipartisan that has sought the form of the universal service for quite some time. the last element of the program that needs reform is that as you said it's targeted at the kind of communication service that we had when we return up, ordinary telephones still of course very important. what we need to do is reorient the universal service fund to support the next generation of communication services broadband. that's something that's widely recognized as desirable. there a lot of hard questions in figuring out how we get from here to there. it's something we'll be looking at as part of our broadband plan. it's going to take a while to

witnesses include fcc chairman julius genachowski.ed about one hour and 45 minutes. >> this hearing will come to order. we will have some of our members coming. we just impeached judge. [laughter] some will be emotionally upset and take time getting here. the ranking member, kay bailey hutchison, is not here today. if no one else comes, we will go right to you, mr. genachowski, and then we will see what happens from there. we have a lot of questions. you need to go after your first thing and we would love to have some of your folks that you're talking to come back again. and that we have another terrific panel behind that. my approach to this, frankly, is not to start out controversy away. i did that last year. i am so put off by the whole concept of promiscuity and lasciviousness and all of these things. it bothers a grandfather of five. i care about that. i found out that this is very much a first amendment committee, and so we have to work carefully, but i am determined that we will eventually get to this. now one atop basically ab