michael copps welcome back to "the communicators." >> guest: delighted to be here. >> host: eliza krigman is technology reporter with politico. commissioner copps if we could start with a bill that is currently working its way through the house and that is the fcc reform. what do you think about that? is it necessary chris. >> guest: . >> guest: well there's always room for an agency to reform. i like to think that i contributed some to reform when i was acting as the chairman. we opened up the agency made it a lot more transparent, lot more participatory and the biggest reform i would like to see would be to empower commissioners to talk to one another as a group so that we can sit around the table like this and talk about some of the moment his issues and carving the best in the future and our kids future. we are prohibited from doing that for something called the sunshine which was something past way back and that really is -- nobody operates. i've had members of congress talk to one another and the members of the supreme court who are meeting this week on health care reform will be ta

michael copps, welcome back to "the communicators." >> guest: delighted to be here. thanks for having me on. >> host: and eliza ceilingman is technology reporter with politico. commissioner copps, if we could start with a bill that's currently working its way through the house, and that's fcc reform. what do you think about that? is it necessary? >> guest: well, there's always room for an agency to reform. i like to think that i contributed some to reform when i was there, when i was acting chairman we opened up the agency, made it a lot more transparent, a lot more participatory. the biggest reform i would like to see would be to empower commissioners to talk to one another as a group so we could sit around a table like this and talk about some of the momentous issues that are carving the destiny of our future and our kids' future. we're prohibited from doing that by something called government in the sunshine law which was something passed way back in watergate days. it really hobbles the fcc. nobody else operates like that. members of congress talk to one another,

. >> tonight, former member of the the federal communications committee michael copps, on reforming,dation, and the state of the media at 8:00 p.m. eastern on "the communicators" and c-span2. >> this morning, jessica herrera-flanigan, former staff director and general counsel of the homeland security committee previews cybersecurity legislation that could come before congress this week. then "washington post" investigative reporter spencer investigative reporter spencer hsu

. >> you're watching "the communicators," our guest is michael copps. also is eliza kreigman. >> you mentioned getting 500 mhz -- we're not going to get that through the auctions. another way is freeing up government spectrum but it has been hard to do that. broadband -- we should just quit our efforts and focus on sharing spectrum. do you think that government needs pressure to free of their spectrum? how should we accomplish that? >> yes, i think we need to get a real good fix on what is being used -- is being used for and some of those uses are pretty heavy uses and you have to have some * of lying fallow to be available to be used in emergency situations. we all know how government works and how bureaucracy works. they are not shy in holding resources are asking reinforces -- or asking for resources. it takes some intestinal fortitude to make that happen and to make that happen, people in the highest positions of power are going to have to say this is going to happen. >> do we need legislation mandating spectrum inventory? there is some out there. i

. >> tonight, former member of the federal communications commission, michael copps, on legislation to reform the fcc, consolidation in the telecommunications industry, and the state of the media at 8:00 eastern on "the communicators" on c-span 2. >>> charles colson who pled guilty and went to prison and later became a preacher died this past weekend at age 80. he talked about the white house taping system in 2007. >> kissinger had the right, although he abused it, to come into the office, the oval office, or the eop office, without having somebody announce him. i always went in through steve, but kissinger could just walk in when he wanted to. nixon told him that because of the severity of the foreign policy issues, to feel free to come in and interrupt anything. well, henry would do it for trivial things. and one day nixon was really kind of ticked off at henry for a variety of things. and i -- we were in the executive office building, the door -- the far door swung open, i looked over, it was henry. i caught a glance. nixon did not appear to look but i know he knew it was henry. and

protects the start of this, credit defaults copps etc and it allowed them to just below and beyond control and a grin was instrumental in that. remember michael greene murder talking about that, he's a lawyer and protector of the university of maryland law school, he was a regulator, so he was on the commodity futures trading commission, said he would have liked to outlaw these kind of derivatives that have gotten us into so much trouble, but he himself said that point in december of 2000 was the absolute critical moment and phil gramm is the person who pushed that through. c-span: where did you happen to get this video? >> guest: of phil gramm? c-span: yes, what is he doing now? >> guest: he is vice chairman, he's enjoying his reward as the vice chair of the union bank of switzerland, still very powerful in texas politics i believe, and -- c-span: if you go back to that time period in december, he didn't do this in a vacuum that was attached to an appropriations bill, did that go through at conference, had it ever been discussed in the house of representatives do you know? >> guest: it had been discussed and they try to introduce the moderni