chairman michael powell, plus senior executives from directv and tivo. the former chairman will at the center of the screen. the hearing should get under way shortly. >> the ranking democrat on the committee, anna eshoo, the subcommittee hearing will be examining this morning the laws on the satellite tv industry. you saw michael powell, the former chairman of the s.e.c. and now president and c.e.o. of the national cable and elecommunications association. >> grelling walden on your screen, the chairman of the subcommittee on communications and technology. the hearing about to get under way on satellite television. by the way the chairman is also, mr. walden is also chairman of the national republican campaign committee. released a statement earlier today about the move yesterday in the special e -- win yesterday in the special election of the florida's 13th congressional district, david jolly winning that seat yesterday in a special election. >> i'll call to order the subcommittee on communications and technology, welcome you here this morning for hour h

i should say james is filling in a bit for michael powell, who a few days ago informs me unexpectedlye had to be out of town. i appreciate james filling in. he has not had the two months the others have had to prepare. nevertheless, i don't have any fear that the cable association is in good hands. .ext is jim cicconi jim is senior executive, vice president, and external legislative affairs for at&t. is then sitting next to jim steve largent. now, i am going to break my own rule here for just a moment. really with regard to steve -- as many of you know in this , the steve has led ctia wireless association for over 10 years. i think that is correct. over 10 years. he announced a few months ago that he was stepping down to resume his football career, which he did not say he wanted to spend more time with his he is not going to resume his football career. i'm not sure what he is going to do. i'm anxious to find out when that happens. whatever he does decide to do, steve will do it in the same way that he set records in the nfl, which got him into the nfl hall of fame, and in the same way

michael powell, president and c.e.o. of the national cable and telecommunications association. mr. powell, it's good to have you back before the committee. we look forward to your testimony. >> thank you, chairman walden and thank you, ranking member eshoo and other members of the subcommittee. it's always a distinct pleasure to have the opportunity to come and testify before you today. i'm pleased on behalf of the national cable telecom association, representing america's cable companies, to support re-authorization of stela, including the very important requirement for companies to negotiate broadcast carriage agreements in good faith. we're also specifically pleased to support the carefully selective video reform that have been included in the discussion draft. all these reforms can be appreciated as both, one, directly benefiting consumers and, two, restoring a modicum of competitive balance among companies. both of these themes should always be touch stones of communications policies. let me talk about the integration ban. elimb flatting the integration bam, led by congressman

and michael powell and bill kennard, both of whom i worked for did this great -- a bipartisan approach that sort of very deliberately to stand back, let this new thing breathe and grow. and bill talked about the way he put it was the high-tech hippocratic oath, first do no harm. then michael talked about how the two of them were in the wing for some of the advocate that this term vigilant restraint. and that they took very close to heart they need to keep an eye on things, but to step back and let this thing grow and evolve. and concluded that that work. i think that approach is much too now as it was back when bill pointed in 1999, which is you don't know where things are going to go. you want to keep an eye on it but you want to let it go together think that that approach which is in contrast to what happened with a lot of european countries, has served this country well in terms of investment and innovation. and so the single most important thing i think the fcc needs to do is continue that trajectory and remain faithful to the historic art because it's important for jobs and econom

i think that is probably closer to the core concept that michael powell identified, the restraints, and my instinct tells me that what comes out of this rulemaking, this whatever, the proceeding is going to become to be something that will be very close to those original, original principles that were articulated years ago that we have all basically followed throughout all these years with the ups and downs of the legal status. what i was struck with in the court's opinion was the dissent about all these transactions that have happened over the years, you can count on one hand literally for that people cite and i think that's a remarkable grounding for us to all take. >> good, thank you. i think to mix it up do am going to go to craig and it is going to keep mixing it up now. remember, those of you in the audience, the twitter handle, hashtag fsf cons. we will save some time for questions later in the session. craig, why don't you comment next. we're going to generally, remover we're going to try and limit these so we can have a series of questions but i want you to answer to the questi

rhonda powell and patrick leahy got us talking on top conservatives on twitter and michael got us onfirst conference call for debbie dooley and others are honest and planned and organized. moms like me, kerry kristof in stacy mascot is organizing smart girl politics. together, these people help to you turn a moment in time into a movement. today we celebrate what you have done. you are going to year from leaders like miracle worker, woody herzog. he did what many said could not be done. he went in the state of washington and got fiscally responsible candidates elected in the metro seattle area. the state legislature there is no longer deep blue. he has shown when you talk to others about our values, you can win, even in one of the most liberal states in the country. you also your friend mary ann sasaki. she is a mom of two. she is one of her ohio state coordinators said she was recently elected to her school board. she cares so much about our country that she turned her passion into public service at the local level. and you will hear from our man who delivered. he worked for a huge

powell did when he ran the f.c.c. he's now the chairman by the way of the telecommunications lobby industry got very rich because of this in two thousand and five the supreme court upheld michael palls decision to make that and the and the f.c.c. is power when he was the head of it to make that classification and in two thousand and ten when the f.c.c. issued an open internet order to protect net neutrality they neglected to define internet service providers like horizon as common carriers and that was a huge mistake in the d.c. circuit court struck down net neutrality on tuesday it said that because the f.c.c. defines companies like verizon as information services net erat net neutrality something that's mandated for common carriers was unnecessary. the stakes couldn't be higher bottomline modern life and our modern economy depend increasingly on the internet small businesses needed to grow everyday people needed to shop for goods or just learn about the world around them all those things will be a lot harder to do if companies like of arising can discriminate against start up websites where every day internet users to pad their profits we need to petition the f.c.c. to chang