mr. lieberman is a graduate of johns hopkins. mr. white is also a ford foundation fellow at leningrad state university in st. petersburg, russia. many of my constituents are very loyal customers. our next witness, we are glad to have you, mr. randall stephenson, the chairman, president of at&t. let me say this. at&t is one of the world's largest telecommunication companies. i note that over the past six years, at&t has invested more capital into the united states economy than any other public company and more than $140 billion invested in wireless operations combined. that is erected to be proud of. -- a record to be proud of. i commend you for that. prior to becoming ceo, he served as the chief financial officer at at&t from 2001 through 2004 and then as the chief operating officer from 2004 through 2007. he was appointed to the board of directors in 2005. he began his long career in telecommunications in 1982 with southwestern bell telephone in oklahoma. in addition to his leadership at at&t, he is chairman of the business roundtab

mr. lieberman. at this time i recognize the chairman of the committee for purposes of questions. >> thank you for all your testimony. mr. stephenson, i noted you taking notes during mr. bergmayer's testimony and mr. lieberman. is there one or two points you want to make in response to the criticism of the merger. >> he was sighting a blog where they wrote we didn't fulfill mer mergers with the south bell merge and that was false. it required we provide 100 broadband and 85% of fixed line and one has to remember -- >> i have limited mount of time so i get your response to that point. let me go on to my mine point -- >> we have all been bloged before. >> we understand that. let me go on to my main point in the opening statement and that is this is what happens in the consum consumer. in my hometown, roneoak virginia, the bunled package is with verizon and directv. what happens to that package i have with verizon and directv under the merger? >> my expectation is nothing should change. >> does at&t off

mr. lieberman before we close out. >> thank you. mr. stephenson and mr. white are very polished about talking about the benefits that will come to this deal, the commitments that they're willing to make. we haven't heard them talk about the concerns that they're -- that the programming, particularly the regional sports networks that are owned by directv are not subject to any arbitration conditions and that they will have an incentive ability to increase the prices for that programming for smaller cable operators. if they're going to be making public interest commitments, it would be nice to hear them talk about a commitment to address that problem as well. >> thank you. the gentleman's distinguished ranking member time has expired. >> thank you. >> the chair recognizes himself for his questions. i want to go back to something that's just off a little bit of my other questions. statements to mr. white. i want it to come from my friend from georgia. i want to make it clear, directv will not be forced to unionize, correct? forced to unionize? >> no, sir. we

mr. lieberman before we close out. >> mr. stephenson and white are polished about the benefits they are willing to make. we have not heard them talk about the concerns that they are vertically integrating programming, particularly sports channels. they will have an incentive ability to increase prices. if they're going to be making public interest commitments, it would be nice to hear them talk about a commitment to address that problem him as well. >> the time has expired. the chair recognizes himself or his questions. something.o back to i want to make it clear that directv will not be forced to unionize, correct? >> no, sir. we leave it up to the employees. >> will it be a required vote? >> the union has to go in and solicit and see if they can hold about. ? -- hold a vote. >> i had previous questions about the time warner merger. when the subcommittee held a hearing on that merger earlier this year, could you give me your opinion on that issue? >> aca is confirmed -- concerned that time warner cable would be able to exclu

mr. lieberman. >> thank you. unprecedented wave of consolidation is occurring within the video programming and distribution industries that will transform the competitive market and consumer experience. this is cause for concern. congress and regulators, therefore, must not only review the pending deals, it must also examine and act to address the underlying market problems fueling them. focusing on at&t's deal, it's important to realize directv is not only a nationwide provider of paid tv service it's also a programmer with interests in three regional sports networks and national programming. this gives directv an economic incentive and ability to charge its rivals higher fees for its programming, especially its regional sports networks. smaller cable operators are concerned that this deal will lead directv's programmers to hold out for even higher rates. with 26 million subscribers, at&t and directv combined will command better programming deals than directv would alone. this means higher video pr

mr. lieberman, discriminatory pricing obviously is a concern. we want to preserve the competition we have and you've talked about a differential of 30% in your testimony. you said the proposed transaction will increase directv affiliate programmers incentive to charge higher prices to at&t directv rivals. then you say regulators should adopt a remedy to eliminate the ability of directv affiliated programmers to charge higher prices to at&t directv rivals. i think the same thing would apply to comcast, nbc, and you know obviously others. it wouldn't be just directv. but would you -- and i know there was some arbitration that expired. directv had to submit to arbitration. i think comcast still does. i think you said in your statement that you didn't feel like that was sufficient. you want to comment further on that or on discriminatory pricing? >> yeah. let me start with i think the issue that's most directly tied to the at&t directv deal which is their -- which is directv's incentive to charge its rivals higher prices for its programming which wi

mr. president, of all the visits that the senator -- the former senator from kentucky, joe lieberman and lindsey graham and i made every fourth of july, two or three times a year traveling the country and having been in the company of not just great leaders like general petraeus and ambassador crocker, but the young men, the privates, corporals, especially the sergeants. these brave, brave men and women who were serving, who were willing to sacrifice on behalf of somebody else's freedom, and they pleefd they won. the surge succeeded. any military expert will tell you the surge succeeded. but it was won at great sacrifice. among the cities, the black flags of al qaeda fly over the city of fallujah today. 96 brave soldiers and marines were killed, 600 wounded. what do we tell their families? what do we tell their families? what do we tell their mothers? so it's not too late. america is still the most powerful nation on earth. we still have the finest and strongest military ever. we have the finest young men and women who are serving in it ever. it is not too late. but we've got to have a d

mr. donelan and the white house. we could have negotiated a deal because lindsey graham, joe lieberman and i were on the ground and gotr of record. >> you matter tremendously in these situations because of your expertise. you've become a little bit of a cassandra. by that i mean you predict doom in all these situation. is it incumbent upon you, especially because of who you are, to be offering solutions and not doing what some are suggesting is a victory dance that things have gone wrong? >> well, thank you for that comment, chris. but in 2006 when i called for the resignation of donald rumsfeld because we were losing in iraq, then i was the brave maverick standing up against my own president. now saying what i think is the right thing in this situation, i'm now, as you said, the cassandra. i know the formula for victory. i know how war affairs are conducted. i trust people like general keene and general petraeus and others who are seasoned warriors. frankly, they shared exactly my viewpoint. it was president that i'm out there as a lone ranger. we could have won this. we sacrificed over 4,000 people. if i sound angry