mr. scalise: thank mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. want to thank the gentlelady from tennessee for yielding and for her leadership on this issue. and has been noted, right now in dubai an arm of the united nations is considering trying to take international control over parts of the internet. if you look right now in a struggling economy that we have in the united states, one of the few bright spots is the telecommunications industry. one of the reasons as a computer science major i would argue, one of the reasons that the telecommunications, technology industry has been so successful, is because the government hasn't figured out how to regulate it and slow it down. yet here you have a proposal by the united nations coming out of the united nations to interfere with that multistakeholder organization that's been and allowed this industry to be so successful and allowed the internet to shape and dramatically improve so many people's lives. so many of the things that we can do today and all the conveniences that have been added through

mr. scalise: -- mrs. blackburn: the speaker is telling me our time has expired. we were joined by the gentleman from tennessee, i regret we're out of time. we have solutions, the fiscal house has to be brought intoed offer. i thank my colleagues for joining me on the floor tonight to help make the point to the american people, we are going to stay with this fight and solve the problem, our children and grandchildren deserve it. i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. higgins, for 30 minutes. mr. higgins: thank you, mr. speaker. we hear a lot of the rhetoric on debt and deficit and i think it requires a recent review of history. less than 12 years ago, the united states budget had a $250 billion budgetary surplus. $258 billion. meaning we were taking in $258 billion more each year than we were spending. that budget surplus 12 years ago was a direct result of having created 22 million private sector jobs in the previous eight years. underscorin

mr. scalise. >> thank you, mr. vice chairman, and appreciate the hearing and especially the five commissioners for being here with us. i want to start by looking at the congressional budget office estimate on the spectrum auction. if you look at the nprm, the estimates are that it would raise about $25 billion from the broadcast incentive auctions, and just want to get your take on what you think can be achieved if you look at the cbo report. does that match where you think you'll be? i'll start with the chairman, get your take on that. >> well, both cbo and omb have looked at the proposal. they scored it, and certainly it's to the in our expertise to revise that scoring. we're certainly focused on running an auction that generates very substantial revenue for first net and beyond. one of the key factors in that will be broadcaster participation, and that's why we're all working together with the industry and with others. while we're happy to see the group form that we heard about from chairman walden of broadcaste

mr. scalise: the bill passed on august 1 and it's been sitting over in the senate every day since then. here we are new year's eve and the senate's finally rolling up their sleeves and working to avoid this crisis. here we are in another crisis and unfortunately as we look towards this new year tomorrow, this is not the last time that we may be here. we passed a budget here in the house months ago. it's been more than three years since the senate passed a budget. yet months from now we'll be hearing now cliff approaching of a government shutdown because the senate hasn't passed a budget. it's time for the senate to start doing their work and stop creating these crises and forcing american families to wonder what's going to happen next and what's going to be the next crisis. we should not have any american family facing a tax increase. let's get the economy back on track. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky rise? mr. yarmuth: request unanimous consent to address the house for one

mr. scalise. >> thank you, mr. vice chairman. i appreciate the hearing and especially the five commissioners for being here with us. i want to start by looking at the congressional budget office estimate on the spectrum auction. if you look at the nprm, the estimates are you would raise about $25 billion from the broadcast incentive auctions. just want to get your take on what you think can be achieved if you look at the c.b.o. report, is that match where you think you'll be? i start with the chairman, get your take on that. >> well, both c.b.o. and o.m.b. have both looked at the proposal. they scored it and it's not in our expertise to revise that scoring. we are focused on running an auction that has substantial revenue for first net and beyond. one of the key factors in that will be broadcaster participation. it's why we're all working together with the industry and with others. we're happy to see the group form that we heard at the beginning of the year and from chairman walden of broadcasters saying this makes sense and we w