ntia is working with the state of mississippi to dispose of the equipment. mississippi the medical communications equipment held by the hospitals and the ambulances will be retained in mississippi so we are trying to keep as much of that value but ntia is committed to helping to dispose of the access equipment frankly to avoid a loss to taxpayers. >> mr. secretary we were weeks away from employment. mississippi was a leader in deploying the network for first responders. based on the statute that was enacted in 2009 with the federal government make the decision to dismantle the original btop project forcing the state to start over. mississippi has already accomplished the goals of ntia's implementation program which is why the state turned down the offered grant. mississippi today has a mature governance structure for the network created in 2005. the state was only weeks away from turning on its broadband network. when the btop grant was suspended by ntia i hope that your offer to continue working with the state comes to fruition. ms. swanson was invited over

andrews what are ntia anissa doing to further the 911 operations? >> that is a great question as one of the things we have done in partnership between ntia and in senator gardner stayed in boulder we have created a public safety communications research program which is our effort to push forward into the next generation of public safety. as you know as well ntia administers the nextgen 91911 program that's something we are working on. smack very good. we should invite senator gardner to join our 911 caucus. it's a very exciting group. we have a lot of emergencies that we respond to. my last question ms. swanson i understand minnesota was the second state to have its -- with firstnet last september. what were some of the takeaways of that meeting with the stakeholders? >> as i indicated earlier it is important that we learn from each of the states the individual circumstances. every state has a set of circumstances that are very different. your topography is different and your priorities are different and we are learning and each of those consultatio

s coordinated by ntia. i continue to have as my top priority in making sure we not only have the nationwide network in place but we integrate the technologies that already transforming public safety realtime video text messaging. what involvement has firstnet had with answering points and 911 community? >> actually we're in communications with the as you know as well the nat administers the next again program and that is what we are working on. >> and we should invite you to join the 911 caucus. we have emergencies that we respond to. my last question, miss swenson, is i understand that minnesota was the second state to have its consultation with first net last september. what are the takeaways with that meeting from the stakeholders of minnesota? >> as i indicated earlier i think it is important that we learn from each of the states their individual circumstances. every state has a set of circumstances that are very different. your topography is different and your priorities are different and we've learnin

ntia works with firstnet on statutory compliance internal controls, financial management systems, and annual independent audit. ntia also administers the state and local implementation grant program which supports consultations with state regional, tribal, and local jurisdictions. in december, the department's inspector general issued an audit report regarding the management of certain firstnet disclosure reports, and the monitoring of certain firstnet contracts. the department appreciates the inspector general's efforts and takes these matters seriously. we concurred with the inspector general's recommendations, and have taken a number of steps to address them. it is important to emphasize that the report focused on firstnet's early operations, and to highlight the department's full efforts on these matters. as congress recognized firstnet's needs private and public board members with deep technical expertise and experience in wireless broadband communications. however, to get such private sector board members it was likely that they would retain interests in affiliations with the in

i think that ntia has been involved in that activity as well because they have a different role than firstnet does. so i will tell you we worked hard to get the projects on board because we're learning a lot from them. >> i want to ask you when we will see functionality because it is important. while i understand the issue of interoperability and making sure that is actually implemented throughout the network i think these state grants are very important. we have this horrible incident we're about on our almost two its one-year anniversary the oso mud slide which literally cut two communities in half and it required 30 different agencies to respond and i think everybody now knows exactly what we want, and what it's going to take in this particular area, because of the topography. you have some communication challenges just in that. but literally at one point we are were just trying to greenlight -- basically putting the broadband back up for several -- like a mile connected to the trees. that's what we had to do. because couldn't have residents -- i mean over 40 people lost their liv

morris, has the ntia explored how the ownership would be addressed? mr. morris jr.: we have put up a request for comment and i expect that one of the issues raised will be in ownership question. we are not in a position to affect the legal rule that actually put a fact ownership, -- would affect ownership, but certainly in terms of looking at that best practices that address issues like the farmer, it is concerned about data, that certainly is a topic that will be discussed in our process. sen. daines: thank you. i'm out of time. sen. heller: madam chairwoman, thank you. i want to thank all the witnesses for being here and i appreciate your expertise. i apologize for not being on time. myself and senator moran were in the v.a. committee. i apologize if my questions overlap a little bit. i like to address something that senator booker was talking about as far as agriculture is concerned, coming from afar -- afar myself. he failed to mention fertilizing also. maybe he did, but all the things that you are talking about -- again, i want to stress our innovati

morris from ntia is here to provide information on this multi-stakeholder process. it's no surprise that a think we can all understand that one of the primary concerns that people have about the use of these unmanned systems is privacy. unlimited surveillance by government or private actors is that something the that our society is ready or willing or should accept. because uas can significantly lower the threshold for observation, the risk of abuse at the risk of abuse of surveillance increases oh from the government side and also in the way that private individuals can interact with each other. mothers existing legal framework that may respond to some of these concerns, their application to unmanned aircraft pushes the boundaries and requires more attention and analysis and a look forward hearing from all of you today about how you think we can best address these privacy concerns. i also want to point out that unmanned aircraft are not unique in their ability. we do have other means where people are using telephoto lenses to allow observation at great distances an

andrews, what are ntia doing to further the next gen 911 operations in coordination with firstnet. >> that's a great question. one of the things we've done is between -- in a partnership between ntia and in senator gardner's state in boulder we've created the public safety communications research program, which is our effort to really push forward into that next generation of public safety communications. as you know as well, the ntia, the next gen 911 program and that's something we're working on. >> we should invite senator gardner to join our 911 caucus. it's a very exciting group. we have a lot of emergencies that we respond to. my last question miss swenson, i understand that minnesota was the second state to have its consultation with firstnet last september. what are some of the takeaways from that meeting with the stakeholders in minnesota? >> i think as i indicated earlier, i think it's important that we learn from each of the states their individual circumstances. every state has a set of circumstances that are very different. your topography is different. where your priorit

that may change per the fcc were ntia during the buildout of a nationwide network. understandably we in mississippi are disappointed and upset. given these assurances by the state of mississippi and the vendors how exactly is the ntia saving taxpayer money especially when in fact the agency is telling mississippi to spend money to dismantle the

ntia will use the comments to establish an efficient and effective structure. we encourage individuals and entities with interest in these issues to submit comments and will encourage them to participate. we hope that stakeholders will work collaboratively to address the challenges posed by commercial and private ua us use. pleased to contribute to ensure the integration takes into account not only public safety and economic competitiveness by the privacy and civil liberties issues that these systems may raise. thank thank you for the opportunity to participate command i like forward operating to have answer your questions. >> i would like to welcome gerald dilling have -- doctor gerald dillingham thank you. >> thank you. since the 90s uas had operated on a limited basis. as they said to list the potential uses are rapidly expanding. estimated to grow to more than $80 billion. as was justified, step seven taken toward integration. moving forward with immigration. integrating for commercial purposes. in december 2014 we reported problems with the working relatio

morris, has the ntia explored how the ownership of data will be addressed? >> so, senator, our process is really just at the very beginning. we have put out a request for comment and i certainly expect one of the issues raised will be an ownership question. we're not in a position to affect the legal rules that actually would affect ownership but certainly in terms of looking at best practices that address issues like the farmer, you know, it's a concern about data, that certainly is a topic that we expect will be discussed in our process. >> thank you. i'm out of time. >> senator heller. >> madam chairwoman, thank you. thank you for the time and i want to thank all our witnesses for being here and appreciate your expertise. i apologize for not being on time myself. we were in the v.a. committee. so apologize if my questions overlap a little bit. i would like to address something that senator booker was talking about as far as agriculture's concerned coming from a farm myself. you failed to mention fertilizing also. maybe you did. all the things that you wer

morris has the ntia explored how the ownership of data will be addressed? >> so senator, our process is really just at the very beginning. we have put out a request for comment and i certainly expect one of the issues raised will be an ownership question. we're not in a position to effect the legal rules that actually you know, would affect ownership, but certainly in terms of looking at best practices that address issues like the farmer, it's a concern about data, that certainly is a topic we expect will be discussed in our process. >> thank you. i'm out of time. >> senator heller. >> thank you. thank you for the time and i want to thank all our witnesses for being here and appreciate your expertise. i apologize for not being on time myself. we were in the v.a. committee. so apologize if my questions overlap a little bit. i would like to address something that senator booker was talking about as far as agriculture's concerned coming from a farm myself. you failed to mention fertilizing also. maybe you did. all the things that you were talking about, again

ntia also implements the grant program that supports consultations with state regional, tribal and local jurisdictions. in december the department inspector general issued a report regarding the management of certain disclosure reports and the monitoring of certain firstnet contracts. the department appreciates the inspector general's efforts and takes the matter seriously. we concurred with the recommendations and we've taken a number of steps to address them. it's important to emphasize that the report focused on firstnet's early operations and to highlight the department's efforts on these matters. as congress recognized firstnet ain't public and private sector board members with deep technical expertise and experience in wireless broadband communications, however to give such private sector board members it was likely that they would retain interest in affiliations with the industry thus creating the need to consider carefully potential conflicts of interest. the department anticipated and addressed this issue through a robust ethics program that worked closely with the board members