initiative and ntia's nishtive. there is getook be an opportunity, more broad band throughout the country, particularly in rural countries. but i'm concerned about a lack of coordination, waste fraud and abuse. can you comment on that? i know you recently put together an mou and they're important. >> like i think i i've said earlier. we have an opportunity for generational change with the infrastruck chrb bill. we need execute on that. and two things stand out to me most. the first is we need coordination about data and facts to the fcc. it's going to have to support every other organization that does and the states as well. in addition, i think we need really strong accountability measures out of the gate. it would be -- criticism i've had of previous programs. we need to make clear what kind of audits are happening and what kind of penalties that exist for anyone who takes the funds and doesn't deliver. >> i'm sorry we didn't have our meeting yesterday. i look forward to meeting with you. your position is enormous

of that $65 billion, about $45 billion will be coming to the commerce department at ntia to administer that program. this is an area that i'm particularly passionate about having been a governor during the pandemic and being with people who didn't have broadband, children who couldn't go to school, people who couldn't go see a doctor or a therapist, it is heartbreaking and it showed in a very real and human way how essential broadband is and the fact of the matter is, we have to close the digital divide, period. and this infrastructure bill will allows us to do that and the $48 billion coming to the commerce department will allow us to do that. beyond the physical infrastructure, laying fiber, affordability is just as important. affordability is just as important as access. it does a family no good if there is broadband in their community but they can't afford it. closing the digital divide means both providing the broadband and making sure it's affordable. so the investments in this bill will help insure every american can access affordable high speed internet, which means requiring f

wealth of both private and public sector experience before becoming an fcc commissioner he served at ntia as a senior advisor where he worked on many aspects of talev negations all seek. -- telecommunications policy. he holds more degrees than i do and more than many of us in this room. a couple of those degrees are in use it. . -- music theory. they may not always be exciting at the fcc, but it is true that since you have been on the commission, it is not exactly the same experience that may be sometime in the future, however that goes. we are really pleased that you are with us and if you would come up and delivery remarks. [applause] nathan: thank you very much for that kind introduction. it is a pleasure to be here and speak with everybody today. when music comes up, music is a spectrum as well. it is an honor, not just to be here, but to be in such a rare find air. speaking with the other distinguished -- distinguished speakers today. it is an honor to join them whether 15th anniversary. it is an important venue that lawmakers and professionals from both sides of the aisle have come

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of that $65 billion, about $45 billion will be coming to the commerce department at ntia to administer that program. this is an area that i'm particularly passionate about having been a governor during the pandemic and being with people who didn't have broadband, children who couldn't go to school, people who couldn't go see a doctor or a therapist, it is heartbreaking and it showed in a very real and human way how essential broadband is and the fact of the matter is, we have to close the digital divide, period. and this infrastructure bill will allows us to do that and the $48 billion coming to the commerce department will allow us to do that. beyond the physical infrastructure, laying fiber, affordability is just as important. affordability is just as important as access. it does a family no good if there is broadband in their community but they can't afford it. closing the digital divide means both providing the broadband and making sure it's affordable. so the investments in this bill will help insure every american can access affordable high speed internet, which means requiring f

we could revisit memorandum of understanding between ntia cc with updated timelines or agreements about methodologies, testing, what harmful interference looks like. third, this maybe be as long tem but i think we have to think about the incentiveve structure for existing spectrum allocations to federal authorities. if we don't give them incentives to be efficient, they will only see loss rather than gain from reallocation and we have to get smarter about building incentives on their s side so we can be more successful when we try toe repurpose airways for commercial use. >> i agree with you that last part wholeheartedly. going back to discussions weoi d when i was in the house and you were appearing before us, as you know, i think it's time for us to conductct inventory of all spectrum allocated to different federal agencies so we know it's eithere, what is being used, what's not being used and what we can then recoup and auction for commercialization so i look forward to those conversations. mr. pretoria, i discussed with you the open app market legislation senator blumenthal and clov