chairman, from illinois and ranking member from new york for acknowledging rural america and for reminding us there are other rural places that are better known or their urban centers. it's good to have an alliance. my colleagues -- or my constituents with the north dakota rural water systems association would be very proud of all of you. you've done a great job today and i felt right at home, even with the unusual accents. but it's a reminder there are some things we work together on and that are very important. and i won't -- i won't delay except to tell you that i hear a lot about the circuit rider program from our folks and i think you raise a very important issue. i think it's incumbent upon us now as policy makers and eventually appropriators to look for opportunities to prioritize some of the programs you talked about within the context of the entire act. and given the constraints, financial constraints we have, we do have to be a little bit creative but certainly we can reprioritize. i want to just ask for maybe a little bit of elaboration on one point. i got the gao report was fan

as someone who probably represents communities and small town and rural america, i'm glad we have bipartisannterest in tackling this subject. under the safe drinking water act small and rural drinking water supply systems are subject to a number of drinking water regulations issued by epa. these requirements include systems monitoring treatment to remove certain contaminants. addressing these matters requires technical, managerial capabilities that are often beyond the capacity f these towns to afford on the same scale as urban centers. particularly when it comes to regulatory compliance. it's erratic these communities where residents work hard to support families and local government while earning wages lower than their counterparts in urban areas and demands that are disproportionate to larger communities. sometimes it's just a matter of having the ability to keep up with the red tape. while i'm sure we will explore the funding mechanisms under epa the agriculture department and other federal agencies not just a matter of throwing more scarce money at the problem rather it's about smartly

many parts of rural america have seen things move on. many parts of rural america have seen interest move on leaving behind depressed economies. in my region the garment industry moved south after nafta. when this happened raising rates becomes overly burdensome. in the town of new hebron, mississippi with a town of just over 400 people we're now being told we need to comply with a new epa waste water discharge permit that will cost 2 to 3 million dollars. i will close with some comments on the federal water infrastructure programs. namely the epa state revolving funds and the usda rural development grant and loan program. we are very appreciative for congressional funding of these initiatives. and realize funding constraints in congress and the nation notwithstanding the curtailment of federal funding, the regulatory burden continues into crease and become more complex. we urge you to emphasize grants in these funding programs. low interest loans don't help the communities facing a severe hardship from federal compliance, leaving the lo

in terms of the actual service, in rural america it is going to be substantial. you've heard our exchange about how some of smaller fees in particular will have to suck up the costs or go out of business all together. some of the larger providers will have to include a line item. will the commission employ section 201 authority to second-guess the infrastructure for interconnection? the three routes that traffic has to go over could be second-guessed by the commission. all of these things now go through the fcc as gatekeeper. third, consumers are going to suffer as a result of the second-guessing the fcc will do through the internet conduct standard. we don't really know where this is going to go. the fcc is going to sit there as a referee to throw the flag. the problem is nobody even knows what the games is or what the rules are. i think when the fcc specifically tees up pro-consumer things like t-mobile's music freedom which allows the free streaming of music content to your smartphone and says that may be an internet violation. ironically enough, some of the c

the efforts that the efforts that the department of agriculture has made to bring investment to rural america have been very successful. i've collaborated with the department on some of their business efforts. i think if you look at the economic performance of rural areas, they've done considerably better than your description. again, it's not my core area. but i would be happy to follow up with you. and look at the data you're looking at and the data i've seen. because it is, for a lot of rural communities, a better period than you've just described. >> i would like to talk about that, but let's talk about a policy, it is something that is extremely detrimental to the farmers and small business owners at least in my congressional district. if you look at the boot hill of missouri, those seven counties have some of the best farmland in the country. those seven counties produce more than a third of agriculture production for our state. the average per acre of a farm there is roughly 8,000. the average family farm is 441 acres. do you realize that under the that you're proposing that every one

net i will focus on if a high quality and useful network can be offered to first responders in rural america. they will be a failure if they leave populations uncovered. we have an experienced and knowledgeable panel today and i expect the testimony will provide insight with the issues i have raised. i will yield to the senator from florida. senator nelson. >> i know the committee members would like to hear my tones but i would prefer to hear the witnesses so i will enter my remark for the record. >> very good. we will get underway. i want to start by introducing our panel today. first we have bruce andrews who is deputy secretary at the department of commerce and brian is next and he is the fire chief of the oklahoma city department. and mark goldstein who serves at the government account lit office. susan swinson who serves as the chair woman of the first responder network authority also known as first net. and mr. todd zinser who is inspector general to the department of commerce. we will start on my left and your right with mr. andrews. if you can keep the comments con confined to five m

in terms of the actual service, in rural america it is going to be substantial. you've heard our exchange about how some of smaller fees in particular will have to suck up the costs or go out of business all together. some of the larger providers will have to include a line item. will the commission employ section 201 authority to second-guess the infrastructure for interconnection? the three routes that traffic has to go over could be second-guessed by the commission. all of these things now go through the fcc as gatekeeper. third, consumers are going to suffer as a result of the second-guessing the fcc will do through the internet conduct standard. we don't really know where this is going to go. the fcc is going to sit there as a referee to throw the flag. the problem is nobody even knows what the games is or what the rules are. i think when the fcc specifically tees up pro-consumer things like t-mobile's music freedom which allows the free streaming of music content to your smartphone and says that may be an internet violation. ironically enough, some of the c

s proposed rule could have serious consequences for rural america and the nation's economy. yesterday members of the house:on agriculture asserted the administration has acted on its own without input from states and the stakeholders threatening the like livelihood of farmers ranchers and rural america. it is my hope that the administration will repropose a rule and allow a new round of public comment. mr. speaker, there's too much on the line to continue down the current path. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california sook recognition? -- seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. waters: today i have introduced the addressing the wealth gap resolution which calls on congress to recognize the wealth gap and racial wealth gap as the national economic crises and focus its efforts on their elimination. this country is facing the widest wealth gap since 1983. the statisti

but talking about rural america. commissioner clyburn thank you for visiting mississippi, thank you for visiting rural sunflower county specifically ruville in the mississippi delta. and there you saw a telemedicine program that is treating and attempting to defeat type 2 diabetes. so thank you so much for coming. this program depends on usf supported robust mobile broadband connections. what is the fcc prepared to do to ensure that sufficient usf support remains available so that rural wireless networks remain up and running enabling access to these critical life saving and cost saving advances in medicine? >> you know about phase one of mobility fund as well as our us,,connect america fund. we're moving ahead in the next phases of that which we will hope will be further enablers for investments. we've got broadband experiments in rural initiatives that will help us work out the kinks to for us to go to the next stage of broader series of investments. so what we're doing is on a very parallel courseworking out the ki

there is access for those in challenging situations where in rural america or economic limitations that keep you from having access. we have to look at the evolving market in terms of over-the-top video m the pd, this sort of thing. i have been adamant from day one we have a responsibility to make sure that this new technology is being used to attack the challenges of americans with disabilities. there are knew capabilities that are made available by ip and we need to make sure. that is one, how you unleash. if the network of the 21st century is wireless you have to have enough spectrum we have all seen the studies about the demand and where that is going. obviously we just finished the in us three. the action coming up next year. high-speed wireless access and we have got lots of things we want to do in terms of that. number three is maybe you have heard competition competition, competition. competition is the consumers best protector and the innovators best friend. no question of transit -- transitioning from analog networks, it networks a whole raft of challenges the 4th issue we hav

the broad band support that we recently -- rural america is falling behind. the disparity behind rural america, we are lacking high speed broad band. 53% of rural americans do. we tackled that part of that with the e-rate modernization and the rural fiber gap for schools. 40% of public schools -- 40% of rural schools are without access to fiber. they now have alternatives under the new rules. the commission recently revised the support mechanism for price cap carriers an additional $1.8 billion from universal service funds that upgrade their activities in areas not participating began the process that would lead to an auction next year where alternative providers can step up and say no i will provide service in an experiment leading up to that have put $100 million out to actually test alternative pathways. we plan to act on rate of return carriers this year to create a voluntary path for those who elect to receive defined amount of funding to deal with the tying of voice and broad band together which is a problem that they experienced, to deal with replacing

rural america is not allowed to be left behind in deploying first net and my question is how do you plan to ensure more states are adequately covered? >> thank you for the question. as you know with discussions with your office and other members we take rural coverage seriously and it is as high of a priority as urban. and this is what makes the difference. commercial doesn't cover rural. we talked about state consultation and it is in those meetings where we review the program with the state. we work in advance with the single point of contact in your state and plan those meetings, go over the plans, and give an opportunity for folks from the state to tell us where their priorities are. we don't know that. that is why we go into the consultation meetings get the information, and feed it in the process as part of the response mechanisms for the vendors who respond to this about how they will do the coverage and what cost. it is a critical component of the first net program. and again, i think it is really important to understand this is what sets it apart from a commercial network. >> sp

the efforts that the efforts that the department of agriculture has made to bring investment to rural america have been very successful. i've collaborated with the department on some of their business efforts. i think if you look at the economic performance of rural areas, they've done considerably better than your description. again, it's not my core area. but i would be happy to follow up with you. and look at the data you're looking at and the data i've seen. because it is, for a lot of rural communities, a better period than you've just described. >> i would love to compare that. but let's talk about a policy that's been discussed. one that you have proposed. and that is increasing the estate tax and the death tax. it is something that is extremely detrimental to the farmers and small business owners, at least in my congressional district. if you look at the boot hill of missouri, those seven counties have some of the best farmland in the entire state of missouri and in the country. those seven counties produce more than a third of agriculture production for our state. the average per acr

the third potential benefit is to farmers in rural america because it adds additional markets for them to sell materials into. narrator: but there are many obstacles in creating ethanol from cellulosic material. through photosynthesis plants make sugars that they use for energy to grow. some of those sugars are bonded together and stored creating starches, like the starch in a corn kernel, that can be used later for energy. these starches are easily broken down making them an attractive source for ethanol conversion. but some sugars are bonded differently, into long chains, like steel girders within plant cell walls. specif ically, there are three primary components of biomass -- cellulose, hemicellulose and the polymer lignin which fills the remaining spaces in the plant cell wall. plants evolved so that these materials would last a long time and be chemically difficult to break down, making the biomass conversion process challenging. nrel has created a pilot plant to test ways to improve the process of breaking down the cellulosic material and make the sugars available for fermentati

the disparity between rural and urban america as senator nelson suggested s unacceptable. only 8% of urban americans lack high-speed broadband. we tackled that -- a part of that with the erate modernization and the rural fiber gap for schools. 40% of rural schools are without access to fiber. they now have alternatives under the new rules. the commission recently revised the support mechanism for price cap carriers an additional $1.8 billion from universal service found upgrade their activities. and areas not participating began the process that will lead to an auction next year where alternative providers can step up and say, no i will provide service. an experiment leading up to that put $100 million out to test alternative pathways. we plan to act on rate of return carriers this this year. to deal with the tying of voice and broadband together which is a problem they're dealing with. to replace the infamous qra. that's a process that could be greatly -- stakeholders on a common solution. i thank you, mr. chairman, and members of the committee for the opportunity to be be

that is part of rural america main street. rural america main street is still struggling. yet i keep seeing the epa put regulation on top of regulation. i think it has led to overregulation. in rural america it has led people's well-being and mental health is being affected. we are having depression in areas because of the threats of regulations what it is doing two jobs seeing more and more people working part-time underemployed. i i believe it is directly attributed to the regulatory embodiment. all of us no. she sits at the kitchen table. she wants clean air and water but her 1st and foremost request: i want a job for my son. something has shut down as a result of overregulation. i am struggling with that. poor modeling with heavy trucks. in 2010 he said it would be about $3,400 but we are seeing three times that cost. mercury and air toxin standard for your prediction said would only be ten gigawatts of power shutdown. the department of energy and others say it could be six or ten times that amount. yet you continue to issue more regulation even though the model is say

for acknowledging rural america and for reminding us there are other rural places that are better knownor their urban centers. it's good to have an alliance. my colleagues or my constituents with the north dakota rural water systems association would be very proud of all of you. you've done a great job today and i felt right at home even with the unusual accents. it's a reminder that there are some things we work together on and that are very important. i won't delay except to tell that you i hear a lot about the circuit rider program from our folks. and i think you raise a very important issue. i think it's incumbent upon us now as policymakers and eventually appropriators to look for opportunities to prioritize some of the praps -- programs you talked about within the context of the entire act. and given the constraints, financial constraints we have, we do have to be a little bit creative. but certainly we can reprioritize. i want to just ask for maybe a little bit of elaboration on one point. i thought the g.a.o. report was fantastic, frankly. i think that it was -- it's nice to see

and that is part of rural america. that is the main street.ll street may be having great success, but rural america -- main street is still struggling. but yet i keep seeing the epa putting another regulation on top of another regulation and the ozone rule and they have barely achieved the first standard and then they have another one again. and i think it is being led by overregulation in rural america it has led to people -- to their well being their mental health is being affected by it. i think we're having some depression in areas around the country because of the threats of regulations, what it is doing to jobs. i think we're seeing more and more people working part-time, under employed and it could go on and on and i believe it is directly attributed to the regulatory body with it. i think all of us know a mildred schmidt and she lives next door to you and me and she sits at her kitchen table and she wants filter and clean water but her first and foremost request is i want a job for my son. i can't find a job either the coal mines are p

firstnet will be a failure if it leaves large pockets of rural america uncovered or served by second rate solutions. we have experienced and knowledgeable panel with us today and i expect their testimony will provide the committee with important insight into the issues that i've raised. and i want to yield now to my distinguished ranking member on this committee the senator from florida, senator nelson, for his opening remarks. >> mr. chairman i know the committee members would like to hear my dulcet tones, but i would prefer to hear the witnesses, and so i will enter my remarks for the record. >> very good. we'll get under way, and i want to start by introducing our distinguished panel today. first we have with us mr. bruce andrews. he serves as deputy secretary at the department of commerce. he'll be followed by mr. keith bryant. mr. bryant serves as the fire chief for the oklahoma city fire department and as the president and chairman of the board of the international association of fire chiefs. mr. mark goldstein mr. goldstein serves as the director of physical infrastructure iss

i come from west virginia and that is part of rural america. wall street may be having great success, but rural america, main street, is still struggling and yet i keep seeing the epa putting another regulation on top of another regulation and the ozone, they barely achieved the first standard and they want to increase that standard again. i think what it's led by these overregulation in rural america, it's led to people -- their well-being their mental health, is all being affected by it. i think we're having some depression in areas around the country because of the threats of the regulations, what it's doing to jobs. i think we're seeing more and more people working part-time. they're underemployed. i could go on and on and on. i really believe it's directly attributed to the regulatory body with it. i think all of us know a mill drid schmidt. she probably lives right next door to you. she lives next door to me. hill dread schmidt sits at her kitchen table. she wants clean air and clean water but her first and foremost request, i want a job

the disparity between rural and urban america is unacceptable. only 8% of urban americans lack high-speed broadband's, but 53 percent of all americans to. we tackled that with the eve ate modernization and the rural fiber gap for schools. 40 percent of public schools , 40 percent of rural schools are without access to fiber. they now have alternatives. the commission the commission recently revised the support mechanism for price carriers. an additional $1.8 billion from universal service fund operating activities in areas that are not participating but begin the process that we will lead to an auction next year where alternative providers can step up and say, no, i we will provide service. but hundred million dollars out to actually test alternative pathways. we plan to act on rate of return carriers this year to create a voluntary path for those who elect to receive to find amounts of funding to deal with the tying of voice and broadband together which is a problem that they experienced, to deal with replacing the infamous curare. that is a proc

and as he shared with us he said, you know our small family bank serving rural america, rural kentucky has survived a lot of things. we've survived the recession, wars world war i, world war two, the depression. we even survived the civil war. but we don't know if we're going to survive dodd frank. and that's the sort of impact this legislation is having on businesses throughout the country. so with that -- >> when it comes to our colleagues on the other side that the financial crisis of '08 was because of a lack of regulation. exactly the opposite is true. government regulation specifically the amendments to the redevelopment act compelled lenders to make loans to people who couldn't possibly pay them back, then we shifted the loss of these risky loans to taxpayers by fannie may and freddie mac. this created a "house of cards" that collapsed catastrophically. they said you reap the ploftsrofits and fannie and freddie will take care of it. it used to be if a bank made a bad loan they ate the loss and went away sadder but wiser. and if a homeowner took out a bad loan they lost the colla

rural america is not allowed to be left behind in deploying first net and my question is how do you plan to ensure more states are adequately covered? >> thank you for the question. as you know with discussions with your office and other members we take rural coverage seriously and it is as high of a priority as urban. and this is what makes the difference. commercial doesn't cover rural. we talked about state consultation and it is in those meetings where we review the program with the state. we work in advance with the single point of contact in your state and plan those meetings, go over the plans, and give an opportunity for folks from the state to tell us where their priorities are. we don't know that. that is why we go into the consultation meetings get the information, and feed it in the process as part of the response mechanisms for the vendors who respond to this about how they will do the coverage and what cost. it is a critical component of the first net program. and again, i think it is really important to understand this is what sets it apart from a commercial network. >> sp

when you look at the statistics of rural america that are less than 97.9% have not rebounced since the reception. what policies in your budget helps america rebound? >> aggravated assault policy is not primarily my responsibility, but our department of aggravated assault has been working with congress to put in place programs that we think are very beneficial. we know the efforts that the department of agriculture have made makes them very successful. i have collaborated on business efforts. i think if you look at the economic portfolio of rural areas. it is not my core area but i would be happy to follow up with you. because it is, for a lot of rural communities -- >> i would like to talk about that, but let's talk about a policy it is something that is extremely detrimental to the farmers and small business owners at least in my congressional district. if you look at the boot hill of missouri, those seven counties have some of the best farmland in the country. the average per acre of a farm there is roughly 8,000. the average family farm is 441 acres. do you realize that under the th

this ensures that rural america has a presence in this budget and in the priorities that are important to us. and it's important that they be linked. for example, secure rural schools. many know that senator crapo and i have worked on this in a bipartisan way. have been linked in recent years and it is to the betterment of both of the programs. for example, last year, in effect, it was really delinked from secure rural schools. we saw many of our rural counties wake up with less support and i think that was unfortunate. the secure rural schools program is especially important because in addition to increasing logging in a sustainable fashion, this is something else that i think can be done in a bipartisan way. we have to have a safety net where the federal government owns so much of our land and does put the trees. the reality is you cannot get logging up alone high enough to not need the safety net as well and that is why it has been so important since 2000 and senator crapo knows that senator craig and i teamed up on that. since then, there's been a large group of westerners that wor

this ensures that rural america has a presence in this budget and in the priorities that are important to us. and it's important that they be linked. for example, secure rural schools. many know that senator crepo and i have worked on this in a bipartisan way. have been linked in recent years and it is to the betterment of both of the programs. for example, last year, in effect pilt was really delinked from secure rural schools. we saw many of our rural counties wake up with less support and i think that was unfortunate. the secure rural schools program is especially important because in addition to increasing logging in a sustainable fashion, this is something else that i think can be done in a bipartisan way. we have to have a safety net where the federal government owns so much of our land and does put the trees. the reality is you cannot get logging up alone high enough to not need the safety net as well and that is why it has been so important since 2000 and senator crepo knows that senator craig and i teamed up on that. since then there's been a large group of westerners thf work

percentage of folks from rural america are using it. so i'm just asking the question -- and the interesting thing, too, the bad information we got today was from ahab. they said the current .9%, the .9% cut that's coming now in the subsidy to insurance companies for mode caravaning is going -- medicare advantage is going to add another $20 a month to beneficiaries either in higher premiums or reduced benefits. so could you speak to just the opinion of older americans on medicare that they are being used as the funding source for the expansion in medicaid and all of those increased costs on the back of our seniors who depended on this great program for all these years? that frustration level exists within that population. >> appreciate that, and as i responded to your colleague with regard to the issues of medicare advantage, i would say we support the program believe the program is a good program but also believe that our responsibility where we think there are things that are happening whether that's upcoding or other things that we tr

this ensures that rural america has a presence in this budget and in the priorities that are important to us. and it's important that they be linked. for example, secure rural schools. many of you know that senator crapo and i have worked on this innate bipartisan way. have been linked in recent years and it is to the betterment of both of the programs. for example, last year, in effect, pilt was really delinked from secure rural schools. we saw many of our rural counties wake up with less support and i think that was unfortunate. the secure rural schools program is especially important because in addition to increasing logging in a sustainable fashion, this is something else that i think can be done in a bipartisan way. we have to have a safety net where the federal government owns so much of our land and god has put the trees. the reality is you cannot get logging up alone high enough to not need the safety net as well and that is why it has been so important since 2000 and senator crapo knows that senator craig and i teamed up on that. since then, there's been a large group of weste

>> in rural america, we have a lot more concerns like the keystone pipeline and what the corn and cattles are. when republicans see a strong female, they think we still have pigtails they can pull on and that'll go away. secretary clinton has to stand up and speak out, but i also think it is a non-story. i think there's larger issues that we need to be talking about. >> you think it is a non-story. a non-story after some in the senate have come out and said she needs to step up on this. clearly, democrats are concerned about this jane. >> i think she needs to speak out about it but i think once she does, i think there's really nothing there, ed. just like there was nothing there with the benghazi quote/unquote scandal. she needs to come out and talk about why she had a private e-mail server. >> ruth conniff, does this solidify it further? what effect might this story have? >> i'm not the person to speak for the hillary base, i'd have to say. >> amaha. >> it does not inspire confidence when your political officials do not inspire political confidence. some i think it does matter. on the o

certain policies and law making is having a negative impact on jobs and the economy mostly in rural american energy-producing areas of our country. >> reporter: at jake's tavern, a popular hangout in coal country, energy worker brandon allee says the issue is more about wyoming's rugged independent mentality, not politics. >> there's a lot of us around here that we have been here for generations, and the epa is coming in and telling us what we can and can't do or making it really hard for us to do what needs to be done just doesn't settle well with a lot of us. >> reporter: wyoming exports more energy than any other state, so there's a lot on the line in the debate over the clean power plant. for the pbs newshour, leigh paterson, in wyoming. >> woodruff: let's close out our friday with the continuing search, not just for life, but for a better understanding of how life began. there's a connection in two space stories today. this morning nasa said its "dawn" spacecraft arrived in orbit around the dwarf planet, ceres. a journey of more than 300 million miles that lasted more than seven years.

talking about rural america thank you for visiting mississippi, rural sunflower county and you saw agroundbreaking telemedicine program attempting to defeat type two diabetes. thank you for coming to this program depends on us of supported robust mobile broadband connections what is the fcc prepared to do to ensure sufficient us of support remains available so that rural wireless networks remain up and running enabling access to critical life saving and cost-saving advances in medicine? >> you know about phase one as well as our connect america fund. we fund. we're moving ahead in the next phases of that which we hope will be further enablers for investment. we have got broadband experiments and rule initiatives that will help us work out the kinks for us to go to the next stage of broader investment. what we are doing is on a parallel course working out the kinks in terms of ip transition and the like and continuing to fuel innovation and the monies and investment and working with communities communities, with the private sector, with government officials to ensure the monies that a

that's a pretty damning thing in my mind for the future of rural america.nd senator tester and i will package, we're drafting a small lending, credit union, bank piece of legislation. and i'm hoping in this new congress it has an opportunity to be heard and this committee and action taken and be considered on the senate floor, and i look forward to working with you to see that we get the right framework in place. thank you, mr. chairman. >> senator brown? >> thank you for one more question, mr. chairman. and on the second round, and i want to first say i agree with senators warren and senator moran on the whole idea of what we should do to help the smallest banks as i said earlier in my state, ohio, state of almost 12 million people, 80% of the community banks are very small, under $500 million in total assets. so we know who we're aiming at here. this is a question for the four of you. sorry again to leave you out ms. franks. the hearing last fall i asked you to describe and define community banks and small credit unions. your answer were helpful as we tho

percentage of folks from rural america are using it. -- and the interesting thing, too, the bad information we got today say that current .9% cut that's coming now in the subsidy to insurance companies for medicare advantage is going to add another $20 a month to beneficiaries in higher premiums or reduced benefits. so could you speak to just the opinion of older opinion e americans on medicare that they are being used as the funding source for the expansion in medicaid? and all of those increases costs on the back of our seniors who have depended on this great program for all of these years? the frustration level exists within that population. >> i appreciate that. as i responded to your colleague with regard to the issues of medicare advantage, i would say we support the program, believe the program is a good program. but also believe that our responsibility where we think there are things that are happening, whether these upcoding or other things, that we try to take care of that. the changes that we've done, we tried to transition t

suburban america's wireless rural america. it is everywhere. if you look carefully at uniform crime reports what they show is crime did not spread geographically. crime remains very much concentrated in the inner city where minorities live in larger percentages. another element of the party playbook. the thinking here was there are certain groups we have to give very special protection to because they are victimized and they were especially concerned about children women and the elderly. pretending that in fact wasn't black who were most often victimized, we look at data on women. like women in particular are three times more likely than their white counterparts to be. this is the second statistic i came across where i thought okay i've got to push back because it's a bit too much because i had no idea about this. i looked at data on homicide of children five years and younger. you know what i found? black children five years and younger are seven times more likely than their counterpart to the murdered. seven times more. but if you look at the

and to restore current protections and exemptions for rural america. a key area where the stabenow amendment falls short is excluding cities, suburbs and the job-creating businesses for working families that reside outside of rural america. my amendment which will be next addresses concerns raised by the u.s. conference of mayors, the national association of counties who want certainty certainty regarding the e.p.a.'s power grab. the senator from michigan does things to protect farmers and ranchers from the e.p.a. my amendment is supported by the american farm bureau. this support is because my amendment is specific and holds the e.p.a. and the corps to the promises that they have already made. thank you, mr. president. mr. enzi: is there opposition? ms. stabenow: if there is time remaining, mr. president, i would just simply say that i think my amendment is stronger and much more specific and in fact upholds two goals. supporting the clean water act which has for 40 years protected us with clean fishing and drinking water and our beautiful great lakes

the disparity between rural and urban america as senator nelson suggested, is unacceptable. ly 8% of urban americans lack high-speed broadband but 53% of rural americans do. we tackled a part of that with the e-rate modernization and the rural fiber gap for schools, 40% of public schools -- 40% of rural schools are without access to fiber. they now have alternatives under the new rules. the commission recently revised the support mechanism for price cap carriers an additional $1.8 billion from universal service funds to upgrade their activities activities. and in areas that are not participateing began the process that will lead to an auction next work where alternative providers can step up and say, no, i will provide service. in an experiment leading up to that, put $100 million out to actually test alternative pathways. we plan to act on rate of return carriers this year. to create a voluntary path for those who elect to receive defined amount of funding to deal with the tying of voice and broadband together which is a problem that they experience to deal with replacing th

in rural america we must work to not only keep the generations and families who grew up on the farm and ranch but find new ways to bring their families back to the farms ranches and small towns that dot our great state. we must revitalize mainstreet's that are slowly losing their places the heart and soul of the community boarded up and forgotten. to do this i will introduce legislation that will help provide ways to infuse new investments in life into our rural entities called the rural philanthropy act. we'll help struggling businesses by new private sector partners in their effort to serve their community whether it's a small-town newspaper or clothing store. will help grow jobs and create more opportunities for startups and innovation. we must look to reimagine burdensome rules and regulations that tie the hands of people who want to start a business by revitalizing mainstreet and breathing new life into entire city block doing good things shouldn't shouldn't be said that the eliminated government that recognizes this. colorado's economy will benefit from billy whited trade opportun

gets hotter on the forest floor if you have a lightning strike, which is certainly very common in rural america, all of a sudden you can have an inferno on your hands and one that really knows no boundaries that can affect private property owners state lands federal lands. we had a hearing in the energy and natural resources committee an important hearing the other day on the sportsman's bill, mr. president, and i said it looks like a lot of good ideas here bipartisan bill. pretty hard to go hunting and fishing in the forests this summer if the forests are burning up. so what a bipartisan group of us from the west want to do -- and i particularly want to commend our colleague senator crapo of idaho. he and i have teamed up on this effort. we have a large bipartisan coalition of senators who have joined us, and we want to fix the broken system of fighting wildfire in america. what happens today mr. president, and colleagues, is the accounts for prevention get short shrift. in effect, the work that needs to be done with the smaller trees and thinning out the under brush doesn't -- underbrush does

particularly on whether the high quality useful network can be offered to first responders in rural america. they will leave large pockets of america uncovered were served by second grade solutions. we have a panel with us and i expect the testimony will provide the committee with important insight into issues i've raised. the senator from florida for his opening remarks. >> i know the committee members would like to hear my tones but i would like to hear the witnesses so i i went for my remarks for the record. >> we will start by introducing the distinguished panel today. first we have mr. andrews that serves as deputy secretary at the department of commerce. he will be filing mr. keith bryant at the oklahoma fire department and the chairman of the board of the international association of fire chiefs. mr. goldstein serves as the director of the physical infrastructure issues of the at the government accountability office as reference earlier and serves as the chairwoman of the network authority also known at firstnet and finally mr. todd zinser serves as the inspector to the department of

they are the legs of a stool that supports the economy of rural oregon and rural america along with agricultural research and i hope our colleagues will support that. but there are some budget issues that are major everywhere you go. for example, health care is a priority. structurally, we understand there is nothing in the budget that is a bigger challenge. we have got to find a way in this budget to tackle something that has been missed by basically everybody in washington, d.c. and that is chronic disease. medicare is no longer about broken ankles. medicare is about cancer and diabetes and stroke and heart disease and i see colleagues here, senator whitehouse has been interested, there are a number of republicans that are interested. we have got to find a way to redesign these programs so they can protect the medicare guarantee and make better use of existing resources. we ought to change some of our priorities along the way and i will tell colleagues at the budget which, as i understand it, would hack away at the bone of medicaid is a surefire way to make life harder for low income families

could have internet access at 30,000 feet on an airplane we should be able to have access across rural america including new mexico. i'm interested in hearing from the commissioner on the innovative potential of unlicensed spectrum and i'm also excited to hear from the utility commission or a colleague of mine to modernize the lifeline program on the broadband era and i want to hear from all commissioners how we can work including strengthening the information technology system that collapses into millions of comments generated last year when a friend of ours filed a comment which crashed its servers. 4 million is a lot that the agency that is charged should be able to handle the traffic and without i want to thank everyone for being here today and i look forward to this conversation. >> we will go now to the chairman of the fcc. thank you for being here and we know you have a tough job. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and ranking member it is a privilege to be here with all of my colleagues. there's been some reference about the open internet i'm sure we will discuss it more today. the de

and lest we forget that over 700 small broadband providers in rural america offer broadband internet access pursuant to the full panoply of title ii regulations. universal service and amazingly the sky has not fallen. things are okay. we have not regulated their rate and i'm unaware of any stream of class-action lawsuits. even so the item doesn't serve primary jurisdiction to reduce such concerns. so mr. chairman today i support this item because i believe it provides a strong protection we need and balances the concerns raised by stakeholders both large and small. the order we are proposed -- poised to endorse is not a product of some artificial life force. dedicated team of wireline competition in wireless telecommunications bureau's and the office of general counsel work extremely hard on this item or there are too many people to thank but i would be remiss if i did not mention jonathan sallet claude akin roger sherman i said her name to joe thank you and michael jansen but i almost -- must also think two people in my office especially louie perez for always been that eagle eyed a

but talking about rural america. commissioner clyburn. thank you for visiting mississippi. thank you for visiting rural sunflower county. in the mississippi delta. and there you saw a ground breaking telemedicine program that is treating and attempting to defeat type two diabetes. so thank you for coming. this program depends on usf supported robust mobile brbd broadband connections. twhaz what is the fcc prepared to do to ensure the support remains available so rural wireless networks remain up and running and enabling access to these critical life-saving and cost-saving advances in medicine. >> you know about phase 1 one of mobility fund as well as connect america fund. we are moving ahead in the next phases of that which we hope will be further enablers for investments. we've got broadband experiments in a rural initiatives that will help us work out the kinks for us to go to the next stage of broader series of investments. so what we're doing is on a very parallel course working out the kinks in terms of ip transition and the like. and really continuing to fuel innovatio