On August 16, 2018 the Senate Committee of Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing titled "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission." It was attended by the FCC's Chairman Ajit Pai, as well as three FCC Commissioners. Chairman of the Committee John Thune gave the opening statement. Here is his statement and here are some the highlights:
Welcome to today’s hearing on oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). [...]
Signed into law in March as part of the spending bill, the RAY BAUM’s Act not only reauthorized the FCC, it also included important spectrum, infrastructure, and broadband deployment provisions, including the MOBILE NOW Act, that will help pave the way for American leadership in the race to 5G.
Under Chairman Pai’s leadership, the FCC has also taken action in a number of areas to help free up more spectrum for wireless use, streamline broadband deployment, and bridge the digital divide – particularly in rural states like my home state of South Dakota. [...]
As this Committee heard just a few weeks ago, the United States is engaged in a high-stakes race with China, South Korea, and others for leadership in 5G. It’s critical that the United States win this race, and the jobs and investment that come with victory. [...]
A number of states have adopted legislation to streamline the deployment of small wireless facilities, but the inherently borderless nature of broadband internet access warrants discussion of a national framework. [...]
In the end, American consumers will be the beneficiaries of these efforts. They are—and must remain—at the forefront of the FCC’s decision making across its many responsibilities. [...]
The FCC must also continue its efforts to protect consumers from fraudulent and unwanted robocalls, which remain among the top consumer complaints. Now that the D.C. Circuit has found many Wheeler-era Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules unreasonably expansive, arbitrary, and capricious, the real work of protecting consumers and restoring reason to TCPA rules has begun. [...]
Finally, before I close, I want to acknowledge the unprecedented measures the Commission has taken under Chairman Pai’s leadership to improve the openness and transparency of Commission processes.
Publicly releasing drafts of items the FCC plans to vote on weeks prior to doing so has made both the process and products at the FCC better and more available to the American people.
The same applies when the Commission makes mistakes. Along those lines, a recent FCC Inspector General Report about an alleged attack on the Commission’s comment filing system found that “the FCC, relying on [then-Chief Information Officer David] Bray’s explanation of the events, misrepresented facts and provided misleading responses to Congressional inquiries related to this incident.”
As you know, it is absolutely critical that the information provided to Congress and to the American people be correct. I look forward to hearing how the Commission will prevent this in the future.
I thank the distinguished witnesses for being here today and for working with the Committee on many of these important issue. I look forward to a robust discussion. [...]
The four witnesses provide their opening statements until about minute 30 of the hearing, then the question portion with the senators opens. You can watch the hearing as well as search the transcripts for topics of interest here, as well, of course by searching the written witness testimonies.
.@FCC Chair @AjitPaiFCC and commissioners @JRosenworcel @mikeofcc @BrendanCarrFCC testify before @senatecommerce – LIVE on C-SPAN3 https://t.co/5DYkNA3Lr5 pic.twitter.com/cWIOSHcA7D— CSPAN (@cspan) August 16, 2018
WATCH LIVE: @SenJohnThune convenes hearing to review the ongoing duties and activities of the @FCC https://t.co/3eWDXLubeX— Senate Commerce (@SenateCommerce) August 16, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment