[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
      CONNECTING AMERICA: BROADBAND SOLUTIONS TO PANDEMIC PROBLEMS

=======================================================================

                            VIRTUAL HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

             SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                           FEBRUARY 17, 2021

                               __________

                            Serial No. 117-5
                            
                            
  [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
  


     Published for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce

                   govinfo.gov/committee/house-energy
                        energycommerce.house.gov
                        
                        
                        
                        
  
                              ______                       


             U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
45-454 PDF            WASHINGTON : 2022                         
                        
                        
                        
                        
                    COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE

                     FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey
                                 Chairman
BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois              CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington
ANNA G. ESHOO, California              Ranking Member
DIANA DeGETTE, Colorado              FRED UPTON, Michigan
MIKE DOYLE, Pennsylvania             MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas
JAN SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois             STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana
G. K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina    ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio
DORIS O. MATSUI, California          BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky
KATHY CASTOR, Florida                DAVID B. McKINLEY, West Virginia
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland           ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
JERRY McNERNEY, California           H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia
PETER WELCH, Vermont                 GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
PAUL TONKO, New York                 BILL JOHNSON, Ohio
YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York           BILLY LONG, Missouri
KURT SCHRADER, Oregon                LARRY BUCSHON, Indiana
TONY CARDENAS, California            MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
RAUL RUIZ, California                RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina
SCOTT H. PETERS, California          TIM WALBERG, Michigan
DEBBIE DINGELL, Michigan             EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
MARC A. VEASEY, Texas                JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
ANN M. KUSTER, New Hampshire         GARY J. PALMER, Alabama
ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois, Vice       NEAL P. DUNN, Florida
    Chair                            JOHN R. CURTIS, Utah
NANETTE DIAZ BARRAGAN, California    DEBBBIE LESKO, Arizona
A. DONALD McEACHIN, Virginia         GREG PENCE, Indiana
LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER, Delaware       DAN CRENSHAW, Texas
DARREN SOTO, Florida                 JOHN JOYCE, Pennsylvania
TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona              KELLY ARMSTRONG, North Dakota
KATHLEEN M. RICE, New York
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
KIM SCHRIER, Washington
LORI TRAHAN, Massachusetts
LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas
                                 ------                                

                           Professional Staff

                   JEFFREY C. CARROLL, Staff Director
                TIFFANY GUARASCIO, Deputy Staff Director
                  NATE HODSON, Minority Staff Director
             Subcommittee on Communications and Technology

                        MIKE DOYLE, Pennsylvania
                                 Chairman
JERRY McNERNEY, California           ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio
YVETTE D. CLARKE, New York             Ranking Member
MARC A. VEASEY, Texas                STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana
A. DONALD McEACHIN, Virginia         BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky
DARREN SOTO, Florida                 ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois
TOM O'HALLERAN, Arizona              GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida
KATHLEEN M. RICE, New York           BILL JOHNSON, Ohio
ANNA G. ESHOO, California            BILLY LONG, Missouri
G. K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina    RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina
DORIS O. MATSUI, California          MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
PETER WELCH, Vermont                 TIM WALBERG, Michigan
KURT SCHRADER, Oregon                EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
TONY CARDENAS, California            JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina
ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois             JOHN R. CURTIS, Utah
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota               CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS, Washington 
LIZZIE FLETCHER, Texas                   (ex officio)
FRANK PALLONE, Jr., New Jersey (ex 
    officio)
                             C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hon. Mike Doyle, a Representative in Congress from the 
  Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, opening statement................     2
    Prepared statement...........................................     4
Hon. Robert E. Latta, a Representative in Congress from the State 
  of Ohio, opening statement.....................................     5
    Prepared statement...........................................     7
Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr., a Representative in Congress from the 
  State of New Jersey, opening statement.........................     8
    Prepared statement...........................................     9
Hon. Bill Johnson, a Representative in Congress from the State of 
  Ohio, opening statement........................................    10
    Prepared statement...........................................    12

                               Witnesses

Tiffany Anderson, Ed.D., Superintendent, Topeka Public School 
  District.......................................................    14
    Prepared statement...........................................    17
Matthew F. Wood, Vice President of Policy and General Counsel, 
  Free Press Action..............................................    27
    Prepared statement...........................................    29
    Answers to submitted questions...............................   168
Jonathan S. Adelstein, President and Chief Executive Officer, 
  Wireless Infrastructure Association............................    51
    Prepared statement...........................................    53
    Answers to submitted questions...............................   172
Christopher M. Shelton, President, Communications Workers of 
  America........................................................    65
    Prepared statement...........................................    67

                           Submitted Material

Letters of February 12, 2021, from Gary Bolton, President and 
  Chief Executive Officer, Fiber Broadband Association, to Mr. 
  Doyle and Mr. Pallone, submitted by Mr. Doyle..................   126
Letter of February 17, 2021, from Jonathan Spalter, President and 
  Chief Executive Officer, USTelecom, to Mr. Doyle and Mr. Latta, 
  submitted by Mr. Doyle.........................................   128
Statement of Christina Mason, Vice President of Government 
  Affairs, Wireless Internet Providers Association, February 17, 
  2021, submitted by Mr. Doyle...................................   131
Statement of Hon. Filemon Vela, a Representative in Congress from 
  the State of Texas, February 17, 2021, submitted by Mr. Doyle..   135
Letter of June 4, 2020, from Hon. Greg Walden, Republican Leader, 
  Committe on Energy and Commerce, and Mr. Latta, to Mr. Pallone 
  and Mr. Doyle, submitted by Mr. Johnson........................   136
Letter of January 27, 2021, from Jonathan Adelstein, President 
  and Chief Executive Officer, Wireless Infrastructure 
  Association, et al., to Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House 
  of Representatives, and Hon. Kevin McCarthy, House Republican 
  Leader, submitted by Mr. Duncan................................   138
Study of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public 
  Policy Studies, ``Are Broadband Prices Declining? A Look at the 
  FCC's Price Survey Data,'' by George S. Ford, October 26, 2020, 
  submitted by Mr. Doyle.........................................   141
Letter of February 17, 2021, from the Utilities Technology 
  Council to Mr. Doyle and Mr. Latta, submitted by Mr. Doyle.....   147
Report of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, Federal 
  Communications Commission, ``Streamlining Federal Siting 
  Working Group,'' January 23-24, 2018, submitted by Mr. Doyle...   149


      CONNECTING AMERICA: BROADBAND SOLUTIONS TO PANDEMIC PROBLEMS

                              ----------                              


                      WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2021

                  House of Representatives,
     Subcommittee on Communications and Technology,
                          Committee on Energy and Commerce,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:00 a.m., 
via Cisco Webex online video conferencing, Hon. Mike Doyle 
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
    Members present: Representatives Doyle, McNerney, Clarke, 
Veasey, Soto, O'Halleran, Rice, Butterfield, Matsui, Welch, 
Schrader, Cardenas, Kelly, Craig, Pallone (ex officio), Latta 
(subcommittee ranking member), Guthrie, Bilirakis, Johnson, 
Long, Hudson, Mullin, Walberg, Carter, Duncan, and Curtis.
    Also present: Representative Pence.
    Staff present: AJ Brown, Counsel; Jeffrey C. Carroll, Staff 
Director; Parul Desai, FCC Detailee; Jennifer Epperson, 
Counsel; Waverly Gordon, General Counsel; Tiffany Guarascio, 
Deputy Staff Director; Alex Hoehn-Saric, Chief Counsel, 
Communications and Consumer Protection; Jerry Leverich, Senior 
Counsel; Dan Miller, Professional Staff Member; Phil Murphy, 
Policy Coordinator; Joe Orlando, Policy Analyst; Kaitlyn Peel, 
Digital Director; Tim Robinson, Chief Counsel; David Brodian, 
Minority Detailee, Communications and Technology; Sarah Burke, 
Minority Deputy Staff Director; William Clutterbuck, Minority 
Staff Assistant; Nate Hodson, Minority Staff Director; Sean 
Kelly, Minority Press Secretary; Peter Kielty, Minority General 
Counsel; Emily King, Minority Member Services Director; Bijan 
Koohmaraie, Minority Chief Counsel; Kate O'Connor, Minority 
Chief Counsel, Communications and Technology; Clare Paoletta, 
Minority Policy Analyst, Health; Brannon Rains, Minority Policy 
Analyst, Consumer Protection and Commerce, Energy, Environment; 
Olivia Shields, Minority Communications Director; Michael 
Taggart, Minority Policy Director; Evan Viau, Minority 
Professional Staff Member, Communications and Technology; and 
Everett Winnick, Minority Director of Information Technology.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Good morning, everyone. Can everyone hear me 
OK?
    All right. I see it is 11 o'clock, and I think we will get 
started. So, if you can hear this imaginary gavel, the 
committee will now come to order.
    Today, the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is 
holding our first hearing of the 117th Congress, entitled 
``Connecting America: Broadband Solutions to Our Pandemic 
Problems.''
    Before we get started, I just want to, you know, express 
all of our concern for these weather emergencies occurring down 
in Texas and throughout the Midwest. Our thoughts are with all 
of those folks.
    And I know, Dr. Anderson in Kansas, there have been rolling 
blackouts, and the Governor of Kansas declared a state of 
emergency. And I think the schools in Topeka are closed this 
week. You might be able to fill us in during your testimony.
    But anyways, I just want to express our concern for that, 
for all the folks that are going through that hardship right 
now, and hope they get power restored quick.
    Before I get started, I want to welcome some of our new and 
returning Members on the Democratic side, including 
Congresswoman Robin Kelly, who has just joined the 
subcommittee. She is not new to Energy and Commerce, but she is 
new to the subcommittee, so I want to welcome Robin.
    I also want to welcome Congresswoman Angie Craig and 
Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, who are all new to the committee 
this Congress. I am happy to have all of you join us.
    I also want to welcome our new and returning Republican 
Members to the subcommittee, especially my good friend and 
colleague, Ranking Member Bob Latta. It is good to have you 
back. And, Bob, during your time, I am sure you can introduce 
your new members of the committee. We will certainly give you 
time to do that.
    I look forward to working with all of you as we take on the 
important work of the Communications and Technology 
Subcommittee.
    So back to the matter at hand. Due to the COVID-19 public 
health emergency, today's hearing is being held remotely. All 
Members and witnesses will be participating via video 
conferencing. And, as part of our hearing, microphones will be 
set on mute for the purpose of eliminating inadvertent 
background noise. Members and witnesses, you will need to 
unmute your microphone each time you wish to speak.
    Documents for the record can be sent to Joe Orlando at the 
email address we provided to staff. All documents will be 
entered into the record at the conclusion of the hearing.
    So the Chair now recognizes himself for 5 minutes for an 
opening statement.

   OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE DOYLE, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
         CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

    As we have all become far too aware over the last year, 
universal broadband connectivity is critical to our economy, to 
our education of our youth, and to keeping our communities safe 
and connected during this unprecedented crisis.
    Americans throughout the country have struggled to get 
connected and stay connected. Too many households are going 
without broadband service because they can't afford it, either 
because it was too expensive before or it is too expensive now.
    Free Press, in their testimony, says that some 77 million 
people lack an adequate home internet connection due to high 
prices or lack of connectivity. We all know that our Nation 
needs to invest in deploying new networks, particularly in 
rural communities, if we are going to ensure that everyone can 
get online.
    But what I think is more concerning about the data 
presented in their testimony is that far too many people go 
without because they can't afford service. That is why I am 
glad we were finally able to come together at the end of last 
year to include several important broadband provisions in the 
COVID-bus package to address these challenges.
    Among our accomplishments was the creation of a new 
emergency program, the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, 
based on legislation introduced by our colleague, Congressman 
Veasey. This $3.2 billion program will provide qualifying 
consumers with a $50 credit each month on their broadband 
bills.
    Congress wrote this legislation to give consumers a great 
deal of flexibility in how they use this benefit, and it is 
critical that the program be implemented as such.
    I also hope the FCC will ensure that existing tools that 
are helpful and part of the Lifeline program are available and 
accessible to participating carriers to the greatest extent 
possible to help facilitate this new program as well.
    While the Emergency Broadband Benefit is temporary, I 
sincerely hope we can work together to find permanent solutions 
to ensuring that broadband service is available and affordable 
to all.
    Last week, this committee marked up legislation to fund 
remote learning in our Nation's classrooms. This investment is 
long overdue, and we have known about the homework gap for 
years, and the pandemic has really laid this inequality bare.
    The new $7.6 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund seeks to 
start closing that gap. The fund will help low-income students 
by subsidizing the cost of internet-connected devices and 
broadband service so that students can learn at home.
    Dr. Anderson, in your testimony, you talk about the great 
lengths Topeka schools are going to to keep students connected, 
including setting up Wi-Fi in school parking lots. But as you 
point out, too many students--and more importantly their 
parents--can't sit in a parking lot all day. It is critical 
that we give students and families the resources they need to 
allow kids to participate in their own education.
    It is my hope we can get these provisions signed into law 
as quickly as possible and get help to students and schools in 
need.
    And, finally, as we have all said for many years, we need 
to invest in rural broadband. We have had more hearings than I 
care to count where the truth has been obvious. The only way to 
solve this problem is through Federal investment. The business 
case just does not exist for too many communities.
    Last Congress, the House passed H.R. 2, the Moving Forward 
Act, which included $100 billion for broadband deployment and 
adoption. I hope we can work with the Biden administration and 
our colleagues in the Senate to take up similar legislation 
again this Congress and finally take real steps in this country 
to close the digital divide.
    I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides 
of the aisle as we take all of these challenges on together.
    And with that, I will yield the remainder of my time to my 
good friend from Vermont, Congressman Peter Welch.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Doyle follows:]

                 Prepared Statement of Hon. Mike Doyle

    As we have all become far too aware over the last year, 
universal broadband connectivity is critical to our economy, to 
the education of our youth, and to keeping our communities safe 
and connected during this unprecedented crisis.
    Americans throughout the country have struggled to get 
connected and to stay connected. Too many households are going 
without broadband service because they can't afford it, either 
because it was too expensive before or it's too expensive now.
    Free Press, in their testimony, say that 77 million people 
lack an adequate home internet connection due to high prices or 
a lack of connectivity.
    We all know that our Nation needs to invest in deploying 
new networks--particularly in rural communities--if we are 
going to ensure that everyone can get online.
    But what I think is more concerning about the data 
presented in the testimony is that far too many people go 
without because they can't afford service.
    That's why I'm glad that we were finally able to come 
together at the end of last year to include several important 
broadband provisions in the COVID-bus package to address these 
challenges.
    Among our accomplishments was the creation of a new 
Emergency Broadband Benefit program based on legislation 
introduced by our colleague Congressman Veasey.
    This $3.2 billion program will provide qualifying consumers 
with a $50 credit each month on their broadband bills.
    Congress wrote this legislation to give consumers a great 
deal of flexibility in how they use this benefit--and it's 
critical that the program be implemented as such.
    I also hope the FCC will ensure that existing tools that 
are helpful and part of the Lifeline program are available and 
accessible to participating carriers to the greatest extent 
possible to help facilitate this new program as well.
    While the Emergency Broadband Benefit is temporary, I 
sincerely hope we can work together to find permanent solutions 
to ensuring that broadband service is available and affordable 
to all.
    Last week, this committee marked up legislation to fund 
remote learning in our Nation's classrooms.
    This investment is long overdue--we have known about the 
homework gap for years--and the pandemic has really laid this 
inequality bare.
    The new $7.6 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund seeks to 
start closing this gap. The fund will help low-income students 
by subsidizing the cost of internet-connected devices and 
broadband service so that students can learn at home.
    Dr. Anderson, in your testimony you talk about the great 
lengths Topeka schools are going to in order to keep students 
connected--including setting up Wi-Fi in school parking lots.
    But as you point out--too many students, and more 
importantly parents, can't sit in a parking lot all day.
    It's critical that we give students and families the 
resources they need to allow kids to participate in their own 
education.
    It's my hope that we can get these provisions signed into 
law as quickly as possible--and get help to students and 
schools in need.
    And finally, as we have all said for many years--we need to 
invest in rural broadband.
    We have had more hearings than I care to count where the 
truth has been obvious, the only way to solve this problem is 
through Federal investment--the business case just does not 
exist for private investment in many communities.
    Last Congress, the House passed H.R. 2--the Moving Forward 
Act--which included $100 billion for broadband deployment and 
adoption.
    I hope that we can work with the Biden administration and 
our colleagues in the Senate to take up similar legislation 
again this Congress--and finally take real steps in this 
country to close the digital divide.
    I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides 
of the aisle as we take all of these challenges on together.

    Mr. Welch. Thank you, Chairman Doyle.
    And I think all of us on the committee, Republicans and 
Democrats, are thrilled that you are starting out with this 
hearing. The issue of broadband is existential. The case has 
been made.
    Many of us on this committee sent a letter to the President 
to support rural broadband. But what you are pointing out is 
that broadband is an equity issue. And it is not just getting 
access in rural America, it is getting affordability in urban 
America. So here we are with you from Pittsburgh, me from rural 
Vermont, and we have the same challenge. So this is about 
equity.
    And there has to be two things. One, Federal investment. 
That is number one. But number two, local partnerships.
    Now, we can partner with the private companies, but let me 
give an example. If they are not going to do the job, get out 
of the way. Let local communities that are developing their own 
co-ops move ahead. If you live in Peacham, Vermont--very small 
town--and you are on one side of Macks Mountain, Charter 
Spectrum will not answer your call and get you the broadband.
    So this is about equity for all of our citizens in rural 
and urban America.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and we all look forward to working 
with you.
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Mr. Welch.
    It gives me great pleasure now to recognize my good friend 
and colleague, the gentleman from Ohio, our ranking member for 
the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, for 5 
minutes for his opening statement. Mr. Latta, you are 
recognized.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT E. LATTA, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
                CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO

    Mr. Latta. Well, thank you very much. And I appreciate my 
good friend for recognizing me this morning, and 
congratulations again for your leadership on the subcommittee. 
And I also want to thank and recognize Mr. Pallone for his 
continued leadership as chairman of the full committee.
    But also, thanks very much for our witnesses for being on 
hand today. Greatly appreciate it.
    And also, if I can just make mention of our new Members on 
the subcommittee, I would really appreciate it. Mr. Duncan, Mr. 
Hudson, Mr. Mullin, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Curtis, and Mr. Carter. 
And I know they are all going to do a great job being on the 
committee--it is a great subcommittee--with us, and so I look 
forward to it.
    But the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of 
reliable internet access as so much of our daily lives has 
moved online. From telehealth to education, closing the digital 
divide for all Americans has never been more critical. But, 
even before the pandemic changed the way we live, work, and 
learn, Americans, especially those who live in rural 
communities, were being left behind because of the lack of 
access to the internet.
    In June of last year, I called on the majority to hold this 
hearing because people across the country, and Ohioans in my 
district, need better access to the internet so they can 
participate in the 21st century economy, get the healthcare 
they need from home, and learn remotely while our schools 
remain closed to in-person learning.
    Mr. Chairman, I would like to also submit the letter for 
the record that I have before us.
    But even as this hearing is long overdue, it is better late 
than never, and I am pleased we are having it today.
    Before moving forward, again, I want to thank our witnesses 
for joining us.
    One of the most evident needs for improving broadband 
during the pandemic is our country's unprecedented reliance on 
telehealth. Telehealth services allow Americans to continue to 
see their doctors without risk of contracting the coronavirus.
    Congress appropriated over $500 million to the FCC's COVID-
19 Telehealth Program last year, and now we must pursue 
aggressive oversight to understand how the emergency funding is 
being used to ensure needs are being met.
    In my district, telehealth visits have spiked since the 
start of the pandemic last March, and I am sure we are seeing 
similar trends in my colleagues' districts. This includes more 
than just primary care visits but also assessing mental health 
resources and substance abuse treatment as rates of suicide, 
drug abuse, and alcoholism are on the rise. But, for all 
Americans to benefit from telehealth services, we must close 
the digital divide with long-term solutions.
    Under the last administration, the gap between urban and 
rural Americans with access to broadband closed significantly. 
Americans with access to 25/3 megabits per second fixed 
broadband fell from 30 percentage points at the end of the 
Obama administration in 2016 to just 16 points to the end of 
2019.
    Thanks to Republican policies and historic tax cuts that 
include private investments, providers were well positioned to 
immediately step up to the challenge presented by the once-in-
a-century crisis.
    While this regulatory flexibility enabled broadband 
providers to immediately upgrade their services for consumers, 
earlier this week E&C Republicans introduced the Boosting 
Broadband Connectivity Agenda, a package of broadband 
infrastructure and permitting reform bills, to make sure 
broadband gets to all Americans quickly.
    We urge committee Democrats to join us in solving these 
important issues in a bipartisan fashion.
    We often hear from our colleagues across the aisle about 
the need to get broadband to the home, particularly for low-
income Americans and urban America. We agree and worked with 
you all to provide $3.2 billion at the end of last year to 
increase broadband access for all of those Americans.
    While no American should have to go to a fast-food 
restaurant for internet, at least those Americans have access 
to it. Many of my constituents don't even have that option.
    We must close the digital divide once and for all. The 
COVID-19 pandemic has required novel approaches to address new 
problems, but we can't forget about challenges that persisted 
before the pandemic that still demand our attention.
    Internet connectivity and access are topics we must tackle 
together because they will be required for generations to come.
    So thank you again to all my friends in the majority for 
holding this hearing today, and I look forward to today's 
discussion, and thanking our witnesses again.
    Mr. Chairman, with that, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Latta follows:]

               Prepared Statement of Hon. Robert E. Latta

    Good morning, and welcome to the first Communications and 
Technology Subcommittee hearing this Congress. Congratulations 
to my friend Chairman Doyle on returning to lead this 
subcommittee, and to Chairman Pallone as well for his continued 
leadership.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened the importance of 
reliable internet access as so much of our daily lives has 
moved online. From telehealth to education, closing the digital 
divide for all Americans has never been more critical. But even 
before the pandemic changed the way we live, work, and learn, 
Americans--especially those who live in rural communities--were 
being left behind because of their lack of access to the 
Internet. In June of last year, I called on the majority to 
hold this hearing because people across the country and Ohioans 
in my district need better access to the Internet so they can 
participate in the 21st century economy, get the healthcare 
they need from home, and learn remotely while schools remain 
closed to in-person learning. But even as this hearing is long 
overdue, it is better late than never, and I am pleased we are 
having it today. Before moving forward, I'd also like to thank 
our witnesses who joined us today to discuss this important 
topic.
    One of the most evident needs for improving broadband 
during the pandemic is our country's unprecedented reliance on 
telehealth. Telehealth services allow Americans to continue to 
see their doctors without the risk of contracting the 
coronavirus. Congress appropriated over $500 million to the 
FCC's COVID-19 telehealth program last year, and now we must 
pursue aggressive oversight to understand how that emergency 
funding is being used to ensure needs are being met.
    In my district, telehealth visits have spiked since the 
start of the pandemic last March--and I am sure we are seeing 
similar trends in my colleagues' districts. This includes more 
than just primary care visits, but also accessing mental health 
resources and substance misuse treatment as rates of suicide, 
drug abuse, and alcoholism are on the rise.
    But for all Americans to benefit from telehealth services, 
we must close the digital divide with long-term solutions.
    Under the last administration, the gap between urban and 
rural Americans with access to broadband closed significantly. 
Americans with access to 25/3 megabits per second fixed 
broadband service fell from 30 percentage points at the end of 
the Obama administration in 2016 to just 16 points at the end 
of 2019. Thanks to Republican policies and historic tax cuts 
that encouraged private investment, providers were well 
positioned to immediately step up to the challenges presented 
by this once-in-a-century crisis.
    While this regulatory flexibility enabled broadband 
providers to immediately upgrade their services for consumers, 
earlier this week E&C Republicans introduced the Boosting 
Broadband Connectivity Agenda, a package of broadband 
infrastructure and permitting reform bills to make sure 
broadband gets to all Americans quickly. We urge committee 
Democrats to join us in solving these important issues in a 
bipartisan fashion.
    We often hear from our colleagues across the aisle about 
the need to get broadband to the home, particularly for low-
income Americans in urban America. We agree and worked with you 
all to provide $3.2 BILLION at the end of last year to increase 
broadband access for those Americans. And while no American 
should have to go to a McDonald's for internet, at least those 
Americans have access to it. Many of my constituents don't even 
have that option.
    We must close the digital divide once and for all. The 
COVID-19 pandemic has required novel approaches to address new 
problems, but we can't forget about challenges that persisted 
before the pandemic that still demand our attention. Internet 
connectivity and access are topics we must tackle together 
because they will be required for generations to come.
    So, thank you again to my friends in the majority for 
holding this hearing today, and I look forward to the 
discussion.

    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair would like to also recognize one of our new 
Members on the Democratic side from the great State of New 
York, Congresswoman Rice. Sorry for missing you there, 
Kathleen, but we are thrilled to have you on the committee.
    Now, the Chair will recognize Mr. Pallone, chairman of the 
full committee, for 5 minutes for his opening statement.

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. FRANK PALLONE, Jr., A REPRESENTATIVE 
            IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

    Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Chairman Doyle.
    Right now, struggling families that lack internet 
connectivity have been shut out from school, work, telehealth, 
and other vital connections, and across the country children 
are unable to attend virtual classes because they don't have a 
reliable internet connection.
    In New Jersey, for example, studies have found that nearly 
17 percent of residents have no internet access in their homes. 
Of the families making $35,000 per year or less, only half have 
home internet connections, and for many schoolkids, the dining 
room table or a bedroom workspace have replaced their 
classrooms. So a lack of connectivity means that, in essence, 
they are locked out of school.
    And it is not just kids. Struggling parents are trying to 
fill out job applications and complete educational courses on 
smartphones. Many, if not most, vaccine appointments require 
online registration. And, to make matters worse, many libraries 
that once provided a reliable internet connection are now 
closed to protect public health.
    But nowhere is this problem more acute than on Tribal 
lands. Many Tribal students who were sent home from college and 
schools for their own safety returned to homes without 
sufficient internet connections for video conferencing or 
uploading assignments. And many Tribal members can't work from 
home or sell goods online, cutting off key sources of income. 
And these same Tribal communities are also among the last to 
receive important updates on health and emergency procedures, 
which are critically important for prevention.
    Fortunately, Mr. Chairman, Democrats and Republicans came 
together at the end of the last Congress to pass the historic 
Emergency Broadband Benefit program. Under this program, 
eligible households can receive a discount of $50 per month for 
service or $75 per month for service on Tribal lands, and the 
Federal Communications Commission is in the process of setting 
this program up.
    We also passed, as you know, the Broadband Connectivity 
Grant Program in that end-of-the-year package that provides a 
billion dollars for a range of efforts to increase connectivity 
on Tribal lands. The National Telecommunications and 
Information Administration is working to set up that program 
now, including significant Tribal consultation.
    And then just last week, this committee approved, as part 
of the reconciliation instructions, $7.6 billion in funding to 
expand E-rate assistance for remote learning and remote library 
services. And we all want the schools and libraries to open, 
but we have to ensure they are opened safely, and until that is 
possible, we have to prevent our kids from falling into the 
homework gap. And this funding in the reconciliation bill will 
allow millions of teachers, students, and families to access 
the technology and tools they need to participate in virtual 
classrooms and other online activities.
    So we are going to continue to support broadband deployment 
across the country through another infrastructure bill or 
economic stimulus, which I think, you know, will follow the 
budget reconciliation hopefully on a bipartisan basis in April 
or May. That, I think, will incorporate a lot of the things 
that we did in our committee in the Moving Forward Act, which 
was passed by the House last year, but we couldn't get the 
Senate majority leader then, Mitch McConnell, to move it in the 
Senate. But I think that a lot of our Republican Members will 
support a major infrastructure bill that has some major 
broadband deployment in underserved areas.
    So I look forward to continue to find bipartisan solutions, 
Chairman Doyle.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Pallone follows:]

             Prepared Statement of Hon. Frank Pallone, Jr.

    Right now, struggling families that lack internet 
connectivity have been shut out from school, work, telehealth, 
and other vital connections.
    Across the country, children are unable to attend virtual 
classes because they do not have a reliable internet 
connection.
    In New Jersey, studies have found that nearly 17 percent of 
residents have no internet access in their homes. Of the 
families making $35,000 per year or less, only half have home 
internet connections. For many schoolkids, the dining room 
table or a bedroom workspace have replaced their classrooms, so 
a lack of connectivity means that, in essence, they are locked 
out of school. Congress must step in and provide support.
    It's not just our kids. Struggling parents are trying to 
fill out job applications and complete educational courses on 
smart phones. Many, if not most, vaccine appointments require 
online registration. And to make matters worse, many libraries 
that once provided a reliable internet connection are now 
closed to protect public health.
    Nowhere is this problem more acute than on Tribal lands. 
Many Tribal students, who were sent home from college and 
schools for their own safety, returned to homes without 
sufficient internet connections for video conferencing or 
uploading assignments. Many Tribal members cannot work from 
home or sell goods online, cutting off key sources of income. 
These same Tribal communities are also among the last to 
receive important updates on health and emergency procedures, 
which are critically important for prevention.
    Fortunately, Democrats and Republicans came together at the 
end of last Congress to pass the historic Emergency Broadband 
Benefit program. Under this program, eligible households can 
receive a discount of $50 per month for service, or $75 per 
month for service on tribal lands. The Federal Communications 
Commission is in the process of setting this program up.
    We also passed the Broadband Connectivity grant program 
that will provide $1 billion for a range of efforts to increase 
connectivity on Tribal lands. The National Telecommunications 
and Information Administration is working to set up that 
program now, including significant Tribal consultation.
    And then just last week, this committee approved $7.6 
billion in funding to expand E-rate assistance for remote 
learning and remote library services. We all want schools and 
libraries to open--but we must ensure they are opened safely. 
Until that is possible, we must prevent our kids from falling 
into the homework gap. And this funding will allow millions of 
teachers, students and families to access the technology and 
tools they need to participate in virtual classrooms and other 
online activities.
    We will also continue to support broadband deployment 
across the country through an infrastructure bill similar to 
the Moving Forward Act passed by the House last year but 
ignored by then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell.
    I look forward to our continued work to find bipartisan 
solutions to these issues.

    Mr. Pallone. And I would like to yield the rest of my time 
to Marc Veasey of Texas.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman is recognized.
    Mr. Veasey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for 
recognizing me. I want to, first of all, thank you for 
gathering us here today to talk about this extremely important 
topic, about broadband expansion, because right now, in this 
pandemic it is more important than ever that we have fast, 
reliable internet.
    Our lives are primarily taking place online with work, 
school, and healthcare, not to mention basic communication 
between friends and family. So we have to make sure that our 
kids don't get caught in the homework gap and to make sure that 
our workers can find their next job online and that we don't 
lose meaningful communication with one another.
    Last year, I introduced legislation to bolster access to 
broadband for individuals that are facing unprecedented 
challenges amidst the coronavirus pandemic. My legislation 
provides free or low-cost internet service to families with 
children who qualify for free or reduced school lunch, to 
college students that have Pell grants, and to those who have 
been laid off or furloughed due to COVID-19, and those that 
qualify for the FCC's current Lifeline program. And I was very 
proud that my legislation was included in the stimulus package 
that Congress passed at the end of last year to give Americans 
immediate relief.
    In the upcoming months, I will continue to use my position 
on this committee to work with the incoming administration to 
ensure we facilitate a good rollout of this program, because I 
believe it is in everyone's interest.
    And I wanted to thank everyone on the committee for all of 
their well wishes and prayers for everything that we are going 
through in Texas right now. I don't ever remember it being this 
cold here, and there are a lot of people out here suffering.
    So thank you very much. And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Pallone. And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you.
    It is my understanding that Mrs. Rodgers was unable to 
attend and that my friend from the great State of Ohio, Mr. 
Johnson, is going to claim her time. So, Mr. Johnson, you are 
recognized for 5 minutes.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BILL JOHNSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN 
                CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OHIO

    Mr. Johnson. Good morning, Chairman Doyle and Chairman 
Pallone. I want to thank you for holding this important hearing 
to look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has had--
and all the terrible effects that it has had on our country's 
broadband networks.
    It is certainly time that this committee holds a hearing to 
examine ways to close the digital divide and the homework gap, 
which House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans urged you 
to hold last year in a letter to both you and Chairman Pallone. 
And though it took nearly a year, I am glad we are finally 
turning our attention to this matter.
    These are two crucial issues facing Americans during the 
COVID-19 pandemic. And, Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous 
consent to enter the letter that was sent last year into the 
record.
    Mr. Doyle. Without objection, so ordered.
    [The information appears at the conclusion of the hearing.]
    Mr. Johnson. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our broadband 
networks have held our economy, our education system, and our 
communities together where access has been available. Despite 
the challenges that many American industries have faced, our 
Nation's broadband providers stepped up when it mattered most, 
and they were able to do this because our country's policies 
allowed them to do so.
    The past 4 years of Republican-led, market-oriented 
policies created a competitive environment that facilitates 
innovation and investment in our networks, leading to increased 
speeds, extra capacity, lower prices, and flexibility to adapt 
when faced with the unexpected.
    I can think of no greater test than the early challenges of 
the pandemic. More than 40 percent of America's workforce began 
working and learning from home overnight. Children began 
streaming classes and their favorite TV shows around the clock. 
Parents were juggling video calls with video weddings and 
reunions, family reunions, and even Congress began legislating 
over Webex.
    All of the capacity that had been dedicated to office parks 
now suddenly needed to be made available at homes on short 
notice. And, in a stunning show of American ingenuity, our 
providers kept the internet up and running at full speed, while 
other major countries in Europe failed.
    I commend all of the providers who continue to work around 
the clock to ensure Americans have the connectivity they need. 
Our country's policies foster a competitive communications 
marketplace, and this competition only benefits consumers.
    Now, we are not there yet in most rural areas of America. 
While bipartisan policies led by Republicans have enabled the 
ISPs to do much good work with existing broadband 
infrastructure, there are many places throughout our country 
that do not have even the basic access to the 21st century 
digital economy. And we must continue to solve that problem.
    Thankfully, we do not have socialized broadband in this 
country--yet. In fact, as long as we continue to push 
bipartisan policies, we will continue to move in the opposite 
direction from a socialized solution.
    Last summer, committee Republicans worked with our 
Republican colleagues in the Senate to outline a framework that 
would help connect all Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
We then worked with many of our colleagues here today to find 
bipartisan agreement to enact many of them into law, including 
establishing a $1.3 billion broadband grant program to connect 
unserved rural Americans and Tribes, increasing broadband 
access and digital opportunities in minority communities and 
for low-income Americans, increasing funding for telehealth 
programs, and providing funding for broadband maps and to 
secure our networks.
    Though not in this committee's jurisdiction, Congress also 
funded a cumulative $110 billion to the Department of Education 
to invest in hardware, software, and connectivity needed to 
safely reopen schools and continue remote learning.
    Mr. Chairman, it is our duty to now make sure that money 
gets to where it belongs--to Americans. Let's not abandon the 
American people when it matters most. We must make sure that 
money already appropriated gets to our children for distance 
learning. Without that, our efforts are in vain.
    But there is more that can be done. With billions of 
dollars dedicated to connecting unserved Americans, we must now 
move swiftly to turbocharge that investment by removing 
barriers to deployment. We can start by working together to 
pass the Boosting Broadband Connectivity Agenda that committee 
Republicans unveiled this week. This agenda sets out an 
ambitious slate of proposals designed to roll back regulatory 
red tape, to put Americans back to work building next-
generation networks, and maintain U.S. broadband leadership.
    We have proven that, when we work together, we can help 
Americans in need. I hope my colleagues across the aisle will 
join us in this effort to encourage speedy, affordable 
broadband deployment so all Americans can be connected.
    Thank you for being here today. And thank you, again, 
Chairman Doyle, for holding this important hearing. Better late 
than never. I yield back.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Johnson follows:]

                Prepared Statement of Hon. Bill Johnson

    Good morning. Chairman Doyle and Chairman Pallone, I want 
to thank you for holding this important hearing to look at the 
impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our country's broadband 
networks.
    It is time that this committee holds a hearing to examine 
ways to close the digital divide and the homework gap, which 
House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans urged you to 
hold last year, and, though it took nearly a year, I am glad we 
are finally turning our attention to this matter. These are two 
crucial issues facing Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
[Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to enter this letter 
into the record.]
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, our broadband networks have 
held our economy, our education system, and our communities 
together where access has been available. Despite the 
challenges many American industries have faced, our Nation's 
broadband providers stepped up when it mattered most.
    And they were able to do this because our country's 
policies allowed them to do so.
    The past 4 years of Republican-led, market-oriented 
policies created a competitive environment that facilitates 
innovation and investment in our networks, leading to increased 
speeds, extra capacity, lower prices and flexibility to adapt 
when faced with the unexpected.
    I can think of no greater test than the early challenges of 
the pandemic. More than 40 percent of America's workforce began 
working and learning from home overnight.
    Children began streaming classes and their favorite TV 
shows around the clock, parents were juggling video calls with 
video weddings and reunions, and even Congress began 
legislating over Webex.
    All of the capacity that had been dedicated to office parks 
now suddenly needed to be made available at homes on short 
notice. And in a stunning show of American ingenuity, our 
providers kept the Internet up and running at full speed while 
others in Europe failed.
    I commend all of the providers who continue to work around 
the clock to ensure Americans have the connectivity they need. 
Our country's policies foster a competitive communications 
marketplace--and this competition only benefits consumers.
    Now, we're not there yet, in most rural areas of America. 
While bipartisan policies led by Republicans have enabled the 
ISPs to do much good work with existing broadband 
infrastructure, there are many places throughout our country 
that do not have even the basic access to the digital economy. 
And, we MUST continue to solve that problem.
    Thankfully, we do not have socialized broadband in this 
country--yet. In fact, as long as we continue to push 
bipartisan policies we will continue to move in the opposite 
direction from a socialized solution.
    Last summer, committee Republicans worked with our 
Republican colleagues in the Senate to outline a framework that 
would help connect all Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    We then worked with many of our colleagues here today to 
find bipartisan agreement to enact many of them into law, 
including:
     Establishing a $1.3 billion broadband grant 
program to connect unserved rural Americans and Tribes;
     Increasing broadband access and digital 
opportunities in minority communities and for low-income 
Americans;
     Increasing funding for telehealth programs; and
     Providing funding for broadband maps and to secure 
our networks.Though not in this committee's jurisdiction, 
Congress also funded a cumulative $110 BILLION to the 
Department of Education to invest in ``hardware, software, and 
connectivity'' needed to safely reopen schools and continue 
remote learning.
    Mr. Chairman, it is our duty to now make sure that money 
gets to where it belongs: to Americans.
    Let's not abandon the American people when it matters most. 
We must make sure that money ALREADY appropriated gets to our 
children for distance learning. Without that, our efforts are 
in vain.
    But there is more that can be done. With billions of 
dollars dedicated to connecting unserved Americans, we must now 
move swiftly to turbocharge that investment by removing 
barriers to deployment.
    We can start by working together to pass the Boosting 
Broadband Connectivity Agenda that committee Republicans 
unveiled this week.
    This agenda sets out an ambitious slate of proposals 
designed to roll back regulatory red tape to put Americans back 
to work building next-generation networks and maintain U.S. 
broadband leadership.
    We have proven that when we work together, we can help 
Americans in need.
    I hope my colleagues across the aisle will join us in this 
effort to encourage speedy, affordable broadband deployment so 
all Americans can be connected.
    Thank you all for being here today, and thank you again 
Chairman Doyle for holding this hearing. Better late than 
never.

    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair would like to remind Members that, pursuant to 
committee rules, all Members' written opening statements shall 
be made part of the record.
    Now, I would like to introduce our distinguished panel of 
witnesses for today's hearing.
    Dr. Tiffany Anderson, superintendent of the Topeka Public 
Schools. Welcome.
    Mr. Matthew Wood, vice president of policy and general 
counsel, Free Press Action, a Pittsburgher who has testified 
before this subcommittee many times. Welcome back.
    Jonathan Adelstein, president and CEO of the Wireless 
Infrastructure Association, who has also testified before us 
both in his roles in government and in his current role many 
times. Welcome back, Jon.
    And last but certainly not least, Chris Shelton, president 
of the Communication Workers of America. Chris, it is good to 
have you back also.
    I want to thank all of our witnesses for joining us today, 
and we look forward to your testimony.
    At this time, the Chair will recognize each witness for 5 
minutes to provide their opening statement. Well, I guess we 
don't have the lights up there anymore, do we, guys? Try to 
stick to your 5-minute time limit. I will let you know if you 
have gone over a little bit too much.
    We will start with Dr. Anderson. You are now recognized for 
5 minutes.
    You need to unmute, Dr. Anderson.

 STATEMENTS OF TIFFANY ANDERSON, Ed.D. SUPERINTENDENT, TOPEKA 
  PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT; MATTHEW F. WOOD, VICE PRESIDENT OF 
  POLICY AND GENERAL COUNSEL, FREE PRESS ACTION; JONATHAN S. 
  ADELSTEIN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WIRELESS 
    INFRASTRUCTURE ASSOCIATION; AND CHRISTOPHER M. SHELTON, 
          PRESIDENT, COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA

              STATEMENT OF TIFFANY ANDERSON, Ed.D.

    Dr. Anderson. Yes, sir. I am making sure I was off mute.
    First of all, good afternoon. It is a pleasure and 
privilege to be here. I have to tell you what, I am so filled 
up hearing people talk about collective energy and moving 
together to move forward in this area of addressing broadband.
    With that in mind, let me first extend an apology in that 
we sent an amended statement to you, as was stated at the 
beginning by Senator Doyle. Thank you for the comments about 
Kansas. We are on a blackout, so, look, I am just glad to see 
y'all this morning. And if we go out, I have a couple of 
hotspots right here, because they run by battery.
    But I will tell you that, like other States, we actually 
are on a scheduled blackout. Therefore, rather than you being 
with me in Topeka in my office, you are right here in my home. 
And as I talk, I am going to really try to touch base on a few 
things.
    One, trying to give you a feel of not just Kansans but 
people around the country really in terms of how we are 
addressing the matters that we are faced with now. But I will 
tell you this, that the need for broadband, which has already 
been said, it is not new. This is something that we have needed 
for some time. And, as we look at the homework gap, it has 
existed. It is the reason for the achievement gap and where we 
are now, which is just shining a bright light on things that we 
need to do. So I have to say in advance, thank you for the 
steps you have already taken.
    In Topeka Public Schools, I come with you with the energy 
of about 30,000 people. A little bit over 13,000 are students, 
and the rest are parents and community members.
    I will share with you, prior to the pandemic we were one-
to-one technology. We had a multimillion-dollar bond. We had 
one-to-one technology for our students, pre-K through 12. We 
were what you would consider a future-ready district, like many 
districts.
    We recognize that providing resources within the schools 
was key, but I will tell you for 73 percent of free-lunch 
students, just providing that at school has never been enough. 
And I will tell you why. And even after the pandemic, I want 
you to remember this, because we are in the space now which is 
shining a light, but after this we are still in a space of 
making sure that we need to provide some level of permanent 
opportunity in the future for people to access resources at 
home and outside of school.
    With that, as we started in Topeka this last couple of 
years during the pandemic and we had to shut down, as has 
already been said, we gave families maps of the city to share 
where Wi-Fi was, we provided hotspots on buses. We learned very 
quickly from our family that Quincy Elementary--man, I wish you 
all could be with me in Topeka talking right now, but you 
can't, so I am going to tell you about some students and some 
families.
    And I will tell you what, at Quincy, several of the 
families live at the rescue mission. We have 400 homeless 
families. They immediately--they don't have broadband in that 
space, therefore they needed hotspots. So through our district, 
we will be able to provide some limited access to that support 
just for students to be able to get online. That is for those 
families.
    But, again, in 73 percent free lunches and solely in our 
rural areas, you also have some transiency throughout the 
community, so families that move to different homes. And, 
again, if you don't have broadband, how are you going to access 
school?
    Moving from that, as we now go into this next year, we have 
created a variety of opportunities. We have telehealth 
sessions, night school, morning school. We have students that 
access from work the services that we provide.
    And so here is reality: Right now we are certainly in need, 
and not just in Topeka, but certainly all of rural America as 
well.
    You know, I thought when we first closed down, that we need 
to really focus just on our students and getting them ready, 
and now I know that one of our teachers, the vice president of 
the NEA, couldn't access the internet. Why? Because she lives 
in rural America. She could drive to school and fix that, but 
her students could not.
    I want to tell you about Chrishayla Adams, and Chrishayla 
was just in DC being awarded for the JAG, Jobs for American 
Graduates. See, she wants to graduate early, but to do that, 
you have to take classes at night virtually. And so, before the 
pandemic, we had virtual schools operating. So we have had this 
need, and this homework gap has been created, but now it is 
exponential.
    So I ask and give you a plea from Topeka, but from all of 
our educators, our teachers, and our students, to really put 
the kind of resources that allow for expanded connectivity, 
that also allow for us to support students that are 
marginalized, such as our Native American students, our 
students in poverty, our rural American students, but all 
students deserve the access and the civil right to an 
education. Right now, they don't all have it.
    If you have resources, when the pandemic is over you will 
be able to access night school and tutoring and all of those 
other things, ACC tutoring. But when the pandemic is over, I am 
asking you to continue to look at this issue, put resources 
behind it. And I welcome any questions.
    In addition to being superintendent of Topeka Public 
Schools, I also serve on the Postsecondary Education Authority 
for the Governor, and I also serve on the Commission for Racial 
Equity and Justice. This is an equity and opportunity gap, and 
I believe that you will help us close it.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Anderson follows:]
    
  [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]  
   
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Wood, you are now recognized for 5 minutes.

                  STATEMENT OF MATTHEW F. WOOD

    Mr. Wood. Thank you, Chairmen Doyle and Pallone and Ranking 
Member Latta. And it is an honor to be appearing before the 
subcommittee again. Of course, appearing today means on your 
screens, not in Rayburn, where I think we would all rather be. 
And in a sense, that is just what this hearing is about.
    I can afford good enough internet service for three kids to 
attend school from home--one of them is at the table with me 
now, in fact--and for me to join you online this morning too.
    But why can people who look like me more easily pay for 
this service while it is still out of reach for nearly a 
quarter of the people in this country? The answer is all too 
obvious. COVID has changed everything in some ways, as social 
distance showed beyond a doubt that broadband is an essential 
utility for learning and livelihoods. Yet it has also changed 
nothing, merely highlighting and heightening the racial 
injustice and income inequality at our country's root.
    Measuring the digital divide depends on how we count people 
with mobile phones alone, but as Chairman Doyle said, our read 
of U.S. Census data shows that more than 77 million people lack 
adequate home connections today. This divide is based on 
income, for sure. Nine of ten in the top income bracket are on 
online. Only two-thirds in the bottom bracket are. And that 
group is overly reliant on mobile. Just 48 percent of low-
income people have wired broadband.
    But we are divided by race and ethnicity too. Twenty-six 
percent of White people lack wired broadband at home, compared 
to 34 percent of Black people, 35 percent of Latinx people, and 
41 percent of indigenous people. So 13 million Black people, 18 
million Latinx people, and 13 million indigenous Americans are 
without the broadband services they need.
    This means affordability is an even bigger challenge than 
rural deployment. Nonadopters in rural and urban areas surpass 
the number who lack physical access to broadband. That is why 
Mr. Veasey's Emergency Broadband Benefit legislation, passed in 
the December spending and stimulus bill, was a landmark 
bipartisan achievement.
    It provides up to $50 a month, or $75 on Tribal lands, for 
any plan an eligible household can buy from participating ISPs. 
That is enough to give people better options and connect many 
who have never been online or who lost service in the pandemic.
    That number spared disconnection by the previous FCC's 
pledge, by the way, as best as we can tell from rough 
estimates, with something like 1 or 2 million people. And that 
is a lot, but it is relatively few compared to the country as a 
whole. Yet that is likely because many people most impacted by 
COVID were already offline, so they couldn't lose what they 
already lacked.
    Why are so many still unconnected? Well, it is high prices, 
plain and simple, in addition to the other barriers that 
Members have mentioned this morning.
    Many people, including many of us here today, likely can't 
even say precisely what we pay for broadband. That is because 
we may pay for it with less hardship, but also because 
broadband is often bundled with other services at promotional 
rates that vanish over time and with modem rental charges, 
overages, and other fees tacked on.
    But even through that haze, we see concerning reports about 
price hikes and renewed data caps, all while big ISPs make 
record profits. Broadband has been a pandemic-proof business in 
peak demand with ISPs' revenues rising and their subscriber 
rolls growing.
    We need the FCC to collect more granular pricing data, for 
sure, to get the full picture, but what we do have is the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, which 
shows average U.S. internet bills increased 19 percent in the 
first 3 years of the Trump administration. That means nominal 
broadband prices rose at more than 4 times the rate of 
inflation.
    Wireless prices over that span weren't quite as bleak, but 
with the T-Mobile/Sprint merger closing last April, the 
wireless consumer price index spiked 4.1 percent in 2020. No 
other annual increase had exceeded 1 percent since tracking 
began in 1998. Coincidence? Not likely.
    Prices are rising for entry-level tiers too, and FCC data 
shows rates for lower-priced, stand-alone broadband up 20 
percent in 5 years, more than double the rate of inflation, 
while it is up 50 percent in some cities.
    So the big question is, what can we do? And part of that, 
of course, is the Emergency Broadband Benefit, but there are 
more things as well. Stopping the prior FCC's attacks on 
Lifeline is a start, but we need bigger, permanent broadband 
benefits that come with a progressive, sustainable funding 
source, not increased regressive contributions.
    We also need lower prices and increased choice from 
competition policy and restored FCC authority so the agency can 
do more than just ask ISPs to pledge just and reasonable 
service for all.
    My written testimony details the failed efforts of the past 
4 years, explaining that the prior FCC Chairman didn't actually 
spur broadband deployment or decrease prices like he claimed. 
In fact, investment declined every year of Chairman Pai's 
tenure.
    AT&T investment dropped 20 percent in 2020, and it is 52 
percent down from its peak in the last year for the Obama FCC. 
Comcast dropped 4.5 percent last year, down 22 percent from 
2016.
    But, even if deregulation alone had increased deployment--
and it didn't--build-out alone would not lower price or 
increase adoption in the absence of competition, oversight, and 
more robust adoption subsidies.
    Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Wood follows:]
    
    
 [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]    
    
    
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you very much, Mr. Wood.
    The Chair now recognizes Mr. Adelstein. You are recognized 
for 5 minutes.

               STATEMENT OF JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN

    Mr. Adelstein. Well, thank you, Chairman Doyle, Ranking 
Member Latta, and members of the subcommittee.
    WIA certainly shares your goal of ensuring that all 
communities benefit from broadband, and this subcommittee has 
showed great leadership to do just that. You are taking this 
rare opportunity to address long-standing inequities, as 
Congressman Welch noted, and we can now build the best 
workforce to expand broadband across the country. WIA applauds 
your efforts.
    I have heard every witness agree and every Member agree 
that the pandemic underscored the importance of broadband like 
never before. From virtual school to working from home, to 
telemedicine, connectivity is essential. And as a result, the 
pandemic generated unprecedented demand for wireless services, 
and the wireless industry is meeting the challenge. The network 
has performed exceedingly well, thanks to massive investments 
our industry made in infrastructure, like no other industry.
    As bad as the pandemic hit our families and businesses, 
just think how much worse it would have been before the era of 
broadband. Think back just 10 or 20 years ago. This hearing 
wouldn't be possible. I think our economy and quality of life 
would have collapsed. Congress, the FCC, and the industry 
worked together over many years with this committee in a lead 
role to make this happen. It was a miracle.
    Yet, as we have heard today, a large portion of this 
country, particularly communities of color and rural areas, 
still don't have access to broadband or can't afford it. The 
negative economic and social consequences for those left behind 
contrast with the many businesses and finances that were saved 
by broadband when working from home.
    Some rural residents, of course, were left without economic 
opportunities, and the homework gap hurts too many students. 
This subcommittee took real impactful action, we have heard 
about today, from the leaders of the community to address the 
digital divide, from funding accurate maps, to telehealth 
programs, to helping minority and underserved communities, to 
the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, and, of course, last 
week's amazing action on the Emergency Connectivity Fund.
    Now, the pandemic only exacerbated the damage of the 
digital divide. WIA's mission is to work with you to find a 
sustainable solution so that all communities can benefit. I 
think the Congress can really build upon your longstanding 
efforts to expand broadband deployment. And given the dramatic 
benefits we have seen in the pandemic, sufficient subsidies for 
deployment are needed.
    I think legislation along the magnitude of Majority Whip 
Jim Clyburn's Affordable Internet for All Act is warranted. The 
connectivity package released yesterday by committee 
Republicans also includes a lot of helpful policies.
    So we will work with all of you to promote broadband 
infrastructure legislation that is designed to meet the 
challenge. I think it can be developed in a bipartisan manner, 
given the broad level of support it enjoys amongst so many on 
this subcommittee. An infrastructure package to make the best 
use of co-location, which officially leverages existing 
infrastructure and capital for new infrastructure as well, 
while reducing disruption to local communities. Congress should 
ensure that funds can be used for operational expenses, such as 
leases as well as capital expenses, and hold recipients 
accountable for outcomes. And it should be technology neutral. 
Building infrastructure with the most cost-efficient means to 
get the most bandwidth to the most consumers.
    As part of making historic investments like this in 
infrastructure, I think it can really also prioritize building 
a more skilled workforce, with good new jobs that you create, 
workers that can meet the new demands of the latest 5G and 
broadband technology. We have an opportunity to put Americans 
hurt by the pandemic back to work in high-wage jobs that 
provide opportunities for advancement.
    And as the wireless industry continues to grow, these 
workers will speed the economic recovery and they will grow 
along with us. So funding in any infrastructure package should 
support employers and programs that adopt registered 
apprenticeships, a proven technique that is ideally suited to 
broadband. That will help us develop the skills needed to 
deploy quickly, efficiently, and absolutely safely. Congress 
can seize this opportunity to re-skill dislocated workers, to 
diversify the workforce, to do these jobs.
    We look forward to working with CWA President Shelton and 
the labor community to grow this workforce together.
    Along with supporting employers, Congress should strengthen 
programs in institutions of higher education, such as community 
and technical colleges and HBCUs and TCUs. Academic 
institutions haven't kept pace with how fast our industry has 
grown. I think Congress can fund partnerships, driven by 
employers, with educational institutions that can develop 
programs in broadband and 5G.
    And here is some news. A new Gallup Poll will be released 
today. It found that 90 percent of the public supports 
investing in the broadband workforce as a priority, with 
overwhelming majorities from both parties. Ninety percent. That 
is big news.
    Chairman Doyle and Ranking Member Latta, we certainly 
appreciate your focus on these critical issues. I look forward 
to continuing our work with you and this subcommittee because I 
really believe together we can make progress on our shared goal 
of expanding broadband across both rural and urban America, and 
to all of our citizens, especially those in need.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Adelstein follows:]
    
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        Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Jonathan.
    And last but certainly not least, we have Chris Shelton. 
Mr. Shelton, you are recognized for 5 minutes.

              STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER M. SHELTON

    Mr. Shelton. Good morning, Chairman Doyle, Ranking Member 
Latta, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify today.
    CWA represents hundreds of thousands of workers, including 
more than 150,000 employees in wireline and wireless 
telecommunications.
    My own experience in the industry goes back to 1968, when I 
was hired by New York Telephone as a technician. I have worked 
in telecommunications and represented telecom employees my 
entire adult life.
    The pandemic has made something clear to people across the 
country that CWA members have known for a long time: 
Affordable, reliable broadband internet connections are 
critical for all Americans. Yet millions of families do not 
have access to these connections.
    We are living in an America where if you have $10,000 to 
spend on an ad in The Wall Street Journal, you can get quality 
internet access at home. But if you are a single mom struggling 
to pay the bills, your children have to sit in a McDonald's 
parking lot, using the free Wi-Fi to do their homework.
    This problem has been years in the making and was 
exacerbated by deregulation across the industry, as major 
telecom companies allowed their networks to deteriorate and 
failed to upgrade low-income communities to fiber optic 
service.
    In 2006, CWA called for better FCC broadband maps, faster 
broadband speeds, a strong Lifeline subsidy program, and robust 
public investment to spur broadband deployment. We also worked 
with partners to address the fact that the digital divide also 
harmed many urban communities of color excluded from fiber 
broadband networks. And here we are, 15 years later, still 
discussing the same issues. Had our recommendations been 
enacted, we might not be facing the challenges the pandemic has 
exacerbated.
    This committee's work, including the recent enactment of an 
Emergency Broadband Benefit and last week's directive for E-
rate funding, is a good start, but I know the majority of this 
committee agrees that more must be done to achieve lasting 
structural change.
    For example, we must strengthen the Lifeline program and 
protect the millions of consumers who rely on it. We must fight 
efforts to undercut it, like making funding contingent on the 
annual congressional appropriations process. We must modernize 
Lifeline so that the digital divide does not get worse.
    Today, the funding mechanism that supports the USF is 
unsustainable because it levies fees only on traditional voice 
service, despite the shift to broadband. The Commission should 
explore options, including broadening the USF funding base, in 
order to fulfill the promise of universal service. And 
companies must not be allowed to shirk their responsibility to 
provide affordable access through Lifeline. For example, as 
proposed, the Verizon/TracFone transaction could curtail 
availability of the Lifeline program for millions of low-income 
consumers.
    Even a strengthened Lifeline won't be enough without bold 
action to reinvigorate broadband deployment. Major telecom 
companies' lack of investment has made the digital divide 
worse.
    My written testimony describes AT&T's merger build-out. The 
company, once the leader in universal service, has made fiber 
to the home available for fewer than one-third of the 
households in its 21-State network.
    While many have placed enormous faith in the idea of 
competition in this sector, competition alone is not an 
adequate solution to ensure universal access in a capital-
intensive industry like telecommunications. We need an 
infrastructure bill that will expand broadband access and 
create and protect good jobs, as President Biden has laid out 
in his plan to Build Back Better.
    This means $80 billion in funding, as in Whip Clyburn's 
Accessible Affordable Internet for All Act, to help close the 
digital divide. The bill sets standards that ensure the workers 
who build and maintain federally subsidized broadband networks 
can exercise their collective bargaining rights free from 
employer coercion and intimidation.
    The bill also prohibits outsourcing of work with the intent 
of circumventing a collective bargaining agreement. This 
provision addresses the growing trend of major broadband 
companies avoiding accountability by contracting and 
subcontracting work, harming workers and consumers in the 
process.
    CWA members who build, maintain, and service our telecom 
networks know better than anyone how broadband policy can help 
address the struggles our Nation faces. We are grateful that 
the Biden administration and congressional Democrats have begun 
to take the necessary steps to address these glaring digital 
inequities that the pandemic has exposed.
    I look forward to answering any questions you might have. 
Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Shelton follows:]
    
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    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentleman.
    We will now--this has concluded opening statements. I am 
sorry. We have concluded our witness statements, and we are 
going to move to Member questions. Each Member will have 5 
minutes to ask questions of our witnesses, and I will start by 
recognizing myself for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Wood, Congress established the Emergency Broadband 
Benefit program in December of last year. This program 
allocated $3.2 billion to provide low-income consumers with $50 
a month on their--benefit on their broadband bill. Why is this 
type of program so important now, and what kind of lifeline 
could it provide?
    Mr. Wood. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I mean, it is incredibly 
important because of the price. I talked about how prices have 
gone up for broadband pretty much across the board and 
especially at the lower end of the tiers that are offered.
    But wherever they are going, we all know that Lifeline, as 
Mr. Shelton discussed, is incredibly important. It is only 
$9.25 a month, and it basically gets people a free phone with 
limited data. So getting more money into their hands so they 
can get plans that are available from ISPs today off the shelf 
at a much higher speed or a much more robust package is just 
crucial to getting people connected and keeping them that way.
    Mr. Doyle. Yes. Are you concerned about objections raised 
by some that this program that we just marked up in full 
committee could target some of the same households?
    Mr. Wood. No, I wouldn't say I am concerned. I mean, 
obviously, the new FCC can take account of that and maybe try 
to look for ways to be efficient and look for duplication. But 
even there is some duplication, I wouldn't say I was concerned 
by it because we all know that kids need connectivity at home. 
And if the kid has connectivity, that is great for the student, 
but the parents need internet too. So if a parent gets a device 
or has some broadband capability to conduct their own work, 
look for jobs, do telehealth visits, everything else that is 
part of our virtual lives right now, I certainly wouldn't think 
that is bad. Most of us take that for granted, in fact, and 
that is something that many households would benefit from who 
don't have it today.
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you.
    Dr. Anderson, as you know, many folks are eager for schools 
to safely reopen for in-person instruction, and as an educator 
and superintendent, you are responsible for facilitating that 
transition. Do you believe, as many of us do, that the 
additional funding for remote learning, like the $7.6 billion 
this committee passed last week, will help schools safely 
reopen sooner?
    We have some of our colleagues that are arguing rather 
strongly that the funding for distance learning would actually 
slow down the reopening process. What do you believe?
    Dr. Anderson. Absolutely not. First of all, Topeka Public 
Schools, we actually reopened at the beginning of the year, K 
through 12. So we had in-person learning in small groups, and 
that is for over 13,000 students. As our virus spread, we did 
go back to remote learning.
    I will tell you that schools across the country, if you 
have that added service for remote learning, that is not going 
to slow down opening, because as I said at the beginning, prior 
to the pandemic, we needed these services. Virtual schools were 
already in place, telehealth has already been in place. In many 
ways, it is just a light being shined on it.
    I think you further, I believe, would further open schools 
more quickly if we have the flexibility to address the current 
pressing needs from the pandemic, but we also have the 
flexibility to continue to address the needs that were already 
existing prior to the pandemic occurring.
    So I especially don't think additional funding would slow 
down by any measure the reopening, and many schools, 
particularly in rural America, have been opened throughout this 
pandemic. Perhaps because of the small size, again, in Topeka, 
we are not quite rural, but we were open as well, and all of 
our neighbors have been open as well, in Shawnee County, for 
most of their school districts, certainly throughout 
elementary.
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Dr. Anderson.
    Mr. Shelton, tell me, why do you believe that legislation 
like H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act, which would invest a 
hundred billion dollars in broadband deployment and adoption, 
will succeed in closing the digital divide where deregulation 
and consolidation have really failed to result in service 
getting deployed to my colleagues' constituents in rural 
communities, or in lowering the cost of service for folks who 
are already struggling to pay their bills?
    You need to unmute, Chris.
    Mr. Shelton. The only way to improve broadband deployment 
is getting the companies that know how to do it to move 
forward, and the only way that is going to happen is with 
Federal money used to help these companies get this done.
    And, you know, it is obvious that deregulation, which has 
been going on for years now, is not doing the trick, because if 
it was, we wouldn't be having this meeting today. There has 
been so much deregulation that these companies get away with 
abandoning their copper and not replacing it with any. As that 
fellow in California proves when he put a $10,000 ad in The 
Wall Street Journal, all of a sudden he had broadband put in 
about 3 days later.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Thanks, Mr. Shelton.
    I see my time is just about up, so I will yield back. And I 
will recognize my good friend, the ranking member, Mr. Latta, 
for 5 minutes for questions.
    Mr. Latta. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding. And, 
again, I appreciate you holding the hearing today.
    I would like to start my questions--before I start my 
questioning today, just correcting some of the facts that were 
listed in Mr. Shelton's opening statement that he made.
    First, it is really essential that we have all the correct 
facts as we go forward, but it is important that we know first 
that the $3.2 billion Emergency Broadband Benefit was a 
bipartisan priority that was included in the funding package at 
the end of 2020 to respond to the pandemic.
    And, second, the Office of Connectivity and Growth, which 
are called for in the statement, was also codified in that same 
bipartisan legislation.
    And we all are here because we want to close that digital 
divide and we really want to work and make sure, in working 
with our colleagues across the aisle, that we are working in a 
bipartisan way. And I really appreciate the work that we have 
done in the past on this subcommittee.
    My first question is for Mr. Adelstein. Again, thank you 
for your testimony. And one of the reasons our networks have 
performed so well during the pandemic is because our country's 
light-touch regulatory approach enabled providers to have the 
necessary flexibility to respond quickly to the increased 
traffic. It helped providers step up voluntarily to expand low-
income programs, open up our Wi-Fi hotspots, and provide needed 
relief to many Americans.
    Yesterday, I introduced the Wireless Leadership Act, which 
would require State and local governments to provide timely 
responses to applications that deploy wireless infrastructure, 
which will help the U.S. lead in 5G and improve connectivity 
for Americans.
    How will my bill and the other 27 permitting bills that 
were introduced by E&C Republicans yesterday help responsibly 
roll back regulations and ensure our country's broadband 
networks can continue to handle more internet traffic?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, Congressman Latta, we are very 
grateful for the package of bills that you introduced. They 
really are full of thoughtful ideas. You know, I am especially 
appreciative of the fact that they will promote public safety 
in the deployment of--you know, we are talking about the 
pandemic and how essential it is to have service.
    And people say, well, ``we want backup generators, we want 
backup power,'' but then they don't let us site a generator 
here or they make it difficult. Well [inaudible] is going to 
make it easier to put in emergency power, make it easier to put 
in FirstNet for public safety, which people rely on. And, 
frankly, it makes it easier to put in equipment of all kinds 
that could benefit people that are having health emergencies, 
that are working from home. You know, we need to get 
infrastructure in place in order to do it, and we need to do it 
responsibly.
    I think what I love about the bill is it focuses on 
colocation. I mean, this should be the low-hanging fruit. We 
are talking about siting on existing infrastructure. It 
shouldn't be that controversial to, you know, swap out 
equipment that is on existing infrastructure, to upgrade to 5G.
    Now, we need to work together. Municipalities are our 
partners. We have worked with them on these things, and, you 
know, many municipalities are doing a great job of rolling out 
the red carpet. And I have to say, the pandemic, they realize, 
``Please invest, we need your investment to do it,'' and they 
made it--you know, they bent over backwards during the pandemic 
to help us, make sure that we could continue the process, get 
emergency equipment in place to deal with bottlenecks that 
affected that.
    But, you know, we need smart policies to build out, you 
know, 5G, and close the digital divide. We are going to 
contribute $1.5 trillion of the U.S. GDP through 5G, 4.5 
million jobs in virtually every sector.
    And, if this committee is talking about investing large 
amounts, it makes sense to think about how do you colocate that 
equipment on property--you know, wireless equipment--how do you 
streamline the process, shot clocks, Federal lands. Lot of good 
ideas we can sift through together. I look forward to working 
with you on them.
    Mr. Latta. Well, thanks very much. Let me follow up with 
this, and it is real interesting the information you gave on 
how much money that we are looking at 5G is going to have out 
there in the economy and also with the number of jobs. But do 
you have any information how much money and time carriers spend 
on complying to all the regulations necessary to deploy 
broadband in both our cities and rural communities?
    Mr. Adelstein. You know, because that information is so 
dispersed, we don't actually gather it. I mean, every time 
there is a delay in getting something sited, you know, workers 
aren't working to put that in place, people are paying for, you 
know, time that is not being used or leases that could have 
been, you know, started earlier. It is almost impossible to 
quantify.
    I think what we can quantify is the benefit to the economy. 
I mean, if we are talking about, you know, basically one in six 
Americans are affected by this [inaudible]. You know, we have 
such a dramatic impact on the economy that it is just essential 
that we get that done quickly.
    And, you know, it is not just our industry that it costs 
money for when it is delayed. It costs everybody. You are 
talking about the homework gap and equipment that serves them. 
We are so grateful for the committee's work to try to address 
that.
    Of course, the industry helped so many families at home. We 
want to help every family. And many were left behind, but so 
many were able to benefit, as Matt talked about with his 
family. We would need to bring those benefits to everybody and 
do it quickly. And private investment largely drives that.
    We need help, I think as well, from public investment, but, 
you know, if we are going to do that, having the most efficient 
means to deploy, and reasonable. We don't need to, you know, do 
it just rolling over, steamrolling this economy. But there are 
certain reasonable limits that we should have shot clocks, it 
is expedited, let's get it done.
    Mr. Latta. Well, thank you very much.
    And, Mr. Chairman, my time is expired, and I yield back. 
And I will submit my other question for the record. Thank you 
very much.
    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentleman. The gentleman yields 
back. And now the Chair recognizes Mr. Pallone, the full 
committee chairman, for 5 minutes to ask questions.
    Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Chairman Doyle.
    I want to thank all the witnesses. I am going to try to get 
three quick questions in here, hopefully with some quick 
responses, although each of them could take an hour to respond 
to.
    So last month--this is for Mr. Shelton--last month I sent a 
bunch of letters to internet service providers cautioning them 
against raising prices, instituting data caps during the 
pandemic. And, you know, this has been an issue in my district, 
where one provider instituted some large increases just before 
the pandemic, and other ISPs have tried to institute data caps 
during the pandemic.
    Luckily, at least some of the major ISPs have decided to 
temporarily lift these data caps following our congressional 
oversight, but caps remain in some areas, and it is 
questionable at any time, but particularly during the pandemic, 
when so many people, you know, have to be online.
    So, Mr. Shelton, can you talk about why, in your view, data 
caps are problematic, both for consumers and for labor, 
especially during the COVID pandemic? If you could spend about 
a minute responding to that, I would appreciate it.
    I think he is muted.
    Mr. Shelton. The pandemic has really forced millions of 
working families to use far more data than they would normally 
be using, and to put data caps on them, to make them pay more 
money, would just make this matter--make this problem worse. 
You know, anybody, or any company, putting in data caps now and 
charging more for people that go over data caps is just 
exacerbating an already terrible situation.
    Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Shelton.
    Now, Mr. Wood, as you know, under the Emergency Broadband 
Benefit, which I mentioned earlier, that we put in in the end-
of-the-year package, the FCC is going to be working with 
participating providers to fund a $50 discount on struggling 
families on their broadband bills, or $75 for families on 
Tribal lands. I know we would like this program to be perfect, 
but it--and it needs to be implemented, but that said, I do 
hope that we can create a long-term solution--because this is 
short term--a long-term solution that all Americans can afford 
and take advantages of services necessary.
    So what are some of the principles we should look to in 
formulating a long-term solution to the affordability issue, 
and is gathering and distributing better broadband pricing data 
a factor in that, in your view, in about a minute to respond?
    Mr. Wood. Sure, Mr. Chairman. There is a lot there, but, 
yes, better data is crucial, and we need to know what we are 
addressing before we try to launch into it. We need to have 
more funding. I think it is about as plain and simple as that. 
As I said, it needs to be progressive and not a regressive tax, 
frankly, on people who already have trouble affording the 
service.
    It needs to be sustainable over the long haul. So many 
Members here have worked on the Lifeline program for so many 
years, and it is wonderful, it is necessary, but it is only 
$9.25 a month, and it is about 26 percent participation rate at 
the end of 2020, even with the pandemic putting so much 
economic pressure on people.
    So we just need to get more money into the system, although 
we also need to account for the prices. We can't just forever 
subsidize rising retail rates without any attempt to lower 
those costs through competition and more choices and other 
measures that would help to bring prices down, even as 
subsidies go up.
    Mr. Pallone. All right. Thank you.
    And then, lastly, Dr. Anderson, our committee just approved 
a reconciliation measure that would provide $7.6 billion for 
emergency connectivity and end-user devices to connect teachers 
and students. And I know some like to think of it as funding 
for hot spots, but actually, it includes in-home broadband and 
other technological solutions. And some of my colleagues have 
said that money from the CARES Act is more than enough to solve 
this digital divide, and that, you know, we don't need more 
funding. Of course, I hear the opposite.
    So with that, Dr. Anderson, how much has the Topeka Schools 
received from Federal COVID relief funding? What kinds of 
expenses have you covered with this funding, and how are you 
using it to resolve the homework gap? And, you know, would you 
say that the digital divide in your district is now resolved, 
or do we need to do more? And you have a minute or less.
    Dr. Anderson. All right. A minute or less, well, then, I 
will speak really fast and pretty broadly over much of that. 
Let me start off with that funding overall. I know that is the 
area that is probably the hottest spot that you really want to 
talk about. I do know that that funding for us--and I will just 
kind of speak pretty broadly--in terms of the CARES Act and 
those funds, for us we had a little bit over $3 million, and 40 
percent went to nutrition programs, 20 percent to 
transportation. We had 22 percent that went to PPE equipment, 
you know, then another percentage that went to disinfecting 
items.
    So the CARES Act can't take care of all of broadband and 
connectivity issues, is my point in that regard. Now, 
certainly, we need to continue to do more. We need to make sure 
that we provide the level of services and resources for 
families to be able to connect at home.
    Let me give you an example. We have parent conferences 
tonight. I bet you are wondering how. Well, through internet 
services at home that parents are doing with us. We have 
families right now that are still quarantined. We have families 
right now that are still addressing medically sensitive 
students that can't come back because they have some level of 
disease or cancer or whatever the items are that won't allow 
them to come back even if we reopen right now because they are 
medically fragile.
    Those individuals are relying on those services, and they 
certainly deserve them. That is kind of a broad brush. So we 
certainly need the investment. CARES Act can't do it all. We 
need this additional money for remote, in-learning services.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman's time is expired.
    Mr. Pallone. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair now recognizes Mr. Scalise. Is Steve there? 
Steve, you need to unmute, if you are there.
    If not, let's move down to Mr. Guthrie. We will go back to 
Steve if he is here. Mr. Guthrie, you are recognized.
    Mr. Guthrie. Thanks, Mr. Chair. Appreciate it very much.
    Mr. Adelstein, I understand there may be some carriers that 
have Huawei or ZTE in their networks that anticipate having 
difficulty ripping and replacing that equipment within the 
timeline laid out by the Secure and Trusted Networking Act 
because of delays on obtaining the necessary permits. Even 
though Congress just appropriated $1.9 billion to carry out 
this bipartisan reimbursement program, is there anything we can 
do to help providers meet this national security imperative?
    Mr. Adelstein. I believe there is a piece of legislation 
introduced in your package that addresses this that would 
expedite permitting for rip and replace. You want to get that 
done quickly. It is a national security issue [inaudible] 
network is, I think, an essential step, and we very much 
appreciate Congress providing the funding to make that happen 
and to make [inaudible].
    Mr. Guthrie. OK. Thank you. And then also, Mr. Adelstein, 
the China task force led last year by House Republicans 
identified broadband permitting as an important way to help 
speed broadband deployment domestically, which in turn helps 
support trusted suppliers beat by Huawei. How important is the 
speed to achieving scale and infrastructure deployment to 
supporting trusted suppliers in the deployment of open RAN 
technologies?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, you know, it is a part of the 
solution. I mean, there are a lot of things we need to do to 
keep up with China. They don't play fair, you know. Shield 
their IP, they have got a command economy. [Audio malfunction.] 
When you have a command economy, you know, South POC is right 
twice a year, and they picked 5G. I think they picked the right 
thing in this case to just shove it down the throats of their 
people.
    If they need permitting, there is no problem. If they need 
equipment, there is no problem. If they need a workforce that 
can build out these networks, you think they have trouble 
recruiting people or training them? No, they say, ``You will go 
and work in this industry, and we are going to train you and 
you will be set.'' So we are not playing with the same hand.
    We are expecting the private sector to [audio malfunction]. 
We will do it. And we are not asking for, you know, command 
economy. We are not asking for anybody but a helping hand in 
partnership with government, which we have seen in spectrum 
policy, we have seen it in infrastructure policy, we have made 
a lot of progress, and we would love to see with you together 
on workforce development as well.
    Mr. Guthrie. OK. I have a third question for you, Mr. 
Adelstein, and you led right into it. And so, I just want to 
say, you know, my focus, I was on Ed and Workforce before I--I 
was on Ed and Workforce before, now I am just on Energy and 
Commerce this time. But it has always been--I have always 
enjoyed that committee because I wanted to make sure people 
just didn't have access to a job, they had access to a career, 
a career that paid well where they could raise their family, 
and in a way that we all want people to have the quality of 
life.
    And it all comes from having the skills. It means showing 
up with the skills that people are willing to pay for. And 
there is demand for those skills in your area, and what we are 
talking about. As a matter of fact, it will be hard to close 
the digital divide by deploying the necessary infrastructure 
without people with the skills.
    Could you talk about what your association is doing about 
workforce in this area, and, hopefully, highlight to anybody 
listening the quality of career that you are offering people?
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes. These are great jobs, as Mr. Shelton 
knows. You know, they are high-paying jobs, and it is a growing 
industry, and we need a workforce pipeline to make sure we have 
skilled workers coming into it. So we could, in an organization 
that brought apprenticeships into the wireless industry for the 
first time called Telecommunications Industry Registered 
Apprenticeship Program. [Inaudible] apprenticeships, you know, 
and people are going to seek it out. We have 2,000 apprentices. 
We have 15 employers that are signed up to do it.
    Secretary of Labor--in his confirmation hearing, Secretary 
Walsh lauded what we are doing at WIA. We are partnered with 
Power & Communications Contractors Association. We also are 
working with technical schools, with community colleges in 
States across the country, including in Kentucky, Somerset, 
that [audio malfunction] could even help us build this out.
    And we would like to work with HBCUs, with Tribal colleges, 
because the academic world hasn't kept pace with us. So we are 
teaching schools how to help our industry basically develop the 
skills because, you know, you can't go to schools and learn 
field tech work. I mean, apprenticeships teach people to be on 
the ground. We want schools feeding people into 
apprenticeships, then get, you know, good jobs with our 
companies, then get good jobs [inaudible], you know. But why 
not get them the best skills possible?
    So, if the Federal Government is making an investment in 
infrastructure, that investment can be spent efficiently with 
people that know what they are doing, the people who can 
diversify the workforce, can bring in people who were hit hard 
by the pandemic and give them good, high-paying jobs, start 
them in apprenticeships and they will have a career pathway 
that will last for many years to come and leads to very high-
wage jobs they can support their families with.
    Mr. Guthrie. OK. Thanks. Well, I was going to have Mr. 
Shelton talk about that as well, but I only have about 5 
seconds left, So hopefully, he can touch on that in some other 
testimony as we move forward. So I am now out of time. I am 
sorry. I will yield back. Thank you.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair now recognizes Mr. McNerney for 5 minutes.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, I thank the chairman for the great 
hearing, and I thank the witnesses for coming out on a cold day 
today.
    Mr. Wood, I want to make sure that everyone who is eligible 
to participate in the Emergency Broadband Benefit program can 
easily do so. In California, the State has a program to help 
low-income individuals pay their utility bills. This is a self-
certification process for initial enrollment. Ninety-five 
percent of eligible households participate in the program. This 
is much higher than participation in the Lifeline program.
    Mr. Wood, why would it be important that we minimize the 
burden for eligible households to enroll in the Emergency 
Broadband program?
    Mr. Wood. I think, as you said, Congressman, it is crucial 
to get everybody connected and online, and we can't really 
tolerate the low participation levels we have seen with 
Lifeline. You mentioned self-certification or some kind of 
after-the-fact documentation, and it is great to hear about the 
successes in California.
    I know that in the current FCC proceeding to implement the 
Emergency Broadband Benefit, some internet service providers 
have suggested that. So have some public interest groups. I 
think it would obviously depend on how that is done.
    But anything we can do to lower the barriers, and 
especially to increase outreach, I think those are the two 
keys, to make sure that people can get into the program and 
they know about it in the first place, and that is what will 
make it a success.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, thank you. I am concerned that, during 
and prior to the pandemic, there has been a real lack of 
transparency with respect to the information disclosed by 
providers to consumers and the Federal Communications 
Commission. Mr. Wood, if we don't have full transparency from 
providers about their offerings, including pricing, and 
detailed reporting about participation, they would be--they are 
seeing in their EBB program, what risks could this pose for the 
program's success?
    Mr. Wood. Yes, definitely. We were so glad to see the 
letters that you sent along with both chairmen to the companies 
to ask about their practices and policies, both in pandemic and 
afterwards. We generally need more transparency about what they 
are doing. I laugh sometimes when ISP say the market is really 
competitive, and we say, ``Well, what are your prices?'' And 
they say, ``Well, we can't tell you.''
    Mr. McNerney. Right.
    Mr. Wood. So it is a little bit of trust-and-verify that we 
would like to see. But also in the pandemic and for this 
program, we need to make sure that, A, people are getting the 
best deal they can with this large and flexible benefit, and 
that providers are not doing anything like raising their rates 
artificially so they can get more subsidy out of taxpayers' 
dollars.
    So that is why transparency in the program is important, 
both for the individuals but also for the program as a whole 
and for the country.
    Mr. McNerney. Right. Well, in your testimony you noted that 
prices have been increasing for internet service. As you know, 
I have expressed concerns that some providers have been doing 
this during the pandemic. Can you discuss how the price 
increases have correlated with capital investments by these 
providers?
    Mr. Wood. Well, I mean, I think we should be clear. 
Investment by these companies is always high, it is just not 
consistent enough. As many Members will attest, it is not 
getting into rural areas quick enough. But it hasn't taken the 
path that some have suggested. In fact, it has gone down over 
the last few years, because regulations don't actually drive 
much of the investment. It is actually competition and, most 
importantly, most likely, the technology evolution and the 
cycles that they go through.
    So many wire providers, especially, are on a downward path, 
and have been for the last 4 years, and that is why we said 
deregulation alone, without consideration of these economic 
factors, is not going to put us back in a better direction and 
really get everybody connected.
    Mr. McNerney. Well, very good. Very good. You would think 
that all--with all the talk today by our Republican colleagues 
about streamlining, that it is a silver bullet to bringing 
broadband to everyone in the country. Unfortunately, I am not 
at all convinced, especially after the Trump FCC spent 4 years 
prioritizing deregulation and made little if any progress 
toward narrowing the digital divide.
    Mr. Wood, would deregulating the infrastructure-setting 
process lead to increase in broadband access on affordability 
for families living in unserved and underserved areas?
    Mr. Wood. No, Congressman, I don't think meaningfully so, 
no. Obviously, that matters. Streamlining and shot clocks like 
Mr. Adelstein is talking about, those are a fine idea, and we 
would be happy to consider how those work and the interplay 
between cities and providers. But, as I said, deregulation 
alone is not enough, and we need to also have policies that 
increase competition and that provide people support, because 
the price is too high right now, and we need to make sure the 
people have more options from the whole suite. They are not 
just forced into the cheapest plan they can get or the low-
income plan, as helpful as those may be for some people.
    Mr. McNerney. Excellent. Well, I want to emphasize that we 
must do everything possible to ensure that the most vulnerable 
are connected. In my district, many individuals living in 
public housing do not have broadband service. That is why I am 
currently working on legislation to improve broadband in public 
housing, and I will also be introducing--reintroducing the 
Digital Equity Act.
    Thank you, again, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, all the 
witnesses, and I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    I don't see Mr. Kinzinger, so I am going to go to my fellow 
suffering Pittsburgh Pirates fan, Gus Bilirakis. You are 
recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Bilirakis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We did sign a 
pretty good pitcher last night, so I can still retain my 
position in Congress, which is a good thing. I don't think I 
would do very well.
    Before I get to my questions, Mr. Chairman--I appreciate 
it--I want to take an opportunity to acknowledge the hard work 
that the telecommunications industry has done throughout this 
pandemic. Programmers committed to $100 million to facilitate 
distance learning for children and are now engaging in the 
development of tools to help spread accurate information for 
vaccines, and how one gets an appointment. I know this is a 
tough task, but I want to commend them for doing that.
    Additionally, providers stepped up with billions of capital 
investment to offer low-cost services to those financially 
strained by COVID-19 and free broadband to students and 
teachers for nearly a year to do their part in helping the next 
generation achieve success.
    And, lastly, I have to thank the essential, on-the-ground 
technicians who literally have kept us all connected as they 
enter homes and businesses to maintain the sense of normalcy 
that is our internet services.
    So, again, I want to thank them. Sometimes they don't get 
the thank-you that they deserve. And I know we have to do much 
more, Mr. Chairman, but we can build on their successes.
    As part of the--this is my question. As part of the 
boosting broadband connectivity rollout, I reintroduced the 
Coastal Broadband Deployment Act. In short, this legislation 
would codify an FCC action that reduces red tape for broadband 
projects in a flood plain where the applicant has met certain 
safety standards.
    Mr. Adelstein, can you explain the importance of codifying 
regulatory action from the perspective of business development 
and investments?
    Mr. Adelstein. Congressman, I believe the bill makes it so 
the flood plains are not subject to NEPA and NHPA. It is, you 
know, an important area to review. It is something that I would 
like to look at closely with my members and provide any 
assistance I can. We certainly appreciate the effort.
    I am familiar with the issues you face in Florida with 
regard to this. I mean, we need to make sure that we get 
broadband where it needs to be. Sometimes these difficult-to-
reach areas need a little bit of help, and we need to get that 
out there quickly, efficiently, and we will work with you on 
your legislation. We will get back to you on the details. I was 
just reviewing it late last night, so I don't have a lot to 
offer right now, but we will pledge to work with you on that 
and supply any further thoughts for the record.
    Mr. Bilirakis. And I believe it is a bipartisan piece of 
legislation too, so--but I think it is crucial.
    The second question, it is personal. In recent weeks, 
national attention has been drawn to the city of Oldsmar in my 
district. And, by the way, that is the--the founder of Oldsmar 
is R.E. Olds from Ohio, obviously, but he had a business in 
Michigan. But he founded Oldsmar in Florida, and he is the 
inventor of the Oldsmobile. So every year, we have an 
Oldsmobile parade. It was a great car. They should bring it 
back.
    Folks, the city's water treatment facility was the subject 
of a cyber attack where a hacker breached our critical 
infrastructure systems and attempted to increase water 
treatment chemicals to fatal levels. I am sure you have heard 
this. The breach was immediately discovered and neutralized, 
the infrastructure liability was strengthened, and the public 
was never at risk.
    The incident is currently under Federal investigation, and 
the hacker remains at large, but preliminary reports show that 
a lack of infrastructure upgrades are a contributing factor. 
For our jurisdiction, I think this highlights the importance of 
making it as easy as possible to create and enhance our 
telecommunications infrastructure.
    Again, for Mr. Adelstein, do you believe that reducing 
regulatory burdens would quicken infrastructure development to 
meaningfully reduce the chances of breaches like the one that 
we have seen in our district? And, again, folks, I would 
recommend you check with your cities because this could have 
been devastating if this guy was successful in hacking this 
particular program. So, but, sir, could you answer that 
question?
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes.
    Mr. Bilirakis. I would appreciate it. Thank you.
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes, I had heard about that incident, and, 
you know, 5G----
    Mr. Doyle. [Inaudible] with your answer as your time is 
expired, but go ahead and finish out, Mr. Adelstein.
    Mr. Adelstein. So, real quick, 5G presents great 
opportunities to improve network security, and so we need to 
build out 5G. My industry is committed to spending $270 billion 
to do it. We need to also educate cybersecurity professionals 
that are specifically trained in 5G, because there are unique 
characteristics and technical details. 5G is not your father's 
Oldsmobile, so to speak, but it does create some great 
opportunities to increase network security. But we need to 
maximize them by also investing in human capital to make sure 
we can program those networks to protect against attacks like 
those.
    Mr. Bilirakis. Right. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I 
appreciate it.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Thank you. The Chair now recognizes Ms. 
Clarke for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Clarke. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank the 
ranking member, Mr. Latta, for convening this timely hearing 
today.
    I would first like to applaud the Energy and Commerce 
Committee for passing our bold proposals out of committee last 
week, which included $7.6 billion to ensure students and their 
teachers had access to the internet. This was a much-needed 
step to help rescue the American people.
    Since the start of the pandemic, I have repeatedly stated 
the exacerbating inequities COVID-19 has displayed in low-
income communities and communities of color. These inequities 
span from public health disparities to economic pressures that 
are compounded in our most vulnerable communities. But today, 
we must discuss the access and affordability of issues of 
broadband.
    Dr. Nicol Turner Lee, director of the Brookings Center for 
Technology Innovations, stated, ``We are running up against a 
roadblock of digital access--and in particular, digital access 
for disproportionately low-income people of color, older 
Americans, and those in rural areas.'' I wholeheartedly agree 
with Dr. Lee and go further to add that urban America faces 
unique challenges in this conversation.
    I do recognize that there have been good-faith efforts to 
address the digital divide inflamed by this pandemic. Longer-
standing programs, like Lifeline, that help provide affordable 
service for qualifying low-income consumers should be protected 
and maintained. And newer programs, like the temporary EBB 
program, should continue to thrive and provide connectivity 
support for those in need.
    There have been more good-faith efforts like the donation 
of connected devices to families who need them, but this is a 
Band-Aid solution to a much larger access and affordability 
issue. More can be and needs to be done to undergird vulnerable 
communities.
    So my first question is to Matt Wood. Mr. Wood, in your 
testimony, you stated that broadband is an essential utility 
for learning and livelihoods, and I couldn't agree more. Could 
you expound on the statement and weigh in on how agencies, like 
the FCC, could further protect this essential utility by going 
further than efforts brought forth by former Chairman Pai's 
Keep Americans Connected pledge?
    Mr. Wood. Certainly, Representative Clarke. Thank you for 
the question. I think it is just beyond doubt at this point 
that this is an essential utility. Anybody who wants to say 
otherwise I think is running up against the facts and will not 
be--get a lot of head nodding to agree with them because people 
need it now and during the pandemic and before it as well, and 
certainly well after too.
    The problem with the pledge we filed, it wasn't a bad thing 
in a vacuum, but it was basically a request to the internet 
service providers not to cut people off for nonpayment during 
the pandemic. And the FCC could and should be able to require 
that, not simply ask companies to provide just and reasonable 
service during a pandemic but to say, ``Hey, this is a special 
situation. You can't do that now. You can't throw people off 
just because of the economic downturn they are facing.'' So 
that is the kind of thing that we think a revived FCC could do, 
take a little more serious role in requiring that service be 
available, not just asking that it be made available.
    Ms. Clarke. Very well.
    And, Mr. Shelton, would you--is there something that you 
would like to add? OK.
    So for my next question is to Dr. Tiffany Anderson. Dr. 
Anderson, in your testimony, you explain that there are 
additional E-rate expansions necessary to ensure that E-rate is 
meeting the 21st century needs of both rural and urban students 
and families during and beyond the pandemic. What would the 
program we just funded in the committee's $7.6 billion 
appropriated through the E-rate authorities in the 
Communications Act mean for school systems nationwide desperate 
for much-needed tools and resources for equitable educational 
opportunity?
    Dr. Anderson. Thank you so much for that question, 
Representative Clarke. It means a great deal. It gives us 
flexibility. The less flexibility you have as a school system, 
the less that you can really serve the needs of all the most 
vulnerable.
    You know, as examples, as you talked about all that 
happened last week and the approval of being able to provide 
eligible equipment, you know, hot spots and modems and all of 
those things, internet services in homes and being able to 
extend those services just allows us to reach beyond where we 
currently are. You talked about urban school districts, and so 
we are talking about districts that have everything from a 
transiency population and a mobility rate that is very high, to 
a homeless population that is very high.
    Here is what we can do even right now. This new access in 
this proposal, we actually will be able to take you to meet 
families where they are. How beautiful is that? Which means, if 
you are someone that is moving from house to house, we can give 
you a phone as opposed to giving you a hot spot for that space. 
If you are someone that has a need for Cox and you have a 
stable place to live, and we can provide you that.
    So flexibility, Representative Clarke, is what it allows 
us--what it will allow us to do on the proposal, what has been 
passed. And certainly the expanded E-rate, the more that you 
can expand that level of flexibility of meeting families where 
they are, the more you help families move out of poverty.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentlelady's time is expired.
    Ms. Clarke. And I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very 
much.
    Mr. Doyle. Thank you, Ms. Clarke.
    The Chair now recognizes Mr. Johnson for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Johnson. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, the 
COVID-19 pandemic did not create the urban/rural digital 
divide, but it has certainly exposed and highlighted it. 
Students on the wrong side of this digital divide can't attend 
virtual classes, and workers aren't able to work remotely at 
their jobs. The divide is creating winners and losers in our 
country right now. In a Nation as prosperous and innovative as 
ours, this lack of access here in the 21st century, when 
virtually everything is dependent on the digital economy, is 
more than unfair. It is immoral. It is wrong.
    The lack of broadband in rural America is not a new 
problem. It is one that has been talked about for decades. 
Furthermore, while I acknowledge that affordability may play a 
factor in the availability of broadband for some in urban and 
rural locations, the lack of infrastructure and accessibility 
in rural America means that broadband simply is not an option, 
period. That is especially true in many of the places I 
represent.
    You can't pay for a service that doesn't exist. You don't 
even have the option. And while I wholeheartedly agree that the 
digital divide is an issue we must address, I am disappointed 
that this hearing on connecting America pays little attention 
to the primary reason why those residing in rural America are 
left behind. The reason is because access, the infrastructure, 
is simply not available.
    I was pleased to join my Republican colleagues in 
introducing legislation earlier this week to boost broadband 
connectivity. My bill, H.R. 1056, the Wireless Broadband 
Competition and Efficient Deployment Act, would be a step in 
the right direction. It would remove the requirement to prepare 
an environmental or a historic preservation review in order to 
add new or upgrade wireless facilities on existing 
infrastructure. These burdensome reviews that are often 
repetitive unnecessarily slow down broadband expansion. So I am 
pleased to introduce this commonsense legislation to help 
streamline the process.
    Lastly, I acknowledge and commend the many internet service 
providers who have stepped up to the connectivity challenge 
during this pandemic, including those who voluntarily committed 
to Chairman Pai's Keep America Connected pledge to ensure 
Americans would not lose their broadband or telephone service, 
despite financial constraints stemming from COVID-19.
    I am also aware that several ISPs are offering reduced 
rates or even free broadband access for low-income families, 
particularly for students who otherwise couldn't afford to 
connect to their virtual classrooms. Broadband has proven to be 
a necessity regardless of where you live, and the continued 
investments into broadband creative solutions and flexibility 
of ISPs to provide reliable broadband access wherever possible 
is important.
    So, Mr. Adelstein, can you talk about how helping providers 
quickly upgrade existing infrastructure and reduce the 
environmental footprint of networks would help lower consumer 
prices? Is facilitating competition and consumer choice a good 
thing for low-income consumers?
    Mr. Adelstein. Absolutely. I think competition is critical, 
and the way you get competition is putting more equipment up 
more quickly. And so, you know, your bill, for example, would 
exempt colocation from NEPA and NHPA. It would, as I read it, 
codify the national programmatic agreement that was arrived at 
on a bipartisan basis. This is, you know, common sense. We are 
talking about colocations here.
    Again, on existing equipment, why shouldn't we be able to 
invest more? Why should we be held up for a year on a NEPA or 
NHPA review spending time and money when that could be 
facilitated by legislation like yours, or by the good work that 
the FCC did to amend the programmatic agreement under 
leadership of Commissioner Carr?
    So there is, really, a lot to be said for this kind of 
work. You know, we work in partnership with municipalities, but 
this kind of approach is important to facilitate. I mean, the 
kind of investment we are making, a record in the last 4 years, 
$29 billion in wireless infrastructure investments in 2019, 
these are unparalleled.
    Mr. Johnson. Good.
    Mr. Adelstein. And that is why we have what we have.
    Mr. Johnson. Well, good. 5G promises to help us realize 
higher broadband speeds across the Nation, especially for 
people that live in the most rural parts of our country. In 
practice, however, promised speeds won't be realized without a 
significant investment in backhaul. As you know, there is a 
significant shortage of trained telecommunication workers to 
build out these 5G fiber networks. So do you believe Congress 
should both support the workforce needs of 5G and fiber network 
deployments?
    Mr. Adelstein. Absolutely. Fiber and 5G fit together hand 
in glove. They are all part of the network. Every 5G antenna 
has to have fiber, and, you know, we need more people trained 
to do this. There are a lot of good workers out there that do 
it today, but we could re-skill workers, we could diversify the 
workforce, and this is a traditional area where government 
works with the private sector.
    If we are willing to lead, you know, develop apprenticeship 
programs, we would like some support for training to expedite 
it. And the reason is, our industry is critical for the entire 
economy. Virtually every industry in the country is going to 
rely on 5G networks, and so we need those technicians to boost 
jobs not just in our industry but throughout the economy, 4.5 
million jobs in virtually every sector. So I applaud your 
efforts, and I think we could work together on that.
    Mr. Johnson. All right.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman's time is expired.
    Mr. Johnson. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentleman. The Chair--let's see, I 
don't see Mr.--oh, I do, OK. Mr. Veasey, you are recognized for 
5 minutes.
    Mr. Veasey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. And I want 
to thank all the witnesses today to come and talk about, again, 
this Emergency Broadband Benefit. Again, this is a program that 
can be very instrumental in keeping vulnerable communities 
connected during the time that we are in right now, especially 
the time that we are going through right now in Texas.
    Right now, our goals should be to help make the process of 
accessing this benefit as easy as possible for consumers. 
People are dealing with a lot right now. Things are very 
difficult. And, again, we will try to make life as easy for 
these vulnerable communities as we possibly can during this 
time period, because now things, especially here, have just 
been compounded.
    According to a January 2021 GAO report on how the FCC has 
implemented the Lifeline National Verifier program, we know 
that many eligible people will abandon their applications when 
they can't successfully navigate the system or it is too 
cumbersome. I don't know that this happened in the Emergency 
Broadband Benefit program. I have a lot of confidence that the 
new Chairwoman of the FCC is going to be thoughtful about this 
program, and I know that they had a great roundtable put 
together last week so that they can build on that.
    Mr. Wood, what else should the FCC be thinking about to 
make sure it is as easy as possible for people and families who 
qualify to access the Emergency Broadband Benefit?
    Mr. Wood. Thank you, Congressman Veasey, and thank you for 
your leadership on that bill that was passed by the House first 
last May and then finally was passed by the Senate as well at 
the end of the year.
    We definitely need low barriers to application and 
verification, and, as you said, there are some concerns about 
that, even though we think that there are ways to speed that 
up. And hopefully, you know, most people that go through the 
automated process have a relatively quick and accurate 
eligibility determination, but what you are talking about is 
people who have to provide additional documentation, sometimes 
they can't do it. If you are not online, it is very hard to 
upload something online to prove that you should be able to get 
online. So we have to think about those barriers and make sure 
that the process is both centralized and localized, I would 
say.
    The FCC should be collecting a lot of data and making 
information available to people, but then we also need local 
supports and community organizers, local governments, digital 
inclusion specialists to aid people in that application process 
so that nobody falls through the cracks.
    Mr. Veasey. Right, exactly. And I think that is so key for 
a lot of these communities. I think that we saw that, you know, 
even with COVID-19 with some of the business assistance 
programs like PPP, some of these smaller businesses being able 
to access things when they are poor, working day to day is much 
more difficult, and you can make the process more cumbersome.
    Following up on that, we need to make sure that we have 
robust provider participation in this program. The more 
providers that participate, the farther this program can reach 
consumers all across the Nation. What are some things that we 
in Congress or the FCC should consider to ensure there is a 
high participation--that there is high participation on the 
provider side?
    Mr. Wood. Yes, thank you. I mean, I think you have already 
done a lot of the work there. The flexibility to us at Free 
Press Action was a key part of this bill, and thanks to your 
leadership and the committee staff as well and Chairman Doyle's 
staff, because we wanted to get people as much aid as we could 
as quickly as possible for the plans available to them today.
    So rather than have people either shunted into low-income 
plans that might not meet their needs, or the opposite extreme, 
forced to pay more than they can afford, even if they get some 
discount off of that, we thought those would both be bad 
outcomes. And so giving people the flexibility to pick which 
plan they want should be good not only for the individuals but 
also for the ISPs who can take that discount and get that 
reimbursement for basically any plan they offer.
    Mr. Veasey. Thank you.
    Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I yield back the balance 
of my time.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. The gentleman yields back. Let's see, I 
think next is Markwayne Mullin. Mark, are you here? Markwayne, 
you need to unmute if you are here.
    OK. What about, let's try Mr. Walberg, are you here?
    Well, I see Billy Long there, so, Billy, I am going to 
recognize you because you are the only one I can see on my 
screen so far. So you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Long. I appreciate that. I--yes, I had a Snowmageddon 
here today. We had 13 below yesterday, and so I was late for 
the gavel, but I appreciate you letting me in. I took the 
daughter over to run around at the hospital today, and the 
battery died and all that good stuff, but I am here, so I will 
join in.
    Mr. Adelstein, President Biden told Senators last week that 
he wants Congress to move fast on a big infrastructure plan to 
keep up with China. And one of the biggest ways to do that is 
to reduce the barriers to deployment so public and private 
investment can be deployed as quickly as possible to connect 
more Americans. How important are these streamlining reforms to 
winning the technological race to 5G with China?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, it is essential to winning the race to 
5G. As I said, you know, they are basically using government 
fiat to try to shove it through and try to win on the global 
basis by stealing IP, by using inappropriate means, and by just 
shoveling it down the throats of people as they do so many 
things in China.
    The United States has the private sector leading, and we 
talked today about the need to fill some gaps. You know, I 
think it is a great opportunity for bipartisan agreement. For 
rural broadband, I used to work, you know, Louisiana, across 
the country on--at the rural utility service to get broadband 
out to rural America, and working with you and this committee 
to find the resources on a bipartisan basis to get that done in 
an infrastructure bill would be most welcome.
    And, you know, that requires many different steps. If you 
are going to do that efficiently, you need to have, you know, 
the processes to get that infrastructure in place efficiently. 
You need the people trained to build it efficiently and safely. 
You need to have really a public/private partnership with 
educational institutions, with companies that are going to 
invest, because primarily this is going to be driven by private 
investment.
    We spend $30 billion a year investing in wireless networks 
and much more if you combine it with wireline networks. That is 
what has delivered the greatest network in the world here in 
the United States that responded to this pandemic in an 
unparalleled fashion.
    So I think all of these elements are necessary to beat 
China in the race to 5G and create 4.5 million jobs in 
virtually every sector of the economy.
    Mr. Long. I am kind of like my buddy, Bill Johnson, and we 
called each other to see how to dress today, and--but I have a 
lot of rural area just like he does, and I have been on this 5G 
and rural broadband hunt for a long time. So I appreciate 
anything we can do to--I don't think a student should be 
limited. You know, their internet access shouldn't be limited 
by geography. They shouldn't have to go over to Starbucks or 
drive up 20 miles to McDonald's or wherever to get a signal, 
and so I appreciate all of that.
    Also, I would like to point out that in--a recent report 
shows that investment in 5G will result in the creation of 4.5 
million jobs and contribute $1.5 trillion to the gross domestic 
product from 2020 to 2030, So doing this sooner rather than 
later matters quite a bit.
    Also, Mr. Adelstein, Chairman Pai's Keeping Americans 
Connected pledge asked internet providers to take many actions 
before Congress could pass the large-scale relief that we got 
through last year. On top of the essential aspects of the 
pledge, such as keeping the internet on regardless of payment, 
waiving late fees, overage fees and data caps, many companies 
went above and beyond by opening their Wi-Fi hot spots for the 
public for anyone to use and worked closely with schools, 
libraries, and hospitals to ensure connection. How important 
was the light-touch regulatory approach in this place as a 
result of longstanding, bipartisan policies facilitating this 
industry-led response?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, light-touch regulatory approach has 
led to the world's greatest broadband networks, including our 
leadership in 4G, which we need to maintain 4G. And it was, you 
know, a sacrifice for everybody, the pledge--no terminations, 
inability to pay, we waived late fees, we opened millions of 
Wi-Fi hot spots to those in need--and the industry worked 
overtime to try to address this, realizing that it was a 
lifeline for people.
    So, you know, you are exactly right. And to answer your 
other question even further, you know, as we are thinking about 
a broad infrastructure package, you want to make that as 
efficient as possible so you can stretch taxpayer dollars. I 
mean, you can encourage colocation on existing infrastructure, 
as your legislation does. You can make sure it is technology 
neutral, so that wireless as well as wireline solutions are 
eligible. If you allow for OPEX as well as CAPEX, that also 
helps stretch taxpayer dollars.
    Mr. Long. I appreciate it. And I would like to add right 
here at the end that, with a daughter that is a pediatrician--
and she has been staying at our house the last few days so Dad 
could drive her in the snow to get to work and get to the 
hospital to make her rounds to see the new babies--her phone 
started ringing early this morning. All of her nurses and 
everyone could not get to work, and so now she is doing all her 
visits over the internet today, so that just--to prove the 
point how important all this is.
    And, Mr. Chairman, thanks for letting me in. I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    The Chair now recognizes, let's see, I don't see Don.
    Darren Soto. Darren, are you there? Darren, you need to 
unmute if you are here.
    OK. Let's try Mr. O'Halleran. Is Mr. O'Halleran here?
    OK. Let's go to Miss Rice.
    Miss Rice. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Wood, as you pointed out in your testimony, this 
pandemic has exacerbated the adoption gap, you know, that is 
people who have access to broadband but can't afford to 
purchase it or in some instances choose not to adopt it. In my 
district, this adoption gap has resulted in students having 
extremely different outcomes with at-home learning who live 
just blocks away from one another, because one student can get 
online while the other can't. Now, this could be because they 
simply don't have access or because the whole family is 
utilizing one hot spot.
    So can you just expound a little more on how the Emergency 
Broadband Benefit program could help close this adoption gap, 
because once these kids get behind, it is very, very difficult 
for them to catch up.
    Mr. Wood. Yes, thank you, Congresswoman. I think that is 
the key is that it is really about the whole household. So a 
lot of the E-rate program, rightly and crucially, is aimed at 
connecting students, but of course they are a part of family 
situations, and if the family isn't connected, then the student 
can't get online.
    I think, you know, luckily for many of us, we couldn't 
imagine having to share a single device for an entire family, 
and that is why this--you know, we have to think about 
efficiency. We can't have a ton of duplication in these 
programs. But, frankly, I am not concerned or worried that a 
student might have a device and their parent might be able to 
get online affordably and reliably for the first time in too 
long.
    So, it really is, as you said, it is key to having the 
whole family be part of that educational system, I am sure Dr. 
Anderson could attest to.
    Miss Rice. Mr. Wood, so I know that my colleague Mr. Veasey 
kind of touched on this: Do you agree that encouraging broad 
participation in this program by ISP providers will help 
maximize both consumer choice and increased enrollment? We have 
seen the problems with the Lifeline programs, so we are trying 
to avoid that. Do you agree that encouraging broad 
participation would help maximize both consumer choice and 
increase enrollment?
    Mr. Wood. Yes, definitely. And, as I said, we were happy to 
see that kind of flexibility that I think will allow more ISPs 
to come in, not to say we are picking and choosing for them a 
particular plan. The Lifeline benefit is crucial. We should 
never discount it or say that it is not something we must 
preserve, but it is only $9.25 a month and it tends to be a 
wireless plan only.
    So, you know, 26 percent participation rate at the end of 
the pandemic perhaps for a Lifeline, that is pretty low. And we 
think that is for a myriad of reasons, but one of them being 
some people will pay for the service, even if they would 
qualify for Lifeline, because that Lifeline phone is just not 
enough to meet their needs, either as an individual or as a 
family.
    Miss Rice. So, Mr. Wood, we have talked about different 
communities that are more likely than others to lack broadband 
service at home, but one group that really hasn't received as 
much attention is older Americans. There was a report that was 
issued earlier this year that estimates that as many as 22 
million older Americans lack home broadband service. There may 
be many reasons for this, including affordability and digital 
literacy, but this is so troubling, especially now as the 
pandemic has severely impacted older Americans.
    So lack of home broadband makes it harder to get critical 
health information, to make--I can't tell you how many 
complaints I have gotten from constituents who said ``I can't 
make an appointment to save my life to get a vaccine,'' to say 
nothing of, you know, meeting the requirements for their 
telehealth services.
    So what more can we do to increase broadband adoption by 
older Americans? I mean, this is not just in my district. I am 
sure every single one of my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle have older Americans in their--as their constituents who 
are facing this problem.
    Mr. Wood. Yes, it is definitely a problem. And I think that 
the numbers are probably moving in the right direction as we 
have all gotten more used to the technology. More and more 
older people are online, and the percentages aren't quite as 
low as they were, say, 5 or 10 years ago. But it is not getting 
better fast enough, and especially in a pandemic but really 
anytime. People need access to telehealth and all sorts of 
other things to conduct their lives and stay safe.
    So what we can do more, I think, is it is obviously about 
affordability and price. It is about access, as many Members 
have talked about today as well. And it is about literacy as 
well and making sure that people have the tools they need. The 
only reason I hesitate to say it is all about digital literacy 
is I do think we shouldn't stereotype. Many older Americans are 
very aware of the internet and what benefits it would bring to 
them, so we can't assume that people just don't realize what 
they are missing. I think it really is that unhealthy cocktail 
of factors of people not being able to afford it, not having 
good access, and then sometimes just not having the tools they 
need to really make use of it.
    Miss Rice. To your point, Mr. Wood, I have a 95-year-old 
aunt who is better at using her iPad than I am, so point well 
taken. Thank you so much to all of our witnesses, and I yield 
back now, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentlelady.
    Now the Chair moves to Mr. Mullin. Mr. Mullin, are you 
here?
    Mr. Mullin. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Doyle. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Mullin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And, you know, guys, we have been talking about broadband 
for rural parts, and I just want to point out, I live it every 
day. I live in the middle of nowhere, and then you turn and you 
go another mile to get to my house. The nearest town to me is 
maybe a 15-minute drive. With weather like we are having today, 
it's a 30-minute drive. When my kids go to school, it is a 30-
minute drive. I am on that last mile to which we talk about.
    And, in less than 50 percent--literally, less than 50 
percent of my district has broadband coverage. And yet almost 
my entire district is out of school and have been out of school 
for a week--not because of COVID, because of the winter 
weather. I have six kids, as we speak, that's upstairs, around 
our kitchen table, around our kitchen bar, that--not a drinking 
bar, but one you eat at--that's doing their homework as we 
speak.
    And it wasn't until last year, December of last year, that 
our electric co-op actually brought us broadband down here. 
Until then, we used a hot spot, and a hot spot is not reliable. 
A hot spot is not something you can rely on and not something 
you can do your work on. And, especially if you are live 
streaming your classes, it is nearly impossible.
    But we have an issue. We have an issue in the rural parts 
of the country. We have an issue with our small internet 
providers, our ISPs that are having to make a hard decision, 
because we have, you know, companies like Netflix and Amazon 
that pay literally nothing to live stream their videos, and to 
bring them that last mile and especially the middle mile to us.
    And when you start dealing with this, you know, what--when 
you are dealing about wireless or fixed wireless in rural parts 
of the country, I guess, Mr. Adelstein, do you see a role that 
our rural broadband providers play in this? Because a lot of 
them are having to make a decision to either upgrade their 
system or get farther out there because they can't keep up the 
live stream demand from Netflix and Amazon that pays nothing to 
deliver their product to customers' homes, but yet customers 
pay for it.
    Mr. Adelstein. I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, 
these companies, look where the profits are going, look where 
the market cap has gone up. It is not in, you know, the 
carrier, the wireless carriers. It is the companies that don't 
pay anything for infrastructure.
    Mr. Mullin. Right.
    Mr. Adelstein. They don't invest $30 billion a year like we 
do, but reap far outsize profits. And meanwhile, we are 
competing. You don't see any ads for Google to use us, not 
DuckDuckGo on the Super Bowl, but you see all of the wireless 
carriers fighting and offering consumers, you know, more 
megabits for less down, you know, 90 percent increase in price 
per megabits since 2011.
    I mean, this is--we have invested enormous amounts. And 
there is a lot of talk today about, you know, ISPs and pricing, 
and in fact consumers are getting a great deal. And our rural 
Americans, it is a tougher business model out there. And things 
like RDOF matter, when the FCC puts out $20 billion to help, 
you know, fill that gap and universal service needs to be 
targeted to help build out in rural America. An infrastructure 
bill that would help, you know, that business case to get us to 
that last mile in rural America is really essential. I hope we 
can get bipartisan support for the infrastructure package that 
will close that gap in rural America and get access out there.
    Mr. Mullin. Can you speak of the major impact that the 
permitting reforms laid out in the Republican package would 
have in this cost?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, you know, every bit of cost is sort 
of, you know, essential to reduce, because there isn't enough 
capital to go around. I mean, this is what we are talking about 
here. Thirty billion dollars is a massive investment we make--
--
    Mr. Mullin. Right.
    Mr. Adelstein [continuing]. Virtually every year, but yet 
it is not enough, and we are talking about the need and the 
shortfall in rural America. So every dime that goes to 
expensive and costly delays is one dime less going to a worker 
from CWA, or one dime less going to, you know, getting 
broadband out to actually investing it in the network so we can 
get further into rural America.
    So we very much appreciate the thoughtful consideration. I 
think, you know, most rural areas, frankly, are a little bit 
better about being reasonable. They recognize they need the 
investment. We sometimes have tougher--much tougher time in 
urban and suburban districts, frankly, getting, you know, 
permitting done. But some rural areas are tough too. And, you 
know, like I say, every dime that is saved in a suburban area 
on needless, you know, fees, et cetera, why would you tax 
broadband when it is saving people's lives every day----
    Mr. Mullin. Right.
    Mr. Adelstein [continuing]. Connecting people to 
telehealth? So----
    Mr. Mullin. Right, I agree. So let me ask you, would you 
support adding like an FCC study to the Affordable Internet 
Act, H.R. 7302, which you spoke about in your testimony?
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes, you know, absolutely. I mean, the more 
data we can get on this, the better, so I think that would be a 
useful tool.
    Mr. Mullin. Yes. Well, with that, I am out of time. 
Chairman, I yield back. Thank you, sir.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back, and we thank him.
    Let's see, next is Mr. O'Halleran. Are you there, Tom? Tom, 
you need to unmute if you are there.
    Mr. O'Halleran. I am here.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. O'Halleran. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Doyle and Ranking 
Member Latta, for holding the hearing, and for our panelists. 
It has been a great discussion.
    I greatly appreciate this committee's continued focus on 
closing the digital divide, which still impacts far too many 
Americans in rural America, Indian country, and throughout 
urban America too. In rural Arizona, only 66 percent of 
population has access to broadband at the FCC's minimum speed 
standard. It is far worse than that in my district.
    I am thankful that last Congress, this committee 
bipartisanly had efforts that resulted in an omnibus package 
that--with programs to help the underserved, such as the 
Emergency Broadband Benefit program, to address broadband 
affordability, nearly $1.3 billion in dedicated funding to 
expand broadband on the Tribal lands at Tribal colleges, 
universities, and minority institutions, and new Federal 
offices to better coordinate multiple broadband programs and 
more.
    There is clearly more work to be done to expand broadband 
access nationwide. We must continue working together across the 
aisle to help implement these new programs and improve existing 
programs as well. I guess my biggest issue is that, if we don't 
do that working across the aisle, we are going to continue to 
see, as was mentioned earlier, issues raised in 2006 and still 
not recognized as being accomplished by now.
    We are still going to get to the point that we are today, 
that rural America was--has basically been forgotten for a 
couple of decades, to get us to where we are competitive for 
our towns, our cities, our economic development, our hospitals, 
and our children's education.
    Mr. Shelton, in your testimony, you discussed how the FCC's 
Universal Service Fund is relying on a declining contribution 
base, which supports many critical programs. Could you 
highlight the importance of funding a bipartisan and consensus-
based path forward to provide stability to the USF contribution 
methodology in a way that preserves the success of its programs 
helping underserved Americans?
    Mr. Shelton. The Universal Service Fund only takes into 
consideration voice, taxes on voice, and voice keeps going 
down. And we have to figure out ways to make sure that that 
Universal Service Fund is actually applied to broadband, 
because broadband is the future here, as everybody said, and 
that there are places in this country, rural places, not 
mostly, but a lot of rural places that companies are not 
willing to go in and put in broadband because it is too 
expensive.
    Well, we have to figure out a way to have those companies, 
by private and public partnerships, to get access in rural 
places, because people in rural places need broadband just like 
anybody in an urban environment needs broadband. And my members 
are willing to go to wherever they can to put it in.
    The other thing that I have to say here is there has been 
some talk about a shortage of telecommunications technicians to 
do this work. Well, I can tell you that the big companies have 
laid off tens of thousands of my members who are absolutely 
trained and ready to go anywhere they need to go tomorrow 
morning or this afternoon, to put in broadband and maintain 
broadband.
    So, you know, the Universal Service Fund is just one of the 
ways to do this, but without public and private partnerships, 
we are never going to get this done, and we have got to get it 
done because this country cannot go on like this.
    Mr. O'Halleran. Thank you, Mr. Shelton.
    Dr. Anderson, thank you for everything you do to help our 
students during this pandemic. My wife is a former educator.
    Could you briefly discuss the specific needs Tribal 
students are facing in your community to distance learn due to 
lack of access to connected devices or fixed services?
    Dr. Anderson. I want to speak to, really complement to what 
Mr. Shelton shared, it is infrastructure. And so we have Tribal 
students that they don't have the infrastructure in place, much 
like our rural students as well, but they don't have the 
infrastructure in place. So there really can be almost extreme 
isolation in terms of access and ability.
    The kinds of things that we might provide other students 
right in the city of Topeka is not as accessible, because those 
students in those families, the manner of where they live, even 
the libraries and the buildings that they have, doesn't have 
any infrastructure in those Tribal organizations to be able to 
serve those students as well as we should.
    I do want to mention, although I know this wasn't part of 
the question, our rural America piece, when we gave out that 
map, what we learned really quickly is, much like our Tribal 
students, they didn't have access to the store for Wi-Fi. They 
didn't have access to a McDonald's for Wi-Fi. They didn't have 
access to any of the places that inner-city Topeka had access 
to.
    So, again, that infrastructure is the issue. And so, even 
with the items that we began to provide, if there is no 
infrastructure in place, we are just putting a Band-Aid on 
items.
    Mr. O'Halleran. OK. I am way over my time, and I yield. 
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Let's see, next I think we can ask to go to 
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Curtis, are you here? Ah, I see you.
    Mr. Curtis. Yes.
    Mr. Doyle. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Curtis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Ranking Member.
    I got to tell you, as I have listened to this hearing, I 
kind of regret it that we don't have more of our internet 
providers here today. I feel like they need to defend 
themselves. And it is not my job to speak for them, but it 
feels like we have searched the country over for some bad 
examples during COVID, and I would like to know that most, if 
not all, of our providers lifted caps or offered free service 
for limited periods during the start of COVID. I think over 800 
of them took the Keep America Connected Pledge.
    I don't know, it just feels like that some in this hearing 
would focus on punitive measures rather than see these as 
partners and people who can actually help us solve our 
problems.
    The committee might be interested to know that, before I 
came to Congress, we all brought very different backgrounds. I 
served as the mayor of a city, and we were actually able to 
work with the private sector, and for the last 7 years the 
residents of my city have had free internet. And that wouldn't 
happen without partnering with these good partners. And I can 
tell you from this experience, there is more to the challenge 
than just getting free internet to everybody. We struggle with 
devices and even getting people to take free internet.
    Through this experience, I also learned, because I 
inherited a broadband network, just how difficult it is for 
government to run a broadband network. And I wish we could have 
a whole hearing just on that. I would love to share more 
thoughts.
    But let me pivot just quickly. And I would like to give a 
shout-out to my colleagues, Mr. Duncan and Armstrong, who have 
worked on this issue and introduced some legislation.
    Mr. Adelstein, in my rural Utah, we received quite a few 
public dollars, but our bottleneck is the Federal bureaucracy 
and removing barriers. We have heard today how we have removed 
too many barriers. How do we streamline our Federal permitting 
process so that we can get to these areas where that is the 
bottleneck?
    Mr. Adelstein. You are absolutely right. I mean, trying to 
site on Federal lands is such a nightmare that a lot of my 
members that want to make private investments can't do it or 
shy away because it just takes--it can take a decade to get 
sited on Federal lands, and a lot of those are in rural areas 
where we talk about rural shortage.
    And administration after administration has tried, going 
back to the Clinton administration, to Bush, to, you know, 
Obama, to Trump. Everybody has tried to get this thing done. I 
think we need real Federal leadership, whether it takes 
legislation or getting President Biden to focus a working 
group, to get these agencies together to make sure that they 
are permitting leases in an expedited fashion, not putting, you 
know, undue burdens on private-sector investors that want to 
build a tower or a network on Federal lands but are stymied.
    I mean, it is incredible how difficult it is to get through 
that. But I know that you have talked about a bill that allows 
the Department of Interior to use FCC maps that you have 
introduced and would help siting process on Federal lands.
    I was the chairman of a working group that the FCC had in 
the so-called BDAC on Federal lands. We had a unanimous report 
we laid out. I would like to submit for the record that report, 
if that is OK. It outlines in great detail all of the steps the 
Federal Government could take to facilitate siting on Federal 
lands.
    Mr. Curtis. Great.
    Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask that we submit that 
report for the record.
    And you point out very well, these lands that I have in my 
district--most people don't understand this--they are 90 
percent Federal lands, and it can take a decade to permit 
across these.
    Also, thank you for giving my bill a shout-out, the Federal 
Broadband Deployment in Underserved Areas Act. What it is 
trying to, like, get these Federal agencies to coordinate 
better, and one of my questions to you is, do we need more 
collaboration with State and local partners.
    It is clear from this hearing that we all have very, very 
different districts, and if we are trying to legislate one way 
from the Federal Government, it is near impossible. What is 
your thought on getting local and State governments more 
involved?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, I think so, and Tribal governance as 
well. You know, Tribal areas you talked about. I worked in 
the--I used to run the RUS and worked with the Gila River 
Nation. And there are major roadblocks on Tribal lands, which 
are the most underserved in the United States. I come from 
Indian Country myself in South Dakota.
    And it is just kind of tragic, because nobody needs it more 
and has worse conditions, and yet no place is it harder to get 
siting done. So I think working with Tribal lands, working with 
State governments together cooperatively, because there is a 
lot of State land as well where it is very difficult to get 
sited.
    We all agree on the goal. It is just getting the 
bureaucracy to let us invest and serve those populations.
    Mr. Curtis. Thank you. I am regretfully out of time, but in 
my district I have this trifecta of public lands, Native 
American issues, and rural. And, boy, that is a tough 
combination. Thank you, and to our other witnesses for being 
with us today.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back. I thank the 
gentleman.
    The Chair now recognizes Mr. Welch for 5 minutes.
    Peter, are you here? Unmute if you are.
    Mr. Welch. Thank you.
    Mr. Doyle. There we go.
    Mr. Welch. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
    I am going to pick up where my colleague, Mr. Curtis, left 
off. Because I think what he showed, and also Markwayne Mullin, 
is how when we talk about broadband, ultimately, we get down to 
the very particular circumstances in a very particular 
location. And it is not a one-size-fits-all deal.
    And my sense on our committee is that, number one, there is 
total support to get affordable and accessible broadband 
throughout America. Number two, there is a dispute, maybe just 
an emphasis, about how best to do it.
    There is a point of view that more deregulation, more 
consolidation will get that done. In some places that actually 
might work, but in the case of Vermont, deregulation and 
consolidation has led to less access and higher costs.
    So it may be that we have to be particular and not general 
about when the various tools can help us achieve the shared 
goal.
    I want to ask Mr. Adelstein--and this sort of exemplifies 
our dilemma here--we have a town in Vermont, Peacham, Vermont, 
732 people live there. If you are on one side of Macks Mountain 
Road--and there are about 15 families there--they can't get 
high-speed internet. And they have got Charter Spectrum, that 
is the company that does it. When they call, there is no 
answer. They just won't do it.
    Now, I understand that economically they may not want to, 
but they have a territory where, unless they do it, it is not 
going to be available. Can you explain to me what we do about 
that, Mr. Adelstein?
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes. You know, I think there needs to be a 
public-private partnership to get these out to rural areas. I 
have spoken to----
    Mr. Welch. No. Be specific. I want to--like, I am on the 
phone wanting to get Charter Spectrum to do it, so I am the 
person that needs the internet. How do I get it when they won't 
answer the phone, they won't do the job? You say public-private 
partnership. And, you know, in all candor, it sounds like the 
rhetoric, not a solution.
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, I am talking about Federal 
investment----
    Mr. Welch. Does the company have some obligation in the 
service territory?
    Mr. Adelstein. I mean, they are not a member of mine, so I 
can't speak to that particular, you know, company because I 
don't represent the cable industry. The wireless, you know----
    Mr. Welch. All right. I am going to interrupt. The point I 
am trying to make here is that, if it is not profitable for a 
company, whether it is this company or another one, they are 
not going to invest. So there has to be some Federal role here.
    I am going to ask Mr. Wood. The problem I just outlined, is 
that a common problem throughout the country, not just in parts 
of Vermont?
    Mr. Wood. Yes, Congressman, I think it is definitely a 
problem, and it is a very localized business, even though there 
are these nationwide players that are working in so many 
different territories.
    And the mapping issues that you have led on, that Mr. 
Loebsack and Mr. McEachin did, Mr. Latta and Long also, across 
the aisle, helped to get that bill passed last year, and the 
FCC is still working on it. But here we are, what, almost 12 
months later, and we still don't have much better data.
    Mr. Welch. All right. So we had fairy tale maps. But how do 
we address the situation in Peacham, Vermont, or Markwayne 
Mullin's road or other places all around the country where we 
just don't have companies that are willing to make the 
investment because there is not the return on the investment?
    Mr. Wood. Yes. I think it has to be about the Federal 
investment or State-level or local too. There are lots of ways 
to get taxpayer dollars into both commercial and cooperative 
and municipal providers.
    And we have to be smart about it. So if we don't know where 
we are lacking service--we see in things like the FCC's Rural 
Digital Opportunity Fund, or RDOF, a lot of that money is going 
to flow to places that need it, and some of it seems to have 
been misdirected.
    And so we just need to get better about taking those 
precious Federal dollars we have, realizing there is an acute 
need, and making sure they go to the right place.
    Mr. Welch. All right. OK. So whether you come at this from 
the perspective--I am talking about Mr. Johnson, where he does 
advocate for deregulation, for instance--we have to have that 
information, whether it is in Mr. Johnson's district or my 
district, in order to deploy the money that we do have 
effectively. Is that correct?
    Mr. Wood. Yes. And I think, as you said, Congressman, you 
know, it is about profit too. So I want to be clear, ISPs do 
invest tens of billions of dollars around the country. What we 
are seeing now, though, is that their investment has been going 
down for the last few years. Their profits and their subscriber 
numbers and their revenues are going up, and people are paying 
higher prices.
    Mr. Welch. By the way, I have total concerns, we all do, 
for low-income folks. I also have concern for middle-class 
folks who are trying to pay their bills on limited incomes. So 
there has to be public policy here where we get our rates down, 
and we shouldn't be paying the highest rate compared to all of 
the European market competitors. And we do, is that not 
correct, Mr. Wood?
    Mr. Wood. Yes. I think there are different ways to look at 
the international comparisons. I am focused on the U.S. figures 
and the fact that we are seeing broadband prices go up at four 
times the rate of inflation--again, as investment levels stay 
high but trend downward over these last few years.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman's time is expired.
    Mr. Welch. I yield back. Thank you.
    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentleman.
    I think I see Buddy Carter in his mobile office. Buddy, are 
you ready for your 5 minutes?
    Mr. Carter. I am. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the 
opportunity. I especially appreciate this hearing, which is so 
very important, and appreciate all the people [inaudible].
    Mr. Doyle. Well, Buddy, I think you are frozen there.
    Mr. Carter. Am I frozen?
    Mr. Doyle. OK. I think we can hear you again. Try it again.
    Mr. Carter. OK. Mr. Adelstein, I wanted to ask you. A lot 
of your testimony has focused really on permitting and siting 
reforms and how any funding should go hand in hand with those 
efforts. I just wanted to ask you, could you tell me some of 
the top issues that are facing the wireless industry now when 
it comes to expediting build-out?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, you know, the top issue really is just 
having enough capital to build to the entire country. I think 
that, you know, it is very important in terms of a bipartisan 
infrastructure bill that we get a substantial investment, be 
able to get to that last mile in rural America. We talked about 
it with Congressman Welch.
    You know, the business case gets tougher as you get out 
there, and having, you know, costly burdens makes it more 
difficult to make that happen. I mean, for example, you 
introduced a bill, I saw, in a package that takes section 6409 
and makes it so they are not subject to NEPA, which is 
something that, you know, the FCC has worked on.
    I think, you know, these kind of legislation to codify the 
good work the FCC has done would be helpful, particularly for 
colocation. Again, you know, it should be the easiest thing to 
do if you are going to colocate, if you are going to upgrade so 
you can get service out to more people, that should be the last 
place you have regulatory hurdles. And we appreciate your 
thoughts on that.
    Mr. Carter. Well, and appreciate you bringing up my bill 
and mentioning it. It is called the Proportional Reviews for 
Broadband Development Act. It is really just common sense, and 
it really just says that, you know, the changes, unless they 
are significant, but these minor changes that don't really 
impact the footprint of a tower, of a wireless tower, that 
those won't have to go through the environmental or the 
historical review, and that this could speed things up, which 
would expedite this and help everyone, and obviously save us a 
lot of money.
    Can you think of any--give us any examples where this has 
happened before?
    Mr. Adelstein. Absolutely. I mean, regularly we are trying 
to colocate an existing tower, and there can be an 
environmental and historical review. What has changed in the 
history since you put a tower up there, and you are trying to 
put more equipment on a tower that has already been sitting 
there, and you have already done an historic review 
[inaudible]. Again sometime [inaudible].
    I mean, this is just--it could take a year. It could take, 
you know, quite a bit of time, and there is no environmental 
impact, there is no historic impact. There is a tower sitting 
there. So, you know, it is just common sense. And this is 
something that the Federal Government has its own authority 
[inaudible] Federal rule for something that is so nonsensical 
on an area where the Federal Government is trying to get 
broadband out there. I think that kind of reasonable step, you 
know, the municipalities won't be upset about it because it 
applies to the Federal Government, they are not municipalities. 
And it makes perfect sense.
    Mr. Carter. And not--yes, obviously, it has a monetary 
impact, but the time factor too. I mean, you know, if a child 
misses a year, has got to wait a year in order to get high-
speed internet, I mean, that is a year behind that they are.
    Mr. Adelstein. You are exactly right. We are talking about 
5G, which will allow schoolchildren to do all kinds of things 
they can't do with multidimensional learning, 3D, very exciting 
for schoolkids. We see how important distance learning is now, 
with the pandemic. Let's get that 5G equipment up there and not 
have to wait a year in order for an historic or environmental 
review when there is already a perfect wireless facility 
sitting there.
    Get that piece of equipment up there more quickly, and this 
supports the efforts that the FCC has done to the treatment of 
existing facilities under section 6409.
    Mr. Carter. I was at the Georgia State legislature today 
and, you know, they were making a big push. You know, you have 
always heard Georgia--there are two Georgias. There is Atlanta, 
and everywhere else. We have a large rural community in 
Georgia, and one of the things that they are talking about is 
cell reception mapping, and especially during the pandemic.
    How are your members addressing the mapping issue?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, I am very pleased that this committee 
supported funding for mapping. It was approved by Congress. 
Because we do need to mark the maps. If you are going to target 
where you have uncertain areas, you need to know where they 
are, and it has been an issue we worked on for many years 
trying to [inaudible] those maps.
    And the FCC needed those funds provided late last year in 
the bill, so we are grateful for that. I think that whole plan 
enabled us to get more accurate maps and target relief where it 
is needed.
    Mr. Carter. OK. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Chairman, I appreciate, it and I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Thank you, Buddy.
    Let's see, the Chair now recognizes Mr. Cardenas for 5 
minutes. Tony, are you there?
    Mr. Cardenas. Yes. Can you hear me?
    Mr. Doyle. You are recognized.
    Mr. Cardenas. OK. Thank you.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman and also Ranking Member Latta. 
Thank you for having this important hearing.
    I just want to point out that, once again, that at the end 
of December of last year, Congress passed a $3.2 billion 
Emergency Broadband Benefit program, which would provide 
eligible folks across America with a discount of up to $50 per 
month towards their internet bills. In addition, eligible 
households can receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to 
purchase a device or a tablet or laptop or desktop, et cetera. 
This benefit will be critical for those who are desperately in 
need of being able to be connected.
    And we all know that when you are not connected, you have 
issues of not being able to get your telehealth appointment, 
not being able to get the opportunity to get back to work by 
filling out those employment contracts, and also when it comes 
to children missing school. It has now been over a year, and 
many of our children around the country are falling behind, way 
behind, and it is really important that we get this right.
    And also, Mr. Wood and Mr. Shelton, you provided concerning 
testimony about how communities of color are most likely to be 
caught on the wrong side of the digital divide, and this is 
something that existed before this pandemic.
    Mr. Wood, how can we make sure that people that most 
desperately need the help will know about the Emergency 
Broadband Benefit program and how to access it? And how do we 
capture people who are not currently in the Lifeline program 
today but are still eligible for the broadband benefit?
    Mr. Wood. Thank you, Congressman. We definitely need to 
make sure we do that. Obviously, the higher dollar amounts 
available and the more robust plans people can get will 
hopefully help with that, but it can't just be a, you know, 
set-it-and-forget-it kind of approach.
    We need to make sure that there is outreach in local 
communities, that there is advertising, that it is in the 
dominant languages in different communities and not just in 
English or even just in Spanish. It has to be in any language 
that a community is populated with.
    And it has to be a support. So, as I said earlier, I think 
we need centralized information from the FCC but also localized 
information and efforts on the ground to make sure that however 
well the program is designed, people know about it and they can 
take advantage of it.
    Mr. Cardenas. And that awareness is definitely an 
opportunity for public-private partnership, right?
    Mr. Wood. For sure. I mean, the ISPs are a big part of 
this. They have been good partners in this thus far. We don't 
have the FCC's rules yet, but the companies have a self-
interest here. They will get this money back in terms of 
reimbursement, hopefully for people paying more for a plan but 
having the taxpayers help them out with that in this crucial 
time to make sure everybody is connected.
    Mr. Cardenas. And also, when people are uplifted 
economically, then they can afford long term these 
opportunities to keep these kinds of services once they 
graduate from being out of being low income and unemployed.
    Similarly, Mr. Wood, many multifamily resident rentals are 
multidwelling units, such as senior and student living, mobile 
home parks. They have bulk billing agreements with internet 
service providers. Because these residents are not directly 
billed for services but instead pay a monthly fee for broadband 
services to their landlords, these households would otherwise 
be eligible, and they would also be likely to receive the 
Emergency Broadband Benefit to help pay their internet bills.
    Again, how do we ensure that residents of these multifamily 
rental properties, including those in public housing, are 
eligible and able to receive this incredibly important benefit?
    Mr. Wood. For sure, that is a key, and that is why the 
statute is written as it is, and the Lifeline program operates 
in this way too. We talk about households, and so that means a 
family unit or other group of people who decide to live 
together and make a household together. It is not just about a 
single physical address.
    As you said, sometimes many different people share the same 
physical address, and sometimes people don't have a permanent 
physical address, for the unhoused populations or those who are 
moving from place to place. So, clearly, we need to focus on 
the household and not just the physical address in that case.
    Mr. Cardenas. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Wood. I would also 
like to share that my colleagues and I are planning on sending 
a letter to the FCC asking them to expand eligibility for this 
program to be as inclusive as possible. We must eliminate 
potential barriers and maximize the number of households that 
are able to receive this incredibly important monthly broadband 
benefit so that we can help families across America stay online 
and connected.
    I have a question for Mr. Shelton: How long does it take 
for somebody to be trained to become one of your members? Do 
they have to go out there and get a Ph.D.? Is it 7 years of 
training, or about how long does it take?
    Mr. Shelton. It is all done on the job, and it is--I would 
say, to be fully trained, it probably takes a couple of years, 
but, you know, the folks that----
    Mr. Cardenas. But you could be on the job training within 
weeks or months, right?
    Mr. Shelton. Yes.
    Mr. Cardenas. OK. So you could actually start feeding your 
family while you are being trained?
    Mr. Shelton. Yes. And we would love to have you start 
feeding your family while you are being trained. The problem is 
that we are losing members in the tens of thousands that could 
be putting all these broadband connections in, that are fully 
trained already.
    Mr. Cardenas. OK. Thank you very much.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman's time is expired.
    Mr. Cardenas. I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentleman.
    Let's see, I see Jeff Duncan sitting there patiently. You 
are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Duncan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Before I get started, I would like to enter into the record 
the Walberg workforce letter, dated January 27, from Mr. 
Adelstein and others. I think staff has that.
    Mr. Doyle. Sure. Without objection, so ordered.
    [The information appears at the conclusion of the hearing.]
    Mr. Duncan. Thank you.
    This is my first hearing on the telecom subcommittee, so 
let me take a moment to say it is a privilege to be here. I 
look forward to working with you and my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle to address the issues that have come before 
the subcommittee.
    And I would be remiss if I didn't mention a giant in the 
communication realm passed away today. That was Rush Limbaugh 
and--70-year-old, died of cancer, and he is going to be missed 
within the communication realm.
    You know, in the 1930s, after dual disasters of the Civil 
War and Reconstruction had left the rural South nearly a 
century behind the industrialized North in terms of technology, 
President Roosevelt made a decision to work to electrify the 
South with hydropower, and Universal Service Fund was born. And 
out of that also came rural electric cooperatives, who have 
been providing these important services to my constituents for 
about eight decades now.
    I believe that, after electricity and telephone services, 
broadband internet is the third wave of infrastructure 
investments needed to keep rural America competitive with our 
urban compatriots.
    And I will say, I live on that last mile as well. I am 
served by a rural telephone cooperative and a rural electric 
cooperative.
    So with any of these infrastructure build-outs, I believe 
the Federal taxpayer deserves the maximum return of investment 
for every dollar they spend. That doesn't just mean lower costs 
up front. It means those investments need to be in 
infrastructure that lasts and stands the test of time.
    For the purposes of this conversation, I believe that that 
means fiber optic cable in the ground. More expensive up front, 
I get that, but with a much longer service life and much 
greater reliability down the road.
    This also means, as Mr. Adelstein has testified today, that 
we need to reform the permitting process in ways that will 
allow installation of these assets more quickly and more cost 
effectively than has been done to date.
    Another way we can maximize our ROI is not to try to 
reinvent the wheel. The electric cooperatives are in a unique 
position to take advantage of existing and new Federal programs 
with the greatest impact at the least amount of cost to the 
taxpayer. I believe this means, whenever possible, partnering 
and creating synergy with the cooperatives to ensure that the 
power lines and fiber optic cable move together to provide the 
services necessary to close the homework gap and rural 
broadband gap.
    And, finally, I believe it is absolutely necessary to have 
the right data before we make these decisions. If we are going 
to invest billions of taxpayer dollars in these assets, we must 
simply ensure that we are not duplicating our efforts and 
wasting those dollars. That can be achieved by making sure we 
are using data that maps to the rooftop, not just to a Census 
block, and we need to have that level of precise detail before 
we spend to add broadband services.
    So I thank you for having this hearing today. You know, the 
government doesn't set the pricing for telephone, satellite, 
TV, water, or electricity, and I don't think the government 
should set the pricing for rural broadband as well.
    And so I want to ask Mr. Adelstein. Mr. Adelstein, some 
witnesses have expressed concerns about broadband prices in the 
United States. Do you think the competitive marketplace or the 
government should determine the price of communication 
services?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, the private sector is doing a 
fantastic job. I don't know where some of these numbers come 
from. I mean, the cost per megabit has gone down 98 percent in 
the last 10 years. Ninety-eight percent. You know, you can look 
at the price 9 years ago for a plan. $114 for one line 
unlimited. Now that plan costs $64.95, a decline of 52 percent, 
inflation adjusted.
    I mean, these are--that means the subscribers save $576 a 
year compared to 2010 prices. So if now is to go back to, you 
know, a 2015, 2014 plan, we will sell you one. You won't get 
nearly the same deal. The market is working very well. It is 
highly competitive.
    I mean, you can see that the ads on television trying to 
get those prices down is working. The competitive marketplace 
in wireless has reduced costs dramatically per megabit, and 
people are getting much better service at lower prices.
    As a matter of fact, wireless drove down the overall CPI 
for the first time, you know, in 7 years in 2017. We reduced 
the CPI. So I am not sure where some of these numbers are 
coming from, because wireless, actually prices have been going 
down, lowering the overall CPI for the United States to the 
point where actually it declined as a result of wireless in 
2017, and it has been lowering inflation consistently. And we 
have the stats, I could submit for the record, to prove that.
    Mr. Duncan. There is no doubt about that. And, you know, I 
hear you saying that the marketplace competition--we are in our 
infancy in broadband services and even cellular realistically 
compared to telecommunications, and so competition will drive 
the price down. When companies compete, I save money.
    Do you think it is a market failure that suggests that 
government should set the broadband prices? I don't hear you 
saying that. It is not a market failure.
    Mr. Adelstein. The market is working. I think a 98 percent 
reduce in the price per megabit is pretty effective in the 
marketplace.
    Mr. Duncan. Yep.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Mr. Duncan. I am out of time. I appreciate you being here.
    I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman yields back.
    Let's see, next I believe we have Robin Kelly. Robin, are 
you there? Yes, I see you.
    Ms. Kelly. Yes, I am.
    Mr. Doyle. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Ms. Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And it is an honor for me 
to be on your committee. And thank you to the witnesses for 
being here.
    The pandemic continues to shine a light on the broadband 
problem, but the digital divide has been an issue in this 
country for such a long time. In my district, which is urban, 
suburban, and rural, there are still areas that lack 
connectivity.
    As of 2017, I worked with local government officials and 
industry to bring Wi-Fi to Pembroke Township, one of my rural 
areas in Kankakee County in Illinois. It was the first time 
that the town was connected to high-speed wireless internet.
    Pembroke shows what we can accomplish if we all work 
together. We can close the digital divide, but it is going to 
take all of us working together--government, industry, and 
consumers.
    More liberal-leaning organizations and large companies like 
Verizon have put out ideas to close the digital divide. This 
shows me that we can come together on commonsense ideas to 
address a digital divide, even on topics like affordability and 
municipal broadband.
    I encourage other companies to join in taking a long-term 
view and come forward with their ideas for closing the digital 
divide, so we can drive real solutions to these problems.
    Mr. Wood, the Emergency Broadband Benefit is likely the 
fastest way that we can get more people connected without 
having to create unique tiers or plans. How do you think the 
program should evolve to ensure customers are getting a good 
product and ISPs are holding up their end?
    Mr. Wood. Thank you, Congresswoman. I think it really is 
about that choice and making sure people can apply that up to 
$50--it would be less than that if they can get a plan for less 
than that--to whatever service tier they would like. And so 
giving people that kind of choice and that kind of robust 
investment in their own ability to connect is what we see as 
the key to making sure that program succeeds.
    Ms. Kelly. OK. And, Mr. Adelstein, do you have anything to 
add?
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes. You know, I think you are right. My 
wife is from Chicago. I appreciate the work that you have done 
to get Wi-Fi out there. She is from the northern part, you from 
the southern. But, yes, I mean, you know, there is a lot of 
progress we need to make. I think this committee is making the 
right investments in the Emergency Broadband Fund and making 
sure that people can afford it.
    You know, that is a real issue, and we need to work 
together with you to help people afford it. And you know, the 
prices, as I have said, are--the service is going up, prices 
are going down. But it is still not affordable to some people. 
And, because this is so essential, it is really something that 
we need to work together, and I think this committee is doing a 
great job on that front.
    Ms. Kelly. And even in Chicago, where they had the 
connectivity program, some parents still did not take advantage 
of that, because I guess they were afraid because they owed 
Comcast or whoever they have, they owed them money, so they 
were afraid to get back on to connect, even though it was for 
e-learning.
    As chair of the CBC Health Braintrust, I have witnessed 
COVID-19 devastate communities of color, and the relief efforts 
that benefited others often never reach minority communities. 
In particular, I am concerned by the lack of transparency in 
the FCC's COVID-19 Telehealth Program. Congress just 
appropriated another $250 million for this program in December.
    Dr. Anderson, in your testimony, you talked about the lack 
of telehealth services available to Native populations in your 
State. How can the FCC better use this new pot of money to 
ensure that communities of color, including Native populations, 
benefit from the Telehealth Program?
    Dr. Anderson. Well--and just so that we are all on the same 
page in terms of even that impact, and thank you for asking 
that question--I want to speak to just Kansas. As we know, the 
FCC has over 600,000 Native households that lack standard 
broadband access. It is truly an issue. That is four times 
higher than the general population.
    And so, you know, as we think about what can be done and we 
talk about--I know it sounds like rhetoric--private-public 
partnerships, but I think there are some accountability 
measures that we certainly need to put in place and ask for. I 
think transparency is definitely an issue, and I think what you 
shared in that regard is also an issue. And in collecting data 
to make sure that we hold people accountable.
    You know, at this point, in Kansas, you know, we have 
several Tribal areas that do not have any access. And so, even 
though we have reduced cost of broadband services in some 
areas, that is not accessible to our communities of color and 
to our Tribal groups.
    And so I would suggest many of the things that have already 
been shared, that that [inaudible] transparency data collection 
and holding of accountability.
    Right now, that 600,000 Native households lacking access, 
it is unacceptable.
    Ms. Kelly. No, I definitely agree. It is unacceptable 
anywhere.
    Dr. Anderson. Absolutely.
    Ms. Kelly. Mr. Chair, I will yield back my 3 seconds.
    Mr. Doyle. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding back.
    Let's see, I don't see any Republicans right now. We are 
going to go to Angie Craig. Angie, you are recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Ms. Craig. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 
you for running a very efficient meeting. I am really grateful 
that the committee has taken the time here today to tackle this 
issue of dependable and affordable broadband.
    At the end of the last Congress, I was proud to support the 
Broadband DATA Act, to make sure that the FCC produces 
accurate, reliable, and granular maps of broadband coverage. 
Additionally, in the omnibus package at the end of the year, 
Congress again came together to provide the funds necessary for 
the agency to begin developing the maps.
    I know my colleague Buddy Carter brought this up, but even 
with the funding that Congress provided, it is going to be, we 
all know, a Herculean task for the FCC to coordinate the 
numerous efforts throughout the FCC and the Federal Government 
to improve broadband mapping.
    That is why earlier this week I introduced the Broadband 
Measuring Availability and Aligning Policies Task Force Act, 
Broadband MAPS Act. This bill directs the Chair of the FCC to 
create an intraagency task force to ensure that all of the 
appropriate parts of the agency are working in the same 
direction to produce these accurate maps.
    Just this morning, the Acting Chairwoman announced she will 
be implementing my bill administratively. I thank the Acting 
Chairwoman for her partnership.
    In wake of COVID-19, the Congress has put substantial 
investment into broadband. We have got to make sure that these 
maps are accurate to ensure Federal dollars get to the most 
underserved communities.
    Mr. Wood, could you please discuss the importance of 
accurate mapping and also speak to the importance of mapping 
when planning broadband build-out? And also, just as someone 
who is brand new to this subcommittee, talk a little bit about 
the barriers that have existed to make sure that these maps are 
accurate.
    Mr. Wood. Yes, Congresswoman. It is not a very pleasant 
story. I mean, it doesn't seem like it should take this long, 
but there is finally some movement. Thank you for that bill and 
for the FCC's willingness to take it on.
    I think it was last March, as I mentioned earlier, that the 
mapping act passed, and the FCC also has had a proceeding 
underway to try and implement that. They call it the Digital 
Opportunity Data Collection. And only an administrative lawyer 
like me could love this. They are on something like their third 
order to consider how to do that.
    So, you know, we are moving in the right direction, as you 
said, but sometimes it takes a lot of nudges or even shoves in 
that direction to get things done. And I think there was $65 
million set aside for the FCC in December to fund that mapping 
program, and industry is ready to go and to get there.
    So, as we have seen, you know, without the maps and even 
the well-intentioned Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction 
that just concluded, we can send money to places that are 
actually served today. Sometimes those maps actually understate 
coverage. As often if not more often, they overstate coverage. 
And until we get that right, we are going to be putting money 
in places that it doesn't need to go and leaving other places 
unfunded, even though they desperately need that kind of 
Federal investment.
    Ms. Craig. Well, as someone who is new to understanding all 
this, I look forward to trying to understand why this is so 
difficult and what those barriers are and how we can either 
help eliminate those barriers or get out of the way, depending 
on the issue.
    I would like to just switch slightly now to broadband's 
impact on our educators. As the wife of an educator and the 
mother to a son who is in the basement here today doing 
distance learning and who is moving back to hybrid learning 
here in the next couple of weeks, I know the stress this has 
put on our parents, our educators, and our students.
    Dr. Anderson, in your testimony, you mentioned the 
importance of the expansion of the E-rate program. Can you talk 
a little more about the financial burden that the pandemic has 
placed on school districts who are trying to connect their 
students and teachers, and additionally how Congress can 
continue to assist our teachers in deploying these new teaching 
technologies meant to help make all of this effective for our 
students?
    Dr. Anderson. Absolutely. And thank you for that question. 
And when we talk about the financial burden, let me take make 
sure that I speak about specifics. So, if you are not in a 
school--and I love it that your son is in the basement, but if 
you don't have a son in the basement and you don't know--
reality is, if your child is on free or reduced lunch and you 
are someone on reduced lunch, that is about 70 cents for 
breakfast and lunch.
    In Topeka, if you wanted service, internet services, we do 
have a partnership, you could pay $10. I literally had a parent 
that emailed one of our principals at Jardine Middle School to 
let them know that they actually had to give up lunch to pay 
for service unless something else happened.
    And so we were able, with a grant, to be able to help in 
that case, but that is a burden for families, even the reduced 
cost. So right now, those costs are really being shifted to 
families that have to literally pick ``Am I going to eat or am 
I going to actually be able to provide service?'' So that is 
one piece in terms of connectivity and just that continued 
burden.
    Now, the other piece is a burden financially, and I will 
talk about E-rate. Eighty percent of our internet services is 
through E-rate for Topeka Public Schools. Eighty percent. And 
so we rely heavily on that within the school system.
    Now, I will tell you that it is not just infrastructure. I 
know my time is out, but let me tell you this: Fifty percent of 
our families in Topeka right now, while they may have 
internet--and this is not unusual for free-lunch families--they 
don't have quality internet. They can't get the video, they 
can't access, they don't have the speed. And so that, again, 
puts the burden on families, or they just do without, and we 
are seeing more and more doing without.
    Ms. Craig. Thank you so much, Dr. Anderson.
    And as I am way out of time, Chairman, I will yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentlelady yields back.
    Let's see. Mr. Butterfield, I believe you are next, and you 
are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Oh, wait, I see Mr. Walberg just come on the screen, and he 
is their last speaker. Tim, are you able to hear me?
    Yes. I will recognize you for 5 minutes.
    You need to unmute, Tim.
    Tim, you are still muted. Can you hear me? If you can, you 
need to unmute.
    Well--Tim, maybe we will go to Mr. Butterfield and try to 
come back to you. Are you unmuted?
    Mr. Walberg. Did that work now?
    Mr. Doyle. Yes, yes. OK. There you are. You got 5 minutes.
    Mr. Walberg. OK. The fingers are too big to get the job 
done there, so I appreciate you taking the time with me on 
this. And I appreciate the fact that this issue has been 
brought up today. It is an important topic that we would do 
well to spend significant time on.
    If I can bring up my--why don't you go on to Mr. 
Butterfield, if I could ask that. I am having trouble getting 
my questions up.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. We will do that. Thanks, Tim. We will come 
back to you.
    OK. Mr. Butterfield, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Butterfield. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and 
thank you for your leadership. We have been working on this for 
a very long time, and it is time to get something done in the 
117th Congress. Thank you very much. And to our witnesses, 
thank you as well for your testimony.
    Let me start with Mr. Wood. Mr. Wood, could you just talk, 
please, a little bit more about the EBB program, the Emergency 
Broadband Benefit program, specifically the benefits of 
consumers being able to choose from a wide variety of broadband 
providers and service offerings? Help me a little bit with 
that.
    Mr. Wood. Certainly, Congressman, happy to. It is a much 
larger available amount of money which will help with that 
flexibility. And so the current Lifeline program, as I 
mentioned, is usually limited to $9.25 for a subscriber just to 
go up to $50 or $75 on Tribal lands, and that will allow people 
to get a more robust plan, wired or wireless, frankly.
    We found that to our organization it was important not to 
try and pick and choose for people what they should pick for 
themselves, and that they should be able to take that money and 
apply it to any of those services that they might find best 
suits their needs in this very unusual and extraordinary crisis 
we find ourselves in, and perhaps going forward. I mean, we 
need to think about making this permanent and doing other 
things to lower prices people are paying, but this was a great 
start, in our view, to get people that injection of cash they 
need now.
    Mr. Butterfield. So are you a strong proponent--you are a 
strong proponent on flexibility in the EBB program? Are you 
supportive of flexibility, and do you think that would be 
important to making the program successful?
    Mr. Wood. Yes, definitely. And I think I should say, you 
know, I feel like there is a little talking past each other 
today. We have talked a lot about competition at our 
organization and about this program as well, and so not trying 
to remake the broadband market or how we set prices or anything 
like that with this program or frankly any other. We just want 
to make sure people have what they need to get those services 
even as, despite what we have heard, prices are going up at the 
bottom end and especially recently.
    I think the problem with Commissioner Adelstein's testimony 
versus mine is he was talking about 2017. I am talking about 
2020. We saw wireless CPI spike last year, even though wireless 
has been more competitive for a while, for sure, but once the 
T-Mobile/Sprint merger went through, prices started to shoot 
back up. And that is what we have to be concerned about, is 
that people not be left behind as they are putting more out of 
their pocket, whatever is happening with the quality adjusted 
prices for people like me who can already afford the service.
    Mr. Butterfield. Let me switch over very briefly to 
Commissioner Adelstein. It is good to see you again, sir. I 
wish I could be there with you in person, but thank you for all 
that you do for the Wireless Infrastructure Association.
    In your testimony, you discussed the need for 
apprenticeship programs to ensure a diversity pipeline of job-
ready workers who would then be instrumental in delivering 
broadband to those who need it the most. We have talked about 
that, and I know how strongly you feel about this. How might 
these apprenticeship programs help us close the digital divide?
    Mr. Adelstein. Well, you know, our industry is committed to 
diversity, and I appreciate all your leadership over the years 
to do that. I think that, you know, we want our workforce to 
look like the people that we serve, which is as diverse as the 
United States is.
    And apprenticeships are a great way to get people of color, 
veterans, disadvantaged communities, women involved in our 
industry, to diversify the workforce and to give them skills 
where they can have jobs that continue to grow as our industry 
grows.
    You know, apprenticeships are perfect for wireless. That is 
why Secretary of Labor Walsh has lauded the efforts that we are 
doing now. We started the first diverse program in the 
industry, but we need a lot more work. And I think one way we 
could work together with you, we talked about, is to go to 
HBCUs and Tribal colleges, to have them teach programs that 
don't exist in almost any school today about 5G to really get 
kids----
    Mr. Butterfield. What about community colleges?
    Mr. Adelstein. Absolutely.
    Mr. Butterfield. I know we talked about that, yes.
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes. Community colleges can do the field 
tech work and get people into--you know, whether they go to CWA 
or they go to one of the other companies that are doing this 
kind of work, they could come out fully trained, ready to go, 
and start, you know, in 5G.
    This is the most complex technology yet, the most complex 
generation. And I think at, you know, HBCUs, you have got 
Carnegie Mellon cranking out great EEs, but we need a lot more 
of them. We can't just do it at MIT and Carnegie Mellon. We 
need them at HBCUs. This would be a great place to get higher-
skilled workers, more diversified engineers, you know, RF 
engineers.
    Mr. Butterfield. You mentioned Communication Workers of 
America. Let me next go to Mr. Shelton. Thank you for all that 
your union does. We are great friends, and just want to 
encourage you to keep doing what you guys have been doing over 
the years.
    In your testimony, Mr. Shelton, you say that strengthening 
the Lifeline program is key to promoting digital equity among 
communities that have been left behind. My question is, what 
reforms could we make to the Lifeline program that will address 
the digital divide?
    Mr. Shelton. Well, you know, the Lifeline program needs to 
be strengthened, and I think we need to talk about how it gets 
strengthened. But I think one of the things that would probably 
destroy the Lifeline program is supported--being funded by a 
yearly congressional appropriations, which, you know, would 
leave it to the vagaries of Congress, sorry to say. I think 
that the Lifeline program is too important to do that, and I 
think that we would really hurt it or destroy it if that 
happened. So----
    Mr. Butterfield. Lifeline has a lot of support on this 
committee, I believe, on both sides of the aisle. So thank you 
so much for your words.
    Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentleman's time is expired. I thank the 
gentleman.
    Tim, are you ready?
    Mr. Walberg. I hope so. You can tell me. Can you hear me?
    Mr. Doyle. We can hear you fine. You are recognized for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Walberg. Good. I am glad I can make technology work the 
second time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    All of us here have recognized the importance of staying 
connected during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we should take 
pride in the fact that our networks here in the U.S. were able 
to withstand the stress test of increased capacity.
    I am told that in other parts of the world--Europe and 
Australia, for example--regulators were forced to take 
extraordinary measures, such as reducing video quality and 
speeds and even urging consumers to ration their internet 
usage.
    There is no doubt about it, the light-touch regulatory 
framework that has governed the internet for most of its 
existence has enabled us to build resilient networks. But there 
is much more to be done, and the digital divide is more 
prominent than ever.
    Recently, Jennifer, a constituent of mine from Manchester, 
Michigan, wrote to me that she has to drive her kids to a 
nearby business parking lot so the children can complete their 
school assignments. This is unacceptable, and we must continue 
to work towards permanent broadband solutions that meet the 
needs of rural and urban America.
    As part of the solution, I am pleased to introduce, with my 
colleagues, commonsense permitting reforms that will remove red 
tape, will lower deployment costs, and allow companies to put 
resources towards skilled workforce training and apprenticeship 
programs to meet the needs of next-generation broadband 
technology.
    In fact, in my district alone, it is estimated that the 5G 
economy will create over 6.6 thousand new jobs and almost 
90,000 jobs in the State of Michigan over the next 10 years. 
This is why I am pleased to introduce, with my Democrat 
colleague Representative Clarke, the Telecommunications Skilled 
Force Act, H.R. 1032.
    This bill will help foster greater collaboration between 
the Federal Government, State workforce boards, higher 
education, and industry, to accomplish the ultimate goal of 
reducing unemployment and developing a pipeline of skilled 
technicians that our country sorely needs to meet our broadband 
and 5G deployment goals.
    Mr. Adelstein, yesterday I spoke with Dr. Kojo Quartey, 
president of the Monroe County Community College, about 
workforce training initiatives. Many players in the telecom 
industry are collaborating with institutions like Monroe County 
Community College to address the significant shortage of 
skilled workers to build out 5G and fiber networks.
    Could you elaborate on the role that community and 
technical colleges can play in helping to deploy advanced 
wireless and wired broadband services?
    Mr. Adelstein. Absolutely. We appreciate the bipartisan 
leadership of you and Congresswoman Clarke, and we just heard 
from Congressman Butterfield about apprenticeships and the role 
that they can play in making sure that we have, you know, 
really the latest skills to our workforce. And Monroe County 
Community College is leading the way.
    As a matter of fact, at Monroe County Community College, we 
are, together with our partners at PCCA, creating the first 
small-cell technician program at any school in the country. So 
Michigan is leading the way.
    I mean, small cell is our whole new technology. We are 
going to put as many as a million of these things up. And it 
gets very complicated, because you are putting more antennas 
closer to end users, which leads to a congested RF environment, 
and most field techs never had a course in radio-frequency 
engineering, you know. Just a one on oone, someone out there in 
the field, they know when they are doing.
    So we need to, you know, give them--and these are new 
people coming into the industry. We talked to Congressman 
Butterfield about diversity. You know, we could get diverse 
people in there, we could get veterans in, women, you know, 
minorities, and bring them in. People that have been displaced 
because of the pandemic, train them in wireless technology, 
especially 5G, because 5G is the most complex G yet, and yet 
schools across the country aren't teaching it.
    We have come up really fast. People don't think about, you 
know, 10 years ago before the iPhone, it was pretty simple. You 
put up an antenna and you were done. Now you are talking about 
small cells. You are talking about very complicated equipment 
at the top of the tower. You are talking about a lot of 
software engineering, and earlier we talked about 
cybersecurity.
    I mean, this is a new world of educational needs. And so we 
need the academic world to keep up with the fast pace of the 
wireless industry so that we can get people coming out of our 
schools that are ready to do the job safely, efficiently.
    If taxpayers are going to invest money in building it out, 
let's have people from Monroe County Community College be the 
ones to build that out with this new degree in small cell 
engineering.
    Mr. Walberg. Super. Amazing stuff.
    Do you agree that permitting reforms, such as the proposals 
recently introduced by Republican members of this subcommittee, 
will help lower deployment costs for providers so they can 
focus on dedicated resources toward resource workforce 
development and apprenticeship programs?
    Mr. Adelstein. Yes, we--you know, it is all part of the 
deal. If we are going to do an infrastructure package, I think, 
you know, major investments are in order to get it out to rural 
America, as you noted. I mean, there is a need for that. We 
realize now that broadband is essential.
    So if we get all of the elements in place, we get the right 
siting regime--which you have talked about, you have introduced 
legislation on that--we get the right spectrum policies, we get 
the right workforce policies, all three legs of the stool are 
covered, and we can win the race to 5G.
    I think we are positioned to do it. I think we have the 
smartest workforce, the smartest engineers. We have, you know, 
some great cooperation with Congress, with the FCC. We have won 
the race to 4G. Through some partnership and cooperation, I 
think we can win the race to 5G, and we can make sure that it 
gets to rural America so that our entire economy can grow with 
as much as 4.5 million new jobs.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. The gentleman's time is expired.
    Mr. Walberg. Thank you. I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Thank you, Tim.
    Now, we have saved the best Member for last. It is my 
pleasure to yield 5 minutes to my good friend and colleague 
from California, Doris Matsui.
    Ms. Matsui. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. And you are 
the best chairman too. I will give that to you also. And thank 
you to the witnesses for being here today. And this is such an 
important subject.
    First of all, I want to talk about cybersecurity, K to 12. 
While the shift to distance learning has helped keep students 
safe and engaged, it has also highlighted a growing threat. 
Cyber attacks targeting schools are increasing in regularity 
and sophistication.
    In December, the FBI Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 
Security Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing and 
Analysis Center issued a joint cybersecurity advisory noting 
that the significant risk of cyber attacks is expected to 
continue during the current academic year.
    Dr. Anderson, have you heard concerns about this disruption 
to distance learning that a cyber attack could cause?
    Dr. Anderson. Trying to get this unmuted. Here we go.
    First of all, thank you for that question. You know, one of 
the things Topeka has done most recently is to have a full 
audit of our security systems. And I would encourage that, 
again, if we have the appropriate resources to free up, instead 
of directing them to other matters that could be addressed by 
E-rate and other items. If we have those resources available, 
everyone could actually do that.
    From our own audit that we had, we really began doing some 
other matters to further protect our students and our staff as 
it relates to ensuring that we are not open to the kinds of 
threats that we would otherwise be open to.
    Ms. Matsui. OK.
    Dr. Anderson. That is going to be an ongoing audit as well.
    Ms. Matsui. OK. Thank you.
    Last Congress, I introduced the Enhancing K-12 
Cybersecurity Act with Congressman Langevin, to help increase 
school cybersecurity during this pandemic and beyond. And just 
like roads and bridges, cybersecurity staff and technology are 
an important part of modernizing American infrastructure. And 
that is why this bill would authorize $400 million in new 
funding.
    And, while this public health crisis has revealed 
preexisting vulnerabilities, this underlying cyber threat 
facing K-12 schools remains even after we crush the 
coronavirus.
    I want to now talk about workforce. In order for the United 
States to remain the global leader in communications 
technologies, we need to ensure that there is a skilled 
workforce ready to install the fiber towers and antennas that 
power them. However, there is still a significant shortage of 
qualified workers that is limiting our progress in closing the 
digital divide and deploying next-generation communications 
networks. That is why I am working on legislation to boost 
apprenticeships and job training to meet this demand.
    Mr. Adelstein, how has limited telecommunication sector 
workforce funding affected the climate, and what would an 
additional, let's say, $75 million in apprenticeship grants 
allow us to accomplish? Mr. Adelstein?
    Mr. Adelstein. It would make a huge difference. Thank you 
so much. Yes, I can see, you know, why you are our 
congressional wireless workforce champion. We gave you an award 
about a year ago because you have been so committed to 
workforce development and to funding it properly.
    And apprenticeships are the right way to go, as Congressman 
Walberg was mentioning. You know, even in cybersecurity, it 
doesn't have to be just traditional jobs of building out in the 
field, but you can have a cybersecurity apprenticeship. And we 
can get kids coming out of technical schools and colleges and 
HBCUs that are learning cybersecurity specifically for 5G. 
Because, again, it is different.
    I mean, this 5G is a whole new world, and if we want to win 
that race, we have a lot of good people who do the work as, you 
know, has been noted in testimony here, that know how to do it, 
but 5G, we want to make sure that the skills keep up with the 
development of the technology and they grow from the 
technology.
    So if Congress is going to invest, you know, along the 
lines of Congressman Clyburn's bill, a hundred billion dollars, 
that will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs to fill. And 
hopefully, you know, there will be good union jobs, there will 
be good other companies that are doing that work. Make sure 
that we have people ready to do that, and spend those 
congressional dollars efficiently and effectively, and give 
people from diverse backgrounds careers in our industry that is 
going to keep on growing. I mean, our industry isn't going 
away. We are going to keep growing, and these are really good, 
well-paying jobs that people can grow in their careers. You 
know, they can go from being a field tech to being an RF 
engineer. Your leadership on this has been absolutely 
essential.
    Ms. Matsui. Well, thank you very much for that.
    I just want to--I have a few seconds here. I was joined 
with Congressman Guthrie in sending a letter to the Department 
of Labor requesting Secretary Acosta--that is the last 
Congress--to write us with details on steps the Department is 
taking to support the development of a qualified 
telecommunications workforce.
    Looking to the future, I believe as an initial step that a 
5G and fiber workforce plan must be a foundational strategy for 
addressing this workforce challenge.
    Mr. Adelstein, a quick answer: Do you believe a 5G and 
fiber workforce plan could help coordinate the disparate 
Federal agencies involved in our telecommunications workforce?
    Mr. Adelstein. Absolutely. We need to plan ahead for this 
because it is going to be a big, growing demand, especially if 
you have a big infrastructure package. I am pleased to say that 
Secretary Walsh had very positive comments about the importance 
of wireless apprenticeships in his confirmation hearing and 
what WIA has been doing through TIRAP. So I think we have all 
the great pieces together, the great people here in the room 
right now have done.
    Ms. Matsui. OK. Thank you.
    Mr. Doyle. The gentlelady's time is expired.
    Ms. Matsui. Thank you very much. I yield back.
    Mr. Doyle. OK. Now, let's see, I want to request unanimous 
consent to enter the following into the record: a letter from 
the Fiber Broadband Association to Chairman Doyle; a letter 
from USTelecom in support of the Emergency Broadband Benefit 
program; a statement from the Wireless Internet Providers 
Association; a statement from Filemon Vela; a letter from 
Ranking Member Latta to Chairmen Pallone and Doyle; a January 
27th industry association letter; a study from George S. Ford, 
the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy; 
letter from Utilities Technology Council in support of 
broadband deployment; a January 2018 report from the FCC's 
Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee. Without objection, so 
ordered.
    [The information appears at the conclusion of the hearing.]
    Mr. Doyle. I want to thank the witnesses for their 
participation in today's hearing. I want to remind Members 
that, pursuant to committee rules, that they have 10 business 
days to submit additional questions for the record to be 
answered by the witnesses who have appeared. And I would ask 
the witnesses to respond promptly to any such questions you may 
receive.
    I want to thank everybody that have participated in this 
hearing. And, at this time, the committee is adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 2:04 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
    [Material submitted for inclusion in the record follows:]
    
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