NATE UNITE 2018 Awards Luncheon, Wednesday, February 21, 2018
It’s so great to be here with y’all today. I see a lot of familiar faces in the room. To those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of visiting Nashville before, welcome! I’d like to thank David Sams from SBA Communications for such a warm welcome.
It’s such an honor to receive the inaugural legislative and regulatory champion of the year award. Since it’s the first one, we can pretend this covers my entire time in Congress. Broadband has long been a priority of mine, and here’s why. It represents more than just the fiber in the ground or the towers in the air. Broadband brings with it the promise of better education, better healthcare, sustainable economic development, and an increased quality of life. It connects people in times of crisis, and it ensures our first responders have the tools they need when responding to emergencies.
When it comes to broadband expansion, there are a few guiding principles I think it would behoove us to follow. First, any funds for broadband in an infrastructure package should go to unserved areas first. Second, the Federal Government should not be picking winners and losers in the marketplace. Any Federal support for broadband infrastructure should be competitively and technologically neutral. If we adhere to these principles, I am confident we can avoid the pitfalls of waste, fraud, inefficiency that marred the previous administration’s efforts on broadband infrastructure. Lastly, and perhaps most important, Congress should be mindful of the significant amounts of private capital spent to support broadband deployment. Since passage of the bipartisan 1996 Telecom Act, the private sector has invested roughly $1.6 trillion in their networks. This investment includes wireline, wireless and other broadband technologies.
However, this investment experienced a decline that coincided with the FCC’s 2015 decision to reclassify the competitive broadband marketplace under Title 2 of the Communications Act, an outdated relic of the 1930’s monopoly era. I want to reiterate our support for Chairman Pai, who corrected this ill-conceived policy and returned us to the light-touch regulatory approach that allowed the digital economy to flourish. This light-touch approach has been the bedrock of communications policy since the Clinton administration. As I previously stated, history makes clear that countries with the best communications have the highest economic growth. Continuing our Nation’s leadership is, and most important, must remain a bipartisan effort.
Broadband expansion is capital-intensive. The recently signed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to go a long way in aiding in that effort. Tax reform isn’t going to be a boom solely for large companies. Smaller broadband providers that have considerably smaller margins will be able to invest more in deploying broadband to unserved communities across the country. I’ve spoken with smaller providers that have told me that the change in the corporate tax rate alone will allow them to reinvest in their businesses, reaching hundreds of thousands of households that would otherwise be uneconomic to serve.
You hear so much debate in Washington about network standards and how traffic should or shouldn’t be managed, and I have to say “wait – hold on a second! I still have constituents who don’t even have access to the internet.” They’re driving 30 minutes to the nearest McDonalds or library just so that the kids can connect to a WiFI network and get their homework done. That’s simply not acceptable. You can’t have a 21st century economy with a 20th century internet.
These various challenges exemplify why I support a technology-neutral approach to these solutions. Appalachia faces different different challenges than the exurbs of Nashville. Broadband expansion can’t just be about cities, 5G, or fiber. I don’t care how we get broadband out to you, as long as you get it.
From a regulatory standpoint, it is important to note that smaller businesses are disproportionately impacted when new rules are put in place. These companies serve fewer customers per mile, and they are less able to pass along the burdensome costs of regulation.
So here’s what we’ve been doing to take words and translate them into actions. As Chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications & Technology, I have kept our members and staff busy. Before I went home for Christmas, I told the members of my committee, both republicans and democrats, that they all need to bring me their best ideas for a broadband infrastructure package. We had a hearing at the end of January – and we discussed 25 pieces of legislation.
These ideas run the gamut. We’ve introduced legislation to address the poor quality of the FCC’s broadband maps so that communities that are unserved get connected first, and areas that already have broadband aren’t overbuilt. We’ve introduced legislation to streamline the permitting process, decreasing the amount of uncertainty for businesses. We’re looking at ways to modernize our laws to address issues such as tower siting and federal rights of ways, which are tying the hands of the private sector. We’ll be moving to mark those bills up in full committee soon, and hopefully get as many of them to the floor as possible!
We’re still looking at ways to move forward with legislation that simplifies the buildout process. If you’re already digging up a federal highway, it makes sense to have “dig once” programs in place that would allow for overall costs to be reduced, while speeding up deployment times. This will ensure that we have the proper infrastructure in place to facilitate deployment in areas that haven’t even been built yet, while also creating lasting infrastructure that will support self-driving cars and trucks in the not-so-distant future.
While the not just preempting states left and right, we’re doing the work to try and make sure we have a vibrant state-federal partnership that recognizes the importance of state and local government when it comes to provisioning broadband.
North Central Tennessee recently spent nearly $250,000 dollars on historical reviews for a $14 million investment. It’s not just the money that hurts them here, but the time! 39% of rural America is without broadband, and I think people just lose sight of that.
I’ve been working with President Trump on broadband expansion throughout the year, and he is excited about finally moving the needle on some of these important issues. The last time we had him down here in Nashville, he signed two executive orders that will help streamline the permitting process. The first streamlines and expedites requests to locate broadband facilities in rural america. The second supports broadband tower facilities in rural america on federally owned lands. The President and I recognize that the federal government cannot do this alone. State and local governments have to step up and contribute. Tennessee is definitely doing its part –Governor Haslam recently announced $10,000,000 in grants through the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act, and the grandees are providing another $10,000,000 in matching funds!
The President recently signed two bills related to our discussion here today. One deals with rural call completion. It requires that rural connectivity standards be on par with those in more urban areas. It’s important that people all over the country can connect to a network and place calls, especially when they’re in times of crisis.
The second is near and dear to my heart. I went to the White House last week to witness the signing ceremony for Kari’s law. This law ensures that no matter what kind of building you’re in, you won’t have to dial anything more than “9-1-1” when crisis strikes. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Kari’s story, but it’s just heartbreaking. She was murdered by her estranged husband in a hotel. Her little girl heroically dialed 9-1-1, but the call wouldn’t go through. There aren’t a lot of times we get to pass such straightforward legislation with such a direct impact. I thank Congressman Gohmert for sticking with us while we worked at getting this legislation through both chambers.
Last week may have been the 50th anniversary of the first 9-1-1 call being made, and it serves as a reminder that this work is never complete. There’s always more to do.
Broadband serves a crucial role in ensuring public safety, whether it be in the wake of a disaster, or during an emergency. Congressman Olson introduced a bill in our committee that would streamline the permitting process in the wake of natural disasters. When entire networks go down, the environmental review process should not be a significant impediment to getting those essential services back up and running. I applaud all of the work you have been doing to rebuild communities that have been devastated by natural disasters.
I’m glad to see that Chairman Pai spoke earlier this week. We certainly have kept each other busy this year… We recently reauthorized the Federal Communications Commission for the first time in over 25 years. It’s important that the Congress keeps federal agencies on task so they can focus on the mission we’ve given them. We finally came up with a solution for the repack, which will help broadcasters finally relocate so that we can tie up the last incentive auction and get started on the next.
Many of you who work more closely with the committee are aware that we recently lost a pillar of telecommunications. The Staff Director for the Energy & Commerce Committee, and one of Chairman Greg Walden’s oldest friends, Ray Baum, recently passed. We renamed this package after Ray, and we can’t wait to move RAY BAUM’S Act through the House floor in the very near future. We fully expect the Senate to pass this and get it to the President’s desk.
When I get back to Washington, we’ll be having a hearing regarding reauthorizing the NTIA to make sure they have all the tools they need to do their job properly. We need to identify more bands of spectrum for auction, and ensure that America remains a global leader in the telecommunications space.
Smart spectrum policy doesn’t need to be partisan. I applaud Congressman Lance for introducing the AIRWAVES Act with Congressman Doyle. This bill will create a competitive bidding process to grant priority access license for the use of specific bands of spectrum.
I really want to thank all of you for what you do. So many people don’t understand how critical and crucial of a role the tower technicians and small business owners play in our economy. Not to mention how dangerous it is to climb these enormous towers. I want to thank NATE for having me here today, and I encourage you to reach out to my office if you have input on the deployment issues that affect your business. I do my best to be active and engaged, and I hope you’ll take me up on that.
