Hearings to examine FAA's plan for ATC modernization, focusing on evaluating progress, ensuring accountability and results.
Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation
2025-12-17
Source: Congress.gov
Summary
No summary available.
Participants
Transcript
Good morning. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will come to order. Welcome to today's hearing, Oversight on the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC plays a critical role in the lives of everyday Americans. from TV and radio broadcasting to cellular and satellite communications and internet connectivity. The Commission sits at the center of the services and technologies that power Americans' daily lives, that project American leadership and influence across the globe, and that form the backbone of our national economy. In other words, the Commission's work is kind of a big deal. So I am pleased that we are joined today by our witnesses, Chairman Carr and Commissioners Trustee and Gomez, for this important hearing, and especially pleased that they agreed to be here and that this is the first FCC oversight hearing this committee has held since 2020. I believe Commissioner Trustee was sitting right here staffing then-Chairman Wicker at that hearing. And so, Commissioner, it is nice to see you have moved 30 feet to the other side of the dais. We have a lot of important ground to cover today. The pace of change in just the last year, let alone since the last FCC oversight hearing by this committee, has been astounding. We've seen the deployment of 5G and early groundwork for 6G, major advancements in the satellite industry, particularly the growth of low Earth orbit, high speed internet, AI, and seismic shifts across the media landscape. And we've seen the enactment of President Trump's Working Families Tax Cut Act, which not only reinstated spectrum auction authority for the FCC for the next decade, but contained the largest single spectrum pipeline, 800 megahertz, ever enacted into law.
This will raise billions of dollars for the taxpayer. It will stimulate billions more in private sector investment as U.S. companies bring faster and cheaper internet to more Americans. And it will lay the foundation for countless technological innovations. These benefits will be felt nationwide, and indeed worldwide, across multiple generations of Americans. On day one of the new administration, the FCC under Chairman Carr hit the ground running and already has an impressive list of accomplishments to show. These include the delete, delete, delete docket, which continues to clear out the regulatory underbrush, ensuring the integrity of the universal service programs and preventing fraud by illegal aliens. reforming the FCC satellite licensing regime to help bolster America's position as the global leader in space commerce, streamlining permitting to speed broadband build-out, and moving at lightning speed to implement the new spectrum pipeline, already teeing up 100 megahertz of valuable C-band spectrum to be auctioned for commercial use in the near future. But there is plenty more work to be done. Given the rapid pace of evolution in technology and telecommunications, it is a wonder that the legal regime governing these issues and the Commission's role in regulating them has largely not been updated since 1996. And there are any number of issues, from the utility of the so-called public interest standard in the modern era, to retransmission consent rules in the streaming era, to the current media ownership caps, where a statutory update might be worthwhile. The world of today, with mobile computers in every pocket and artificial intelligence becoming exponentially more capable,
is markedly different from the time when cell phones were the size of footballs, when Gordon Gekko walked on the beach holding a brick to the side of his head, and from the time when AOL was the leading edge of internet connectivity. We live in a different world, and it is worth considering whether Congress should revisit the Communications Act and update it for the modern age. On the public interest standard in particular, if my colleagues across the aisle do what many expect and hammer the chairman over their newfound religion on the First Amendment and free speech, I will be obliged to point out that those concerns were miraculously absent when the Biden administration was pressuring big tech to silence Americans for wrong think on COVID and election security. It will underscore a simple truth, that the public interest standard and its wretched offspring, like the news distortion rule, have outlived whatever utility they once had, and it is long past time for Congress to pass reforms. I'm grateful to our witnesses for being here today to talk about what the FCC is doing and how to address some of these important issues. The energy and focus Chairman Carr has brought to this commission in just the first year has been productive and refreshing. I'm excited for what the next several years will bring. Now turn to Ranking Member Cantwell.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for convening this important oversight hearing, and I thank our witnesses for being here. The FCC's independence is central to protecting free and diverse press, strengthening our national security, and bringing down the cost of telecommunications and media services. However, what we've seen this year and costs that Americans are facing, prices are rising. The question is, what is the chairman of the FCC and the FCC doing to bring down costs for consumers? The American people deserve an FCC that protects them from hidden fees and promotes affordability. The FCC, though, is in my mind doing just the opposite in allowing consolidations that reduce competition and can help drive up costs. Americans are paying more than ever for streaming, cable, wireless services. Streaming costs are up 13% this year alone. Basic cable costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years. And Americans are paying more than almost any other country for wireless. And what is the FCC doing to help drive down those costs? Congress passed bipartisan legislation to ensure transparency in billing. But Chairman Carr has proposed to punch holes in those rules. to implement that. He's making it easier for big corporations to tack on hidden fees to your internet bills. I've even heard consideration by some groups saying that we should take away spectrum from broadcast television stations because maybe they're not getting enough use and maybe we should have even less competition.
Sign up for free to see the full transcript
Accounts help us prevent bots from abusing our site. Accounts are free and will allow you to access the full transcript.