question in north carolina across the nation broadband providers are some instances alone in serving their communities and they don't have large staff. what steps does the fcc taken to ensure the regulation doesn't put disproportionate burdens on smaller providers?

by this action to cell phone service. i want to talk about the digital divide directly. i got to see early on with you

commissioner the amazing work that you all have been doing in the fcc. to be great to get an update from my constituents including here in osceola county on the work that you all are doing to help with the digital divide. >> it's a great question and thank you congressman for your continued effort. equitable education requires internet access and many organizations have worked hard to close the gap. despite that reports have said going into the pandemic we had over 12 million students who remained digitally disconnected and underserved. last year i made it a point to meet with detroit

to make sure the devices purchased through the connectivity fund are not duplicated across the programs. >> its absolute imperative we prevent waste fraud and abuse in this program and any other program. i'd love to follow up with you with more specifics to make sure give you precisely the rules that apply to this program. we will follow-up with you on that. >> i look forward to that area we have too few resources to waste and that includes our kids

chairwoman rosenworcel a final question is i want to follow-up on an answer you gave to leader rodgers question earlier about regulation. just want to make sure there aren't any hidden asterisks in your statement when you say no rate regulation. are you including within data commitment not to apply section 201 and 202 just and reasonable provisions to broadband rates before or rates before after-the-fact? >> there is. >> glad to hear that in mr. chairman for 60 seconds. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding back in the chair recognizes mr. butterfield for five minutes. >> thank you very much mr. chairman. can i add 60 minutes to my time? >> no you may not. >> thank you mr. chairman for

the hearing today and thank you to our guest today. hopefully we will be back to normal very soon. chair rosenworcel we chatted a few days ago and let me congratulate you and thank you and your incredible service notches since you've been on the commission put your service before you joined the commission. i know your resume and you've been very dedicated and committed and thank you so very much. i'm confident that you will make a significant mark on the work of the commission and to the other commissioners mr. starks we've been friends for years and commissioner carr it's good to see all of you. let me get right to the point. congresswoman rice said a few moments ago that this is very

important the affordable connectivity program is incredibly important and i just thank you for your leadership to ensure the success of the affordable connectivity program and emergency connectivity fund. these are two very important initiatives in my state. in north carolina over 400,000 households are in world naacp with schools and libraries and the states have awarded $180 million in funding to help with $17 million in my congressional district. that's a big deal and these are real meaningful benefits for my constituents and i hope that all of you will continue to work together in ensuring the success of these important programs for the want to commend the commission i wrote to the fcc last year urging you to act on this important issue so i

appreciate the commission taking steps like this so unserved households on my district and get on line much faster. let's start with question number one and i will start with the chair. i like to move on to expanding broadband opportunities that in a goose on bringing back the acp certificate program in you and i have talked about it over the years. diversity of ownership in the broadcasting industry. let me ask you commissioner starks and ms. rosenworcel i'd like to offer the opportunity for all the fcc commissioners to eventually embrace this idea and to understand the potential benefits of reinstating this program. madam chair can you speak to this? >> i embrace it fully holy and

completely. the single most effective tool he have to increase the diversity of ownership in the united states. >> commissioner starks canada to that? >> 1400 commercial broadcast television stations less than 6% owned by women in less than 3% are mayor harry owned and the program speaks for itself with a great result. >> thank you and thanks to her chair. madam chair >> thank you and madam chair the data mapping saves lives act that's a mouthful. we have talked about before. directs the fcc to use its data mapping tool to track maternal mortality and severe marred.

the rates making that connection between broadband access is crucial to identifying areas that support especially in african-american greenwich is where the maternal rate is the high. can you discuss this with those in the few seconds we have leapt? >> united states is the only industrialized economy with increasing maternal mortality. it's a quiet crisis. their new telehealth to colleges that can help women during their pregnancies and produce better outcomes for them and their children. they got to figure out how to use broadband connections to make those better outcomes happen that i think the data we collect are so into it is pursuant to just that. >> and commissioner starks.

>> 21 civil rights organization supports small radio station operators, frequently also small-business owners. i heard from them how important it was to whether the pandemic as well so i see great potential in the broadcast technology improving the mobile radio experience news weather merchant sea as well as small broadcasters and broadcasters of color to compete for advertising dollars. i'd like to say congressman butterfield thank you for your long dedication to public service and your legacy of excellence is something that i -- in the media and telecom space. >> i'm grateful. thank you. >> the gentleman's time has expired but the chair recognizes mr. duncan for five minutes. >> you look overt having gotten up so early. i want to thank the commissioners for being here. i'm glad we are family having an

oversight hearing. we talked about the need for expanding broadband activity accurate mapping to ensure we are doublebilling in the process. and the need to build up the [roll call] networks rural broadband in rural networks for they think there needs to be a huge percentage going to rural america instead of inner cities where there may be existing internet and not keep spending millions of tax dollars. we talked a lot today about spectrum and the scarcity of spectrum than the need for continuing to expand auction authority to make broadband available. i also want to echo those concerns. this ground is pretty much been covered by the time you get to me so in your testimony you mention the need to push back

ends the abuses of big tech and i want to focus on antidiscrimination provisions that you mentioned. what do you think congress needs to did it protect first amendment rights of content creators and local businesses who feel like they've been trampled on by big tech keeping the importance of the multiplicity of information sources you mentioned in your testimony alive very >> thank you for your work on this issue and first and foremost we have to overhaul section 230. their portions that are pro speech that create incentives to leak speech up including political speech. it gives internet companies cart launched to remove any speech at they want. that's not the intent of 230 and they think congress needs to amend section 230 to promote more speech. we need to impose basic transparency obligations on big tech. right now it's a total black

locks with some speech left up in some taken down. there's no consistency at all. we need a sick nondiscrimination with its trading cases alike looking at legislation that senator wicker has that talks about trying to protect speech that is political in nature from discriminate take downs. i think there are steps we can take. right now the whole point of section 230 was get balance between moderation that web sites do an empowering users tools to engage. right now that balance has shifted too far. one step we could do is empower users to make their own content owners and decisions. we want "fox news" to fill to your feed before you see them plug that in. it can be third parties to offer content filtering or choose the wild west version. if we give people the power to make those decisions we are better off the kissimmee can never robust political debate.

that's how we solve problems in this committee by having robust discussions. >> protections with big tech to delve into that. moving on mr. commissioner i know you are a fan of looking at receivers and how we use spectrum based on that scarce resource. how would you address the concerns of industry about the potential burdens of such regulations and ensuring government users of spectrum have to upgrade their standards to be more efficient? ..