me. [applause] >> companies who have sponsored the broadband campaign and work with us in our staff encompass teams to really achieve some tremendous legislative working close with ntia and the objecti. so thank y'all. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> if i could have attention. everyone could take their seats. i'm very glad to introduce congressman tim wahlberg from michigan who served on the house energy and commerce committee, is the cochair of the broadband caucus, has been a great friend to the broadband industry and community of trying to find ways to help us breakthrough the barriers, streamline the

permitting, speed the ability to build the network and help reduce the cost that comes with delay and sometimes unreasonable fees and so we appreciate what you're doing but before we start our conversation if don't mind tell everyone here about your district, the people, the place that you represent, how you got into public service and then we can go from there. >> well, chip, it's good to be back with you and frankly i'd be just happy if we ended right now without opening introduction. [laughter] >> and you can go back to enjoying the fruits to your labor out there or something. it's good to be back with you. i went out the same year that you retired. i went out the hard way defeated to my reelection. after serving one whole long term they threw me out.

but it's one of those experiences where you say the people make decisions, you represent them, they what to do and 2008 was not the best year for republicans, 2006 wasn't that strong either, i came in with 13 republicans for my first term and then went out right away but then came back in 2010 when things had changed a bit and term limits actually functioned. they had limited me and they decide tay limit and since then i've had the privilege of staying, this is my eighth term in congress. fits very well with my district, my district right now entire southern border of michigan. i'm there to keep out all buckeyes. [l >> and if you're a buckeye tough. you can always move across the line and be where the national champion undefeated wolverines.

i have to use it while i can and then the hoosiers. i'm not that hat about keeping hoosiers but notre dame has been a challenge because i was raised by a father who was a big ten guy, i was raised on the south side of chicago and he said, tim, it's okay i'm a christian you're a christian, it's okay to hate two things. what's that dad, new york yankees and■ir1 notre dame. a lot of people loving notre dame, his souther p have had to acquiesce to the fact there's notre dame paraphernalia in their about bue growing with the task.

i can hard i will say it i'm so down.d to my house a week and i didn't have broadband living out in the country. so i have a quick primmer into the expansive nature and ability of what broadband can bring. society in general and, of course, being able to talk to industry as well as connected

with the autoindustry so it's very diverse but energy■1 and communication are major components of my delighted at what you do. broadband capabilities for your farms, for your cumbines and it's important to keep moving and important to be remember of and cochair of that but also cochair of the 5g and beyond caucus.

co-chairman of that. but we have to have that. and also the education and workforce committee all of that is touched by what you do. congressman thank you. talk a little bit congress is like■ñ the country in a divided place. i hadn't noticed that. the divisions i guess are -- the factors are everywhere but on broadband it's one place that we seem to have united as a country around the private investment, the public investment connecting all parts of the country rural america, unserved, underserved

areas. you have have to make sure investments, right places and it's called the plan act. if you don't mind talk about the caucus, some of the work, priorities and any legislation you think will help make the investment more effective. >> yeah. it's broadband is not partisan. republican constituents want it, wherever we might be. real urban suburban, we all need it. it's when i get into my oldest, i hug debbi dingell, but that area was not republican.

dixter suburbs didn't have broadband capabilities. so that was■' progressive democrat area but then just going a few miles south of that in monroe county heavy agricultural they needed as well for all they do with. the plan act which i had hoped for and my bill isn't coming for a vote, moved back a couple weeks but that really says what we in the bipartisan fashion in the broadband caucus, bipartisan caucus recognize, we can't waste the funds that are being put there, a lot of investment has gone in and we are gratefulor that. some of the things that have

been terribly wrong and we come in our committee to discuss thet to upgrade those areas that have broadband now. a hundred different programs administered by agencies across the spectrum, we have to don't waste time, we don't waste energy and we don't waste resources. that's where our caucus comes together. earlier in the session the energy and congress committee

passed the broadband deploymentp our industry cross the railroad tracks to be able to close the digital divide. [laughter] >> that's broadband, you're in the dark. city of broadband city checklist, really kind of hit on fundamental principles and respond to a permit within 30 days, how can you have innovative streamlining of the permit process? how can you have least

destructive ways where you don't disrupt the road, the infrastructure theight of way, all the different types of things and we can restore whatever disruption our industry does as quickly as possible? some of those best practices that if we can have a common language where your district and have the investment faster, talk a little bit about the deployment act. >> the deployment act i'm glad we were able to pass did not come out in fashion, that's the problem. >> deal with environmental concernsjy. >> but i think we did that in that act and so we are going to have to keep working toward a

solution. the interstate system and necessity of making sure we ever have to defendn its own soil we can get from east to west, north to south as readily as possible but what we are doing right now we have to have the same type of impact and so we have to get things on the ground, we have to get things on the poles and we have to get satellites in the atmosphere, we have to move forward as quickly as possible and i think with ai now something else i'm trying to look in my advanced years. with ai the capabilities of dealing with permitting not only having bes c scenarios and best practices to work with but with ai we can find out what those are more quickly. we can tailor those to individual situations in local communities so i say to my

democrat colleagues let's use it, let's make sure destroy the environment. i'm a conservative, i believe, the conservatives ought to be good stewards. we shouldn't destroy things but we should people abusing for the best benefit but certainly broadband the capabilities we have of expanding our world andt stifle our own creativity, invasion, ingenuity and capabilities by feet unnecessarily. i think with ai capabilities we can figure out what's best in dealing with the environmental concerns in a parla and michigan surrounded by water on 3 sides, beautiful, beautiful, you're all welcome to come but we can deal with the environmental issues, we can deal with marsh lands. we can use them for environmental purposes, recreational and we can do the

same with broadband. we need to get off our mentality and say how can we come together, reduce the time for licensing, let's make sure locals and states have their ability to get the information as quickly as possible understanding what we want to do and let's look at the environment, find out how it's done in other places and get her done. >> you mentioned you're on the education workforce committee. earlier today we announced encompasses is establishing a center for ai, public policy and responsibility a lot of the leaders, industry government, academics that we were talking to on the panel talked about hos benefit on workforce training on education on individualized tutoring and educational oppoa■)rtunitno no matter what r

income is to really give educational opportunity the potential good that can come to an individual, a town, a city, a district in the state. talk to us a little bit about how you see ai a workforce and t you're doing. >> yeah. ai is scary. i mean, it can ruin things but it also can make things more without redoing everything all over again. ai can provide for student in the classroomho the information industry, the capabilities expanding research to the point they come out already prepared from some, the greatest innovation opportunity that are going, we can find

means by which we can train, new workers in the field or students in the classroom using case histories and putting them whereby they can experience it before they actually have to climb a tower. it's amazing what we produce if we -- i know we have to control it and i think that's where government has to have a can't let it control us but when i talk with people in the industry in cyber and telecommunications say this is almost the next best thing of slice bread because it has cut down our time in getting solutions and developing things exponentially and, yes, it scares us how much information we c g and that's why we always need to keep the human element in and the reason that

says that sounds interesting but it doesn't compute in■" that it's actually true. well, that's where i think we can see the danger of ai become the value of ai, and so in education workforce looking at this we have to find means by which we can ramp up the speed by which we train people. we have to get to our parents and let them know you don't have to feel like you have been a failure as a parent if your child doesn't go to the university of michigan national champion undefeated school. they can get into an industry going to our community challenges, to apprenticeship programs and hopefully we get the short-term pell expanded so that we can expand that further and get people in your industry

onto the job and the field as quickly as possible with far more information and training capabilities than we've ever had before so it excites me to think about the fact that -- that little, that little computer i carry around with an apple on the back of it has so much capabilities but when you add ai to it in the future amazing things that we can expand and when china pushing us, pushing us, they haven't gone over us yet we have to find means by which we stay ahead, 5g, 6g andy component part with it. >> as we talk about education and workforce and ai and the the with it, we had an earlier panel today about the broadband so fid technicians, tower, every part

of how we build and deploy all of the advance networks of every technology has the cute shortages right now of the toldg 200,000 fewer workers that are needed and demanded right now as we build out the network inh brd industry on workforce as we have a historic level of both public funding and private funding to connect every american. there are a lot of good jobs, a hundred thousand dollar jobs for fiber and manage the deployment and -- climate tower. >> heading to the airport this morning, chip, early, i got to bend on the road heading out to-

there were 3mec, midwest energy and communication trucks already working that more problem as far as i know i still have my broadband but they were thinking, wow, this is awas situation where it used to say plummers, electricians, you always want them, you always need them, well now you need the communications people, they had the buckets so they were prepared, they were digging around pole for some reason probably looking for some splicing problem. these are people that are highly trained and i'm sure some of those there were making six figures easily doing they love to do and people love to experience the results of their work. >> yeah, i was sitting here thinking fred and his great legacy on energy and commerce committee and what he has done

for michigan. the university of michigan, you know, we begrudgingly give you praise to finally get there, they were the home of the next generation of internet really important and t research networks of the internet and as we try to build out our ai to we university of mississippi, the university of arizona, other regional university hubs both on the research, the curriculum, the benefits of ai, the workforce training of all of the different applications in ai. we would love to work with the university of michigan or any of the other community colleges and educational institutions in your state and district.

vice president of google was sitting next to it. what the world needed and something written up in "the new york times" a few months back called rise where you have companies like google who will come in now set up t of the rea, what we need day one when your student comes to work for us and we will train yourea course and that is expanding universite joining smaller community colleges and private schools, private colleges to prepare people for real-world experiences and when you have a google or apple or a general

motors or a dow chemical that will come and say, hey, i will foot the bill, fit the course together so that when your student graduates and comes and is hired by me, they understand what they need to do and so in your industry, i can't believe that there wouldn't be higher ed institutions and even getting back now when you're thinking about early college, programs at high school level and trying to get internships for junior and seniors in high school in the ae professions, our former governor at michigan tried to change from skill trades to professional trades because they are and so that type of thing of bringing your resources ind putting real courses in place that make a difference day one i think that has to be what place.

>> well, i look forward to working with you on a number of different s. one last issue that's important to our membership and it was part of the house deployment act and that is a way to streamline and the ability broadband companies to deploy under the railroad tracks or alongside the railroad track because that's a major barrier that blocks a lot of deployments or slows deployments and there's -- there's whole thing about highway robberies, sometimes there's railroad robbery of where the thieves are too exorbitant and delays are too long. we are continuing to work on a have rail legislation that would be modeled after the state of virginia that has been very successful in giving shot

clocks, fees that can only be based on the standard of school so that it is reasonable and cost base and we would love to have your support on that type of effort that would allow one , to close the digital divide. >> we certainly know that bureaucracy is needed to dohe work but bureaucracy sometimes can slow everything down and sometimes for personal reasons and i think that's where shot clock comes in and says, fine, do your due diligence but, again, with ai capabilities and understand how we have done in other places you don't need two years, three years to do this. we ought to be able to do this 30, 60 days. we are putting ourselves behind and inhibiting success for our citizens, capabilities, earning capabilities, transitions from

one technology to another by slowing things down unnecessarily and we don't that and when we see that in other countries, when we go if we here bribe requirements but i guess a slowdown time clock of regulatory issues is just as bad bribe at times because it cost money. aking and being part of the incompass summit. thank you for the broadband look forward to working with you on legislation affecting the broadband deployments around the country and in michigan. >> look forward to it. >> chip, thank you. >> thanks.