Roger Wicker Questions FCC Nom About Broadband Strategy Aimed At Closing The Digital Divide

4/11/2025

During Wednesday's Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) questioned Olivia Trusty, nominee to be a member of the Federal Communications Commission, about the rolling out of broadband initiatives.

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00:00Master Wicker. Also, you can go out and shoot skeet and then come back and play chess,

00:11but thank you very much. Well, let me direct my first question to Mr. Isaacman.

00:17You probably know that NASA has eight field centers, one of which is the John C. Stennis

00:23Space Center in Mississippi. The Stennis Space Center is home to NASA's largest rocket propulsion

00:32test site. If we didn't have that, we'd have to build another one. The Stennis Space Center also

00:39hosts a number of companies working on commercial space programs. The space center's infrastructure

00:45represents substantial government investment as well as private investments. So,

00:52the day after you're confirmed and sworn in, will you come to visit me in Mississippi at the

01:01Stennis Space Center? I will get there as soon as I possibly can, Senator. All right. Well,

01:08I think that's a fair answer. Now, Ms. Trustee, let's talk about the plan for broadband

01:15bill. We finally got that reported a few weeks ago, and you worked with members of this committee,

01:30even as a staff member for the Armed Services Committee, in getting some compromise language

01:37on the Plan for Broadband Act. Do we need it? And what accommodations did we make to get everybody

01:49on the same page? Senator, thank you so much. Take about a minute and a half. Okay. Thank you so

01:56much for the question. Thank you for your leadership on this issue. You know, interagency coordination is

02:01essential to closing the digital divide. I think as many members on this committee know, there are about

02:06130 broadband programs across 15 different agencies, and GAO has determined that those programs are

02:13fragmented and duplicative. And there's an opportunity to streamline, consolidate, and coalesce

02:20these programs so that the resources are better targeted to unserved areas so that we can get

02:24communication services to more rural, remote areas that lack connectivity right now, and expand and

02:30close the digital divide, or just close the digital divide, not expand it. And so I think the Plan for

02:36Broadband Act is the key to the solution. It creates a strategy that will help us to target these resources

02:43better to unserved communities so that everybody can fully participate in the global digital economy.

02:49And we had to accommodate high cost areas, tribal areas, and also do some compromising on the spending cap. So I do

03:03appreciate that. Let me ask then in the last two minutes. During COVID-19, the broadband across Europe

03:17suffered several disruptions. Did we have that kind of disruption in the United States?

03:24Or was there a difference? And why do you think things may have have turned out differently in

03:31Europe, as opposed to here in the United States?

03:35Thank you so much, Senator. I appreciate this question. You know, I think the reason why we did not face the same issues here

03:41during the COVID pandemic, as it relates to our internet networks, is because competition and innovation, a light touch

03:48regulatory framework we saw worked really well. We just have not seen the predicted harms materialize in the absence of

03:55more prescriptive legacy regulations. And so under your leadership, when I was on this committee, to ensure consumers were

04:02protected, even if competition and innovation fail, you set up a bipartisan net neutrality working group to put

04:09together bipartisan legislation to ensure that consumers were protected regardless, but that we had a modern

04:15framework. I thought that was a great example of how to move forward with our next generation networks and ensure that

04:22consumers continued to have access to critical connectivity services.

04:27Has there been any throttling or blocking in the United States in recent years?

04:34Senator, I'm not aware of any of the predicted harms materializing that were projected during this debate a couple of years ago.

04:42Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

04:46Thank you. Senator Kim.

04:48Yeah, thank you, Chair. Mr. Isaacman, I'd just like to start with you. I guess I just wanted a little more clarity about

04:54are you committed to having a permanent presence on the Moon?

04:59Are you committed to having a permanent presence on the Moon?

Roger Wicker Questions FCC Nom About Broadband Strategy Aimed At Closing The Digital Divide

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