Amy Klobuchar

I think I will start with you, Dr. Kulick, as you sort of--I like the drama about the juncture in time and how it is that our Committee really has an obligation for competition's sake to get involved in this.

So what you are saying is, you know, you acknowledge there is competition, but once the standards are set and someone is fortunate enough to have their patent included in a standard, then you see lessening competition, which has an effect…

Last year, in a case now on appeal before the Federal Circuit, Judge Posner in the Seventh Circuit... issued an opinion holding that injunctive relief is not available to holders of FRAND-encumbered patents.

I think we also know that Senator Leahy is working on this, our Chairman, and as has been mentioned, Senator Schumer, Senator Cornyn, and a number of other people are interested in this issue, in addition to Senator Lee and myself.

Our job up here is to make sure there is competition, but it is to make sure there is competition so it is good for the people of this country and good for consumers.

I think it is critically important. That is why I wrote the letter.

Senator Schumer came in and talked about patent trolls or, as you like to call them, 'patent assertion entities.'

I think the most important thing that Congress and/or the FCC can do is to make sure that rural residents get their calls completed.

I think we know it has not expanded as rapidly as we had hoped even though there have been improvements.

I think having this issue hang out there is difficult.

I appreciated the support USTelecom has given to the bill that I have with Senator Graham and Senator Schumer and Senator Hoeven, which makes it an explicit Federal crime to steal metal from critical infrastructure.

Copper is still valuable in the broadband network.

I have introduced a resolution with Senator Fischer urging the FCC to act expeditiously on call completion problems to rural America.

I applaud that but the problems still persist.

I cannot tell you the number of businesses that have told me anecdotally that their customers told them that the calls were dropped.

Last year, General Keith Alexander, the head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, said that they represent the largest transfer of wealth in human history.

I even got so desperate that I got the SEC--and now it is law--to say that every time anybody is hacked into, they have to report that to the SEC and the SEC has to put it on its Web site as a way of informing their shareholders that they…

We have people right up here, including Representative Delaney, and Senator Warner, and others who are devoted to getting something done on the infrastructure bank part of this.

Ultimately, this is about strengthening our economy. America must be a country that makes stuff again, that invents things, that exports to the world.

What we need now are smart, targeted solutions to ensure our nation's infrastructure is safe, strong and efficient.

I want to thank everyone for being here this morning to discuss the critical need to strengthen and improve our nation's infrastructure system.

I think people are open to looking at it again, but the rate has to be right so it actually brings in the funding that we would need.

We truly believe that you have to invest at the same time; that it is not exclusive.

Eighty years ago the Public Works Administration bill was signed by President Roosevelt and passed by the Congress.

We certainly need bipartisan solutions to get this done.