Peter Welch

But, actually, I loved your testimony, but you are not reassuring me, because I am asking the 'how' question.

I mean, are we entitled to the same level of services in urban areas or not? That is the question.

So let's just say we agree on regulations because we don't want to make it more expensive, but there has got to be some money that goes into it without the rural America having to beg for everything.

If every dollar spent on needless regulation is a dollar that can't be spent on rural America.

The real issue here is, frankly, my skepticism that the investments that will be required for 5G will be made in rural areas.

I think President Trump is showing great energy in the Middle East and with Israel.

My question is was President Trump wrong in accommodating that request in not moving the embassy to Jerusalem?

I think all of us here are strong supporters of Israel, even if we have some disagreements about particular issues.

The funding issue that across the government with the new administration is all in doubt--25 percent cuts pretty much across the board.

How do you have confidence in the program if you're leaving it up to the applicants without review to make that decision?

There's a real funding question that is really active because of the policies of the Trump administration.

The concerns I have are, number one, it's very disruptive to make a move.

What I'd like to do is just lay out some of my concerns and then I have questions for each of you.

The continuity of this system is really important.

Energy Star has had 25 years of a fantastic success. It has done a lot since 1992 on a voluntary program, saving consumers and businesses $430 billion on their utility bills and reducing carbon emissions by 3 billion metric tons.

The answer to me would be that our committee engages in addressing the waste in healthcare, including high prescription drug costs, rather than take it out of good programs.

Let me ask one question on that. The last trip I took to Afghanistan, we had some of our Justice Department folks who were there, and they were teaching Afghan Government officials about how to detect corruption.

Your office has been the 'just the facts, ma'am' approach to what is happening to taxpayer dollars.

I believe that it has allowed those who believe the policy in Afghanistan is the right direction but it is not necessarily being implemented right.

We need a date certain. I mean time is marching on. This story shocked folks and rightly so because everybody in America is just devastated by what is happening to friends, to family, to loved ones.

All of us on this panel were involved in hearings on the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act and it passed out of this committee unanimously.

The vast majority of them are going to come home in a body bag.

Let me just say, as a rural person, I am urging you and the industry to find a way to protect that broadband signal but to get broadband into rural areas. It has got to happen.

Rural America is being left behind. And the promise of the 1996 act has been broken.

Why change the existing regime where everyone agrees there is an open internet?