New Parallel Congressional and FCC Efforts To Change USF; This Time They Are Not Crying "Wolf"

(Excerpts from this week's Independent Report)

The U.S. Congress and the FCC have now turned their attention on USF reform as part of two separate, but parallel tracks that may lead eventually to a major restructuring of USF.

Although USF reform has been on the agenda of the Congress and the FCC for many years now, it appears that the new focus on broadband may be the catalyst to make USF reform a reality.

The House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet held a hearing last week on the “discussion” draft of new USF reform legislation authored by Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA), the subcommittee chairman, and Representative Lee Terry (R-NE). When they released the discussion draft just two weeks ago, both congressmen reported that the draft legislation was a “consensus” measure and enjoyed broad support. However, the subcommittee hearing produced no consensus despite Boucher’s best efforts to wrap his controversial legislation in the “consensus” label.
(Click here to read more and view this week's Report.)