I often criticize FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski for what I
see as actions that are unduly regulatory. But I have just read reports in Communications Daily [subscription
required] and TR Daily [subscription
required] regarding the briefs the FCC filed yesterday in the U. S. Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Doing so reminded me that Chairman Genachowski
deserves considerable credit for standing fast on his efforts to reform the
Universal Service Fund.
I would have gone even further in reducing, over time, the
size of the unrestrained subsidies provided to rural telephone companies.
Nevertheless, under Chairman Genachowski's leadership, the FCC did implement changes to
the universal service program that are intended to make it operate more
efficiently and economically than it has in the past. Not surprisingly, since
adoption of the order implementing the changes, the some rural telco subsidy recipients have
fought tooth and nail to overturn the USF reforms – and to retain their
subsidies without any reduction.
It would be a shame to go backwards now. Chairman
Genachowski deserves credit for continuing to defend the modest reforms, and
for continuing to explain in court and in Congress why it is in the interest of
consumers and competition, if not the subsidy recipients, that the reforms be
implemented.
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