Sen. Ted Cruz Offers Eight Principles for USF Reform

On March 6, Sen. Ted Cruz released a white paper, "Protecting Americans from Hidden FCC Tax Hikes: A Blueprint for Universal Service Fund Reform." Credit due to Sen. Cruz for addressing the need for reforming the USF Program. The white paper puts forth Sen. Cruz's priorities for overhauling and updating the USF system to work more efficiently at connecting those who need it while protecting consumers from over taxation and wasteful spending. Sen. Cruz's white paper includes a list of eight principles to guide USF reform that merit careful attention. Those principles also are provided in a press release:

1. Put Congress back in the driver’s seat;
2. Move social welfare spending on-budget;
3. Eliminate program duplication;
4. Stop subsidizing networks that face unsubsidized competition;
5. Do not subsidize Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-funded (IIJA) networks’ ongoing operational costs;
6. Target low-income subsidies to those who truly need them;
7. Ensure E-Rate is truly improving education and not aggravating kids’ screen addictions;
8. Establish better controls to stop waste, fraud, and abuse.

Among other things, Sen. Cruz's white paper insists that USF distribution reform should come before contribution reform, or else the program will continue to expand and further burden consumers. It also addresses the FCC's recent expansion of the Lifeline program to include subsidies for Wi-Fi equipment on public school buses. Free State Foundation President Randolph May and I address this subject in our February 2024 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "FCC's School Bus Wi-Fi Subsidy Lacks Statutory Support."

 

USF reform will be one of the topics to be discussed at FSF's Sixteenth Annual Policy Conference – #FSFConf16 – which will take place in Washington DC on March 12. There still is time to register online.