Senate Committee Approves FCC Budget, Chides USF Management
The Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday approved a bill recommending $341 million for the FY 2009 FCC budget. It also admonished the agency for inadequate oversight of the universal program. The FCC needs to do a better job with the program, the committee said. Members also ordered the FCC to report on the feasibility of a broadcast “code of conduct” for foul language, sexual content and violence. They also sought a study of commercially supported broadcasting on public school buses.
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The committee acted as a new GAO report questioned commission oversight of the high-cost fund, saying “disparities” exist in carrier support in rural areas. Requested by the House Commerce Committee, the report said the program suffers from inadequate oversight. “Proper management of the Universal Service Fund is critical and apparently has been sorely lacking,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., in a statement releasing the report.
Ranking Committee member Joe Barton, R-Texas, cited bipartisan recognition that the fund is “dreadfully inefficient,” and said he'd be happy to abolish it. “We can either do something about it or just keep wasting people’s money,” Barton said. “But until that glorious day arrives, it seems reasonable to reform the offender if we can … GAO has some good ideas for whipping USF into shape, and I think that with some continued bipartisan effort, we can prod the FCC into adopting them.”
“Lack of proper oversight” at the FCC over universal service programs must be addressed, the appropriations committee said in its report on the bill. It cited Government Accountability Office data on waste, fraud and abuse in the schools and libraries (E-rate) and rural health programs. The FCC Inspector General said the E-rate program had an error payment rate of 13 percent and rural health 20 percent, “far exceeding the government-wide average payment error rate of 3 percent and the 2.5 percent threshold that the Office of Management and Budget sets for a program to be ‘at risk,'” the committee said.
The FCC must follow IG and GAO requests that it “assume greater managerial control over these important programs, including improvement of the improper payment rates,” the committee report said. The bill includes $25.4 million for the FCC IG to do “limited audits of USF,” up $4 million over FY 2008 funding. The committee proposes to exempt the FCC from federal Anti-Deficiency Act rules until Dec. 31, 2009. The provision is needed so the E-rate program can run without disruption of payments, the committee said.
The committee wants to bar the FCC from implementing a proposal to limiting universal support to one line, an idea from the Joint Board and state utility commissioners. “This would be harmful to small businesses, especially in rural areas, which need a second line for a fax or for other business purposes,” the report said.
The committee asked the FCC to report to Congress within 180 days on whether adopting a “broadcast code of conduct … would protect against the further erosion of broadcasting standards.” Overall sexual content, foul language and violence have “greatly increased over the past decade,” the committee said.
The committee also wants to study commercial proposals for broadcasting radio and TV programs on specially-equipped school buses. It asked for a report to Congress within 180 days on the type of content, whether it’s “age appropriate … and in the public interest.” The report is to discuss the “amount and nature of commercial advertising to be broadcast.”
The committee worries about first responders’ trouble getting communications licenses along the northern border. The committee directed the FCC and the Department of Homeland Security to report on the efficacy of federal guidance to states on interoperable emergency communications networks, coordination with Canada and suggestions for avoiding problems attaining that coordination.
The bill includes $3 million for a competitive grant program for state broadband data and development. “Access to high-speed Internet service is a critical element of infrastructure affecting economic development, health, education and competitiveness,” the committee said. Grants would be limited to non-profits, with recipients required to match grant allocations with at least 20 percent of their own money, none of which could be federal. Recipients also must document their experience working with state and private sector partners, the report said.
Grant funds would go to set up local technology planning teams, to create programs to improve computer ownership and Internet access for unserved or underserved areas and to map broadband user at the census block level.