A number of Hill letters to the FCC in recent...

are protected. They urged the FCC to ensure that carriers demonstrate a need for any increase in the monthly bills of telephone customers as result of the reform. Doyle and Eshoo also said the agency should pursue technologically neutral solutions to encourage efficiency and strong competition among support recipients. The two emphasized that the FCC’s National Broadband Plan urges the agency to pursue special access reform in concert with reforming USF and ICC. Meanwhile, members of the House from Florida urged the agency to enact USF revamp that places “meaningful and enforceable” controls on the size of the fund, said 10 lawmakers in a joint letter. It’s time for the FCC to consider the input from all parties and implement USF and intercarrier compensation rules that “stringently control costs, encourage competition, reduce arbitrage, and focus the fund on serving rural consumers who need it,” said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. The commission should set an annual spending cap of $4.5 billion for high-cost support, said a joint letter signed by 14 lawmakers including Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Subsidies in areas served by unsubsidized providers should be eliminated, the joint letter said. High-cost support should be determined through the use of technology-neutral market-based mechanisms, it said.