Congress Taking Another Look at USF Raid, Telecom Lobbyists Say
Congressional leaders have revived notions of raiding the Universal Service Fund to help close the nation’s budget deficit, telecom lobbyists told us Friday. The lobbyists were told that House GOP leaders are still weighing whether to use universal service cash to help balance the nation’s books once the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction completes its work.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Whether Congressional leaders pull the trigger, some telecom lobbyists consider it an act of war. In July, when the controversy first flared (CD July 14 p1), some telecom lobbyists with Republican ties considered calling in anti-tax advocates like Grover Norquist to pressure Congressional leaders on the question, a telecom official said. The lobbyists were assured that the matter was dead and the lobbyists dropped the matter. Now that USF is once again on the agenda, telcos will reach out to the anti-tax advocates, the telecom official said.
House Budget Committee Republicans said in a recent meeting with a wireless company lobbyist that the House is still eyeing USF for potential use in the budget cutting effort, lobbyists told us. No decision will be made until after the super committee finishes its work, the lobbyist said. The committee could consider the USF cuts next year as the budget process known as sequestration gets under way, the lobbyist said. If so, the access to USF would not take effect until Jan. 3, 2013, the lobbyist said. The House Budget Committee didn’t respond to a request for comment.
It doesn’t seem likely that the super committee will seek access to USF because it’s too complex an issue to deal with in such a short time and would not represent enough money to be “worth the hassle,” the telecom industry lobbyist said.
On Friday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski was asked about the controversy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s telecom committee. “I'm not aware that it’s a live debate,” he said. But he said that, while the commission doesn’t want to expand the Universal Service Fund, “we also don’t think that shrinking it back will create the jobs and the dollars we need.”
Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke, who chairs the Chamber’s telecom committee, said that the universal service fund is a customer fee and not a Congressional tax. “Congress would have a lot of work to do” before it could access the fund, Tauke said.
Nonetheless, the fact that telecom officials still have to deal with the controversy is troubling to them, Independent Telephone and Telecommunications Alliance lobbyist Paul Raak told us. One of the goals in telco lobbying has been to make clear that universal service is not only legally protected from Congressional raids, but that it is politically toxic even to consider it, he said. “It’s definitely upsetting,” Raak said. “Congressional leadership is punting on their real responsibility if they're using industry fees to close the debt.”
Officials on the super committee didn’t respond to requests for comment on Friday. But telecom lobbyists have been ramping up efforts to get Congressional hands off what telcos see as their cash. Last week, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield used part of her testimony on universal service reform to urge Senate Commerce Committee members to intervene with the super committee to preserve universal service cash.