78 Texas House Reps Press PUC to Shore Up State USF
More than half the Texas House urged the Public Utility Commission to take emergency action at their Friday meeting to sustain state USF through the PUC sunset review process in 2022-23. Commissioners should consider revisiting an earlier rejected staff proposal…
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to double the USF surcharge and broaden the contribution base to include VoIP providers, said Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D) and 77 other House members from both parties in a letter posted Monday. “We have reached a crisis,” they wrote. “While there are multiple bills filed or currently being drafted that seek to reform and modernize the USF these cannot take effect nor the necessary rulemaking completed quickly enough to mitigate the possibility of service disruption and loss of connectivity for communities in underserved areas.” No USF item appeared on the PUC’s agenda Monday. The agency declined to comment. Facing large reductions in state USF support, rural telcos sued the PUC last month (see 2101260046).