How USF Is Supported Must Change, Carr Tells FSF
On the eve of a key U.S. Supreme Court case concerning the USF's future, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said questions remain about the program's survival. How USF is paid for has to change, Carr told a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. He also said he supports President Donald Trump's dismissal of Democratic commissioners at the FTC.
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SCOTUS on Wednesday will hear FCC v. Consumers’ Research, a case challenging the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' 9-7 en banc decision (see 2503190065), which found that the USF contribution factor is a "misbegotten tax.” It's “way in excess of 30%,” Carr said, and “I just don’t think that is a sustainable trajectory.” Policymakers must “step back and ask some fundamental questions.”
The U.S. Constitution is “crystal clear” on the authority of a president over independent commissions like the FCC, Carr said. “I’ve got no doubt about the president’s power to remove various officials.” FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson had a similar take during the conference (see 2503250039).
The Communications Act, unlike other authorizing legislation, doesn’t have “for cause” removal provisions, Carr said. “The president can remove commissioners without cause." The chairman said the FCC needs to work on those issues that are important to Trump. “It’s his administration that he’s running." Carr said he expects litigation and court decisions will resolve questions about presidential authority.
“The most precious commodity for a chair is time,” Carr said, adding that every former commission chair whom he has spoken with has said the same thing: “I wish I had just done one more thing. I wish I had gone a little bit more aggressive on this issue area.” Two months into the second Trump administration, “we’ve been running an extremely aggressive agenda.”
Restoring FCC auction authority is “vital to our national security interests, to our economic growth, to jobs,” Carr said. “It’s one of the most important things that Congress is working on right now.” He praised Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for working to create a midband spectrum “pipeline.” AI won’t work unless carriers get access to more midband spectrum, Carr said. The U.S. must defeat China in the 6G “race” but is falling behind on spectrum, he added.
Carr said the U.S. appears “drastically out of balance” on how midband spectrum is allocated, with about 65% in the hands of the federal government, 25% dedicated to unlicensed use and “a very small percentage” available for high-power licensed use. “That’s not the right balance.”
Carr said many of the things the FCC is doing on his watch haven’t gotten that much attention. Two examples he cited: The agency has started accelerating work by the Space Bureau and is making it easier to deactivate old copper wires (see 2503200056). In addition, he mentioned FCC efforts to close loopholes allowing Chinese companies to remain active in the U.S. (see 2503210038).
“We need to reinvigorate the FCC’s approach to media regulation,” Carr said, listing other top priorities. “We need to continue to work to promote free speech and rein in a lot of the excesses of large technology companies," which he said will be a likely focus of the DOJ, FCC and FTC under Trump.
Also at the conference, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington noted how the communications marketplace changes, with streaming subscriptions outpacing cable subscriptions for the first time in 2023. “We live in a transformative age,” he said. “We’re seeing telecommunications increasingly move away from merely person to person and increasingly into machine-to-machine industrial applications.”
Simington warned of the negative effect fraud is having on communications. “If there’s one thing that Americans don’t trust, it’s the integrity of their data,” he said. “All of us have been hacked in some capacity,” which “leads to low expectations about automation and … using data in the world around us.” Anything wireless “is intrinsically an open attack surface.”
Another familiar face was also on hand. “I’m baaack,” said former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, soon-to-be president and CEO of CTIA. Pai, who grew up in rural Kansas, said that when his family got satellite TV in the 1980s, “the whole world was opened to me.” He admitted that being FCC chair was more difficult than he realized initially. “Yes, you get to set the agenda … and you get a lot of the acclaim that comes with that, but just managing an agency of that size is very challenging,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it was fun to be the chair.”
Concerning firing independent commissioners, Pai conceded, “When I was in office" during the first Trump administration, "obviously it was a somewhat different time.” The White House “was actively helpful” in some of the issues the FCC tackled back then, including 5G, Pai said.