Consumers’ Research Again Asks FCC to Zero Out USF Contribution Factor
Consumers’ Research and its allies made additional arguments at the FCC for why the agency should zero out the USF contribution factor for Q4 (see 2508110021), despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision that the factor is constitutional (see 2506270054).
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The FCC lacks statutory authority to appoint the Universal Service Administrative Co. “as the permanent administrator of the USF, which means USAC cannot collect or spend USF moneys for the challenged quarter,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 96-45. SCOTUS “held that the involvement of USAC in determining the Contribution Factor did not violate Article I private nondelegation principles, but the Court did not address the separate argument … that USAC’s involvement in collecting and spending money on the back end amounts to an unconstitutional delegation of Article II executive powers,” it said. “It does, and that warrants setting the Contribution Factor at 0.000.”
In a notice in Tuesday’s Daily Digest, the FCC announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for Q4 will be 38.1%. The Wireline Bureau directed USAC to apply $100 million in unused E-rate program funds to offset the $628.7 million projected demand for the quarter.