Federal appeals court upheld district court decision striking down Wis. state e-rate program as violating constitutional separation of church and state. Three-judge panel of 7th U.S. Appeals Court, Chicago, said Wis. program for supplementing federal e-rate program was unlawful because it gave money directly to religious schools without any restrictions to ensure they didn’t use funds for religious support. Court in case brought by Freedom from Religion Foundation (Case 99-2850) said both programs taxed telecom service providers. But federal program, court said, compensated carriers from federal universal service fund for e- rate discounts to schools, so schools never actually received federal funds. Court also faulted state program for lacking any rules to ensure that state e-rate subsidies given to parochial and other religiously affiliated schools weren’t used to benefit campus religious facilities such as chapels or religious classrooms.
Interagency task force led by Justice Dept. April 15 will publish final revised standards on federal appraisal of public lands, action that telecom and energy interests said could increase cost of using rights-of-way (ROW). They said such action also would violate restrictions last year set in 2001 Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. Edison Electric Institute (EEI) spokesman said task force, known as Interagency Land Acquisition Conference, was attempting to slip under Congressional radar by publishing revised govt. land appraisal desk guide, rather than formal regulations, enabling federal appraisers to assess inflated costs on companies seeking to deploy fiber and other utility infrastructure on public land.
FCC declined to specify what Internet security measures schools and libraries must use in order to continue to receive E- rate funding for Internet facilities through Universal Service Fund (USF). In decision released Thurs., Commission said local communities should select appropriate security measures, schools and libraries didn’t have to certify the effectiveness of measures and they wouldn’t be liable if measures failed.
AT&T said it was “encouraged” that FCC shortened lag time between carrier’s accrual of revenues and assessment of its Universal Service Fund (USF) contribution (CD March 15 p5). However, that won’t solve problem entirely, carrier said. AT&T said it looked forward to participating in FCC’s upcoming proceeding to consider ways to simplify entire USF cost recovery process and eliminate lag entirely.
FCC denied petition by Operator Communications (Oncor) for forbearance of rule requiring that contributions to federal universal service fund be based on carrier revenue from prior year. Oncor contended that basing contributions on prior-year revenue harmed carriers with declining revenue. It asked FCC to forbear from assessing revenues for years 1998-2000 and then reassess contribution based on actual revenue for those years. Commission said requested action would give unfair advantage to carriers with declining revenue. FCC Comr. Furchtgott-Roth issued statement agreeing with FCC’s denial but emphasizing that problem raised by Oncor was serious: “Because carriers contribute to the universal service fund based on the prior year’s revenues, those carriers whose revenues have declined find themselves paying a higher percentage of their current revenues… than do carriers with stable or increasing revenues.” He said end-user surcharges could be “promising solution.”