On October 15, 2019, an ex parte comment was filed by representatives from Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute, the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Free Press, and the National Consumer Law Center detailing meetings with FCC staff regarding a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a budget cap for the Universal Service Fund.
Stating opposition to caps on the Fund, the groups assert that the proposal “runs contrary to the Chairman’s stated goal of closing the digital divide and the agency’s congressionally mandated universal service mission” and that “each of the four universal service programs already has a mechanism in place to control costs. Establishing an additional bureaucratic barrier to clear before the FCC can act to direct USF support would be unnecessary, create uncertainty regarding whether the USF can achieve its congressionally mandated mission, and merely serve as a stumbling block to the agency’s efforts to close the digital divide.”
The groups’ ex parte may be accessed here.
