Boucher Says USF Overhaul is Congress’ Job

A Universal Service Fund revamp passed by Congress would do more than an FCC overhaul of the fund, and would leapfrog possible limits to the commission’s legal authority, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., at a National Journal event Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The National Broadband Plan suggests an overhaul that wouldn’t require legislation. A USF bill may be passable on a bipartisan basis, said Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. Both legislators reaffirmed support for the FCC plan, but Stearns said he has concerns about how the FCC sees its role in spurring the marketplace.

The House Communications Subcommittee may postpone their broadband plan hearing Thursday because several members are “weary” from the health care debate and are pushing leadership to give them an early recess Wednesday night, said Boucher. If that happens, the hearing will be postponed until April when Congress returns, he said. The subcommittee invited all five FCC commissioners to testify on the broadband plan. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski had been scheduled to speak at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Boucher said “there are some questions about the extent of FCC authority to implement even the elements of the plan it recommended” for USF. In the “very near future,” the chairman hopes to mark up a bill by himself and Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., which is backed by rural and urban broadband providers, Boucher said. He hasn’t introduced the legislation yet. The Boucher-Terry bill “goes beyond” what the commission is proposing, he said. The broadband plan only suggests transitioning USF to broadband, a concept that’s consistent with what Boucher is proposing, he said. The plan’s similarities to legislation are not coincidence, he added. “We've been coordinating with the commission over the course of the last year … and the core recommendation that we made is that we have this transition of the high-cost fund from supporting basic telephone service to supporting broadband.”

Boucher listed several ways his legislation would do more than an FCC-led USF revamp. For example, the bill includes rules to stop traffic pumping, Boucher said. The bill would require clear identification of the originator of all long-distance traffic “so that in the end the person who is terminating the traffic on the network knows who to send the bills to.” The bill would not overhaul intercarrier compensation, but would set up a mechanism whereby carriers that lose revenue after any FCC revamp could recoup their losses through USF. “I don’t think the commission … could do these things today,” he said.

Stearns believes bipartisan legislation is possible on USF, privacy and spectrum, he said. “It’s just a question … of finding the time to do it,” because legislators are “in campaign mode now,” he said. Stearns reaffirmed general support for the broadband plan, saying he was particularly glad it didn’t recommend making network neutrality rules. But the Republican doesn’t plan to give the FCC a free pass at his subcommittee’s hearing: “I'm just going to caution the commissioners to think in terms of allowing the market as much as possible to work.” Stearns wants “to understand where the FCC sees their role,” he said. He also plans to follow up on a letter he sent recently to Genachowski seeking more transparency on who wrote the plan and how much money was spent developing it, and asking why the FCC needed extra time to finish the plan, he said.

Boucher said he planned to talk privately with Stearns later that morning about the FCC’s recommendation to auction the D-Block. Boucher wanted to discuss “ways that we might address those concerns legislatively, and perhaps direct the commission to engage in a D-Block auction and simply put that out for a commercial bidder,” he said. The revenue from the auction would help build a national public safety network, but Boucher also backs the FCC’s recommendation to find an additional $12 to $16 billion through appropriations. Stearns backs auctioning the D-Block, as well as reallocating broadcaster spectrum as long as broadcasters are adequately compensated, the ranking member said.

The Senate Commerce Committee canceled its broadband plan hearing Tuesday. The committee didn’t comment on the reasons by our deadline, or announce a new time for the hearing. But Hill staffers said there was a dispute between parties on a health care legislation reconciliation that ended all Senate committee hearings that afternoon. Under Senate rules, the majority must get the minority’s consent before any hearing can be held.

Genachowski believes the plan “will deliver extremely significant benefits over time, as broadband is harnessed for job creation and new investment,” he said in testimony prepared for the hearing. The plan is “non-ideological and nonpartisan,” he said. It’s also “fiscally prudent,” because it recognizes “the overwhelming primacy of private investment in achieving our national broadband goals,” and suggests spectrum auctions “that could generate billions in revenue, exceeding any funding or investments that the plan suggests for Congressional consideration,” he said.