Controversy
Wide disagreement over the nature and administration of the USF exists in telecommunications policy circles. Such disagreements fragment traditional partisan alliances in the United States Congress. In January 2007, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) sponsored a bill (the Universal Service for Americans Act) that would increase universal service tax base to include broadband ISPs and VoIP providers, in order to fund broadband deployment in rural and low-income regions of the country. This bill was referred to committee, but as no further action was taken on it by the 110th Congress, the bill never became law. Since then the only congressional action has been H.R. 176, introduced by Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH) on February 13, 2009, which states that, “in order to continue aggressive growth in our Nation's telecommunications and technology industries, the United States Government should 'Get Out of the Way and Stay Out of the Way'.” It is currently in committee.
Fears continue to abound about what such subsidies mean, and how it will affect telecommunications in the long run. Discussions continue over whether or not the USF should be used to provide services such as broadband internet access. Groups like the Keep USF Fair Coalition and the Ad Hoc Coalition of International Telecommunications Companies work to educate about such controversies, in addition to taking action when they feel that the FCC and Congress are overstepping their bounds.
Read more about this topic: Universal Service Fund
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“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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