FCC Chairman Pai Gets Political on USF Funding Cuts

When the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC) issued budget figures for the Universal Service Fund (USF) high-cost program, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai took the opportunity to blame USF funding cuts on the previous administration and attempted to drum up support for alternative budget control mechanisms proposed under his administration. The USAC budget figures show forecasted demand for rate of return carriers for the high-cost program for 2018-2019 exceeding the budget by 15.52%. The demand for support (which pays some of the costs of providing broadband in high-cost areas) is $1.465 billion. But the budget is just $1.237 billion after budget control mechanisms are implemented. Chairman Pai said he hoped colleagues would “support my efforts to take action in the coming months” on reforming USF high-cost budget control mechanisms. It’s worth noting that the additional $180 million the FCC allocated to the rate of return carriers’ high-cost USF program for the current year was part of a total of $540 million that the FCC made available to help cover forecast USF budget shortfalls for several years. Based on current projections, however, that money wouldn’t last long.