Boucher Touts His Universal Service Reform Plan

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) said that his proposed legislation to overhaul the Universal Service Fund would go further than what the Federal Communications Commission could do under its current authority.

The FCC devoted a central piece of the national broadband plan last week to recommendations for the future of the fund, which subsidizes telephone services to low-income and rural homes. The plan proposes to pivot the fund toward subsidizing broadband access, as does a measure Rep Boucher and Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) released in draft form in November. Chairman Boucher said his draft measure would go further than the FCC plan. In particular, he pointed to the bill's effort to prevent "traffic pumping schemes," a practice in which phone companies inflate their call volume to boost the inter-carrier compensation fees they collect. "I don't think the commission under its current authorities could do [all that the legislation] could do today," he said.