FCC Hears It From Hill on Lifeline ETCs

Sen Deb Fischer (R-NE), joined by two dozen of her Senate and House colleagues, wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler to say they are concerned about the FCC's reform of the Universal Service Fund Lifeline subsidy, which supports advanced communications service to low-income residents.

They-nine Senators and 15 House members, all Republicans except for one, Rep. Brad Ashford (D-NE) -- say they are specifically troubled by the FCC's preemption of the role of state commissions in verifying eligibility. In the letter, the legislators take issue with what they say is the FCC's decision to "drastically curtail the important state role in preventing waste, fraud, and abuse." The FCC is proposing to create a new eligible telecommunications carrier (ETC) designation for broadband providers--it is migrating the subsidy from phone to broadband--to be certified by the FCC. But the legislators say that expressly preempting state public service commissions from the designation process runs counter to the Communications Act and language that gives those commissions primary designation authority. "The FCC may only perform this function where a carrier is not subject to the jurisdiction of a state commission," they argue, so Congress, not the FCC, would have to change that.