Framing the future of universal service

Congress is finally demanding action on the Universal Service Fund. For well over a decade, a growing chorus of voices have criticized the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) universal service program. Scholars, the Government Accountability Office, and the commission itself have examined the murky, off-budget program’s reputation for waste, fraud, and abuse. In many ways, the program is trapped by its telephone-era roots and, shackled by an arcane statutory funding mechanism, has struggled to adjust to the broadband era. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) marks an inflection point in this debate. The bill included the single largest federal appropriation ever for broadband investment — $65 billion, designed to promote buildout and mitigate affordability issues. Coupled with this commitment, Congress ordered the FCC to produce a report on the future of universal service. The report, due in August, represents an opportunity to fundamentally reconsider the program in light of modern developments, including the game-changing appropriation.

[Daniel Lyons is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on telecommunications and internet regulation. He is also a professor at Boston College Law School.]