WASHINGTON-Rep. George Gekas (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law, last week said the schools and libraries Internet program is possibly wasting taxpayer dollars on unnecessary regional training workshops and outreach.
“It seems absurd that any program should be so complicated as to require two-day training sessions on filling out forms” and “remarkable … that a subsidy program would need much in the way of `outreach,’ ” stated Gekas and Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) in a letter last Wednesday to Universal Service Administrative Co. head Cheryl Parrino.
The wireless industry complains the Federal Communications Commission’s universal-service rules, which include the congressionally mandated schools and libraries discount Internet program, unfairly burden carriers with costs and unduly restricts their access to subsidies that go toward ensuring service for rural and high-cost subscribers.
The mostly Republican criticism of the FCC’s education, or E-rate, Internet program could give the wireless industry better leverage to secure rule changes they seek.
“One of the first questions that the GAO (General Accounting Office) asked during their investigation of the schools and libraries program was what was the extent and content of our outreach and educational efforts to help applicants understand rules of the program,” said a USAC spokeswoman.
GAO did not find anything wrong with its outreach and educational activities, the spokeswoman said, noting that in 1997 the FCC ordered such activities to be part of the schools and libraries’ charter.
The Gekas letter follows a Sept. 16 memorandum he received from FCC member Harold Furchtgott-Roth in which the commissioner concluded the FCC’s interpretation of Internet services available under the program does not square with a recent federal court ruling.
Gekas and Hayworth, sponsors of the Taxpayer’s Defense Act, asked Parrino for answers by Oct. 22 on a series of questions on E-rate workshops being held throughout the country this fall and on the schools and libraries outreach activities.
Meantime, a Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation official urged Congress last week to overhaul the E-rate program.
“The 1996 Telecommunications Act did not give the Federal Communications Commission the power to establish or increase taxes,” stated Kent Lassman, CSE’s director of technology and communications, in testimony delivered to the House telecommunications subcommittee. “In fact, had the act attempted to delegate that power, it would have been unconstitutional.”
