WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission last week adopted rules meant to strengthen the E-rate portion of the universal-service program.
“The FCC is seeking to make the administration of the schools and libraries program as straightforward as possible for participants, while also ensuring the continued integrity of the program by strengthening the procedural safeguards,” said the commission. The rules prohibit the transfer of equipment purchased with E-rate funds for three years and limit the support for internal connections to twice every five years excluding maintenance costs.
The FCC will become more formally involved in the development of the list of eligible equipment and services. The Universal Service Administrative Co. will be required to submit a list to the commission by a certain date each year, and this list then will be put out for public comment and completed. The current procedure is for USAC to post the list to a Web site.
E-rate has awarded more than $9.8 billion in funding since 1997. It was a controversial portion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and many fiscal conservatives still deride it as the Gore Tax after its major proponent, Al Gore, who was vice president at the time.
About $420 million in unused money from 1999, 2000 and 2001 will be awarded shortly, said the FCC. Working to eliminate the waste, fraud and abuse in the E-rate program may help to squelch the growing chorus of criticism against the program.
Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, and James Greenwood (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee, have subpoenaed documents from USAC and various companies. Now they want the General Accounting Office to conduct a further investigation in preparation for hearings early next year.
