WASHINGTON-The House Commerce Committee is drafting a telecom reform bill to be circulated among lawmakers and the telecom industry in May, but the document will not deal with universal-service reform, a key staffer told a gathering of telecom lawyers last week.
“The bill being drafted will not address universal service. The committee wants to address universal service in a bill later this year,” said Brendon Weiss, legislative director for Vito Fosella (R-N.Y.).
Weiss replaced Bud Albright, chief of staff for the House Commerce Committee, at a continuing legal education seminar sponsored by the Federal Communications Bar Association. When making his remarks, Weiss read from notes given to him by committee staff.
“My understanding is that they are going to try and keep them completely separate,” said Weiss during the question-and-answer session regarding whether the House Commerce bill will include universal service.
Weiss said that “the big four-the name the staffers have given themselves” are negotiating on draft language with the goal of having the chairmen and ranking members of the House telecom subcommittee and House Commerce Committee co-sponsor the bill.
“Everything is subject to being pulled or added at the last minute,” said Weiss.
The universal-service fund was created to allow rural Americans to have comparable services at comparable rates to those paid by people living in cities. The system was set up in the 1930s to bring telecommunications services to high-cost areas by using long-distance revenues. The system was complicated when the Bell system broke up in the 1980s, but was codified into the Communications Act in 1996. Congress at that time made it possible for all telecom providers to receive funds if they served high-cost areas.
Now with many consumers using mobile phones and Internet telephony to make long-distance calls, less money is going into the system at the same time that additional providers-mostly wireless carriers that have taken the second-line business from wireline carriers-have begun taking money from the fund.
Leaving universal service out of telecom reform surprised most in the room, especially since it is widely believed that the Senate telecom-reform bill will focus on universal service.
“I think it will be difficult to keep universal service out of the discussion,” said Cheryl Leanza of the National League of Cities.
Ultimately, it is believed the House will include some universal-service language in its bill so it will not be subject to whatever the Senate does.
Identical bills must be passed by both houses. Traditionally if only one body’s version of a bill deals with an issue then that language is included in the final version. Because the House is seen as being anti-universal service and the Senate being pro-universal service, it is unlikely the House would want to accept the Senate’s language.
The differences between the House and the Senate on universal service are stark. Some in the House, including Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Commerce Committee, have openly questioned the need for universal service with the widespread deployment of wireless and Voice over Internet Protocol. The leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee both have ties to hard-to-serve areas. Republican Ted Stevens is from Alaska; Democrat Daniel Inouye is from Hawaii.
“One thing that Sen. Stevens has held fast to is that he believes that more people need to be paying in, and it needs to continue,” said Ward White, vice president of federal regulations for BellSouth Corp.
White also believes Stevens wants to make it explicit that deployment of broadband is covered by the universal-service fund.
Meanwhile, state regulators have indicated that changes to both the intercarrier-compensation regime and universal service are necessary.
If Congress does wade into the intercarrier compensation area-and White does not believe this will happen in actual legislation-it will have to deal with universal service, said Leanza. “When you deal with intercarrier compensation, then it will impact universal service, and the whole thing starts to unravel,” said Leanza.
