The slumping economy increases pressure on Congress to examine th...
The slumping economy increases pressure on Congress to examine the universal service program, which comes before Congress next week, said Larry Darby, former FCC Common Carrier Bureau chief and policy expert with the American Consumer Institute. There will be…
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“enormous pressure” to make minimal changes to the program. The current system is “full of perverse incentives that encourage waste and inefficiency, from avoiding responsibility for contributing to the fund to a stampede of firms wanting access to draw from it,” Darby said. Other than goodwill, beneficiaries of the fund have no incentive to make efficient use of the money, he said. The commission seems “incapable” of enacting serious reform, and stakes are “enormous as billions of ‘free money’ rides on the FCC decisions,” he said.