NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecom Alliance, the three largest...
NTCA, OPASTCO and the Western Telecom Alliance, the three largest rural telecom associations, sent letters to Congressional Commerce Committee leaders asking them to urge the budget super committee to keep its hands off the Universal Service Fund, the associations said…
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in a news release. In July, news that House Republicans were considering using the fund to close the budget gap set off a panic among telcos and nearly disrupted the negotiations that resulted in the incumbent-backed ABC plan (CD July 14 p1). The crisis passed, but telecom lobbyists are worried that Congress, having lit upon the idea once, will come back to it. In telecom officials’ minds, the funds aren’t appropriated by Congress and therefore can’t be dipped into by Congress. “Our nation must not take private monies to fund public debt,” OPASTCO President John Rose said in a news release. “USF is used to build and sustain our country’s robust communications infrastructure. Greater economic damage will occur in the long run, in the attempt to cut the deficit in the short-term."