Rodgers, Cruz Oppose FCC Proposal to Expand E-rate to Fund School Bus Wi-Fi, Hot Spots
House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, declared their “strong opposition” Monday to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s “Learning Without Limits” proposal to allow E-rate program money to pay for Wi-Fi…
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on school buses and for hot spots (see 2306260029). The GOP leaders urged Rosenworcel and the other three FCC commissioners to “get E-rate’s house in order before seeking new ways to spend consumers’ hard-earned money,” citing “deep-seated problems” with the program they believe is “full of waste, fraud, and abuse.” Cruz asked the GAO in May to investigate the FCC's administration of USF programs (see 2305110066). “Not only does” Rosenworcel’s proposal “violate federal law, but it would also duplicate programs across the federal government, directly contradicting FCC commissioners’ repeated commitments to streamlining federal broadband funding,” Cruz and Rodgers said in letters to the FCC chairwoman and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks. The lawmakers argued Communications Act Section 254 confines the FCC’s E-rate authority “to classrooms and libraries” and doesn’t extend to “off-campus use of eligible” services. “Expanding E-Rate to fund equipment like Wi-Fi hotspots would break with the statute and longstanding precedent” that USF “dollars, which fund the E-Rate program, may only be used to fund services and not consumer devices,” Cruz and Rodgers said. Attempting to transform E-rate “into a consumer broadband subsidy program” means the FCC “would duplicate other taxpayer-funded programs,” including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-mandated $14.2 billion affordable connectivity program. E-rate “is not directly funded by Congress and lacks congressionally mandated safeguards,” the Republicans said: There’s also “no telling how much USF fees could increase to pay for” such a “dramatic” expansion of E-rate. They asked all four commissioners to respond by Aug. 14. The FCC didn’t comment.