D.C. Memo: Consumers' Research to SCOTUS: USF an 'Unbounded Historic Anomaly'
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USF: Taking a final stab before oral arguments next month at the Supreme Court, Consumers’ Research in a new brief faulted Congress for the unconstitutional funding design of the $8.1 billion Universal Service Fund. “Congress delegated power to the FCC to raise revenue to fund the USF, but Congress omitted the most important policy determination of all: “how much” to raise,” Consumers’ Research attorney R. Trent McCotter said in a 130-page filing on Feb. 11. “Unbounded by any statutory caps or rates, the USF’s revenue-raising mechanism is a historic anomaly at odds with 600 years of Anglo-American practice.” The USF supports Internet access in schools, libraries, and in high-cost rural areas. The high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on March 26 at 10 a.m. ET. The court has been asked to resolve whether Congress improperly delegated taxing power to the FCC and the Universal Service Administrative Co., which runs the USF for the agency. “Rather than fund this program with an accepted mechanism like an appropriation or fixed tax, Congress created an open-ended scheme that even the USF’s supporters have acknowledged is ‘unique’ in the country’s history, which itself should raise alarm bells,” McCotter’s filing said.
