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FCC Internet Grant Decision Riles Congress
museumpeace writes "The FCC, with no advance notice to congress, effectively made substantial cuts in the funding for the program that subsidizes provision of internet connection to libraries and poorer school systems. This was not small potatoes: 2.5 billion buys a lot of connection. [confess your real identity to them and the ]
NYTimes will tell you all about the uproar. The ostensible cause according to FCC officials, who annoyed congressfolk by dodging the inquiry, was an attemp to control possible fraudulent spending in the program but FCC actions then went far beyond fiscal oversight. FCC deference to phone companies by way of reducing the amount they were required to contribute to the program has compounded its financial woes according to Technology Review which also covered the story. [and which will also require a "free" registration]"
The E-Rate Program was incredibly corrupt with lots of companies getting illegal kickbacks. They had to restrict it so they could at the very least clean it up. I don't see how allowing things to continue as they were was a good idea.
Internet Grants Cut, and F.C.C. Scolded
By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: October 6, 2004
ASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - The Federal Communications Commission came under sharp criticism in Congress on Tuesday over a series of decisions that have led to the suspension of a $2.25 billion program that pays for telephone and Internet services at public schools and libraries.
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The suspension, which began without notice two months ago, has caused hardships in many school districts and communities, which have had to postpone paying bills or take money from other projects. By one estimate, as much as $1 billion in expected grants could be suspended by the end of the year.
The company that administers the program issued a suspension on new grants as it wrestled with new accounting standards and tighter spending limits imposed on it by the F.C.C.
A hearing Tuesday before the Senate Commerce Committee had originally been called to examine waste at the so-called E-Rate program, which administers telephone and Internet services for schools and libraries. But three of the four senators present focused instead on the F.C.C.'s decision to impose tighter spending restrictions.
The fourth senator, John McCain of Arizona, the Republican chairman of the committee, pressed the witnesses about what steps were being undertaken to monitor the program in light of a series of fraud cases involving telephone companies and equipment makers over the last few years. He expressed irritation that Congress had not been notified about the suspension of the program.
Frank Gumper, the chairman of the Universal Service Administrative Company, the nonprofit organization that oversees the E-Rate program, told lawmakers that the F.C.C.'s decision last week to order a quick sale of more than $3 billion of the program's investments had resulted in a loss of almost $5 million.
Guidelines for making those investments had been approved in July by top officials in the office of Michael K. Powell, chairman of the F.C.C. But the investments had to be liquidated after the commission later concluded that they impinged on the company's ability to make payouts to schools and libraries.
Commission officials, who declined a request by the senators to appear at the hearing, have said that spending changes were necessary to audit and monitor the program more effectively. The officials have said they imposed the new restrictions in consultation with the White House budget office. But late last week, administration officials began distancing themselves from the changes, noting that the budget office has never issued a formal opinion on the matter.
At Tuesday's hearing, lawmakers and an executive of Universal Service said that many of the most significant changes would not make it easier to perform audits or root out fraud and waste.
That acknowledgment prompted concern from the lawmakers.
"It's really difficult to understand why these changes were made,'' said Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a Maine Republican who helped draft the legislation that created the E-Rate program in 1996.
Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, also criticized the tighter regulations, which have led to a cash squeeze at the program, and the recent quick sale of the program's investments.
"I fail to see how these series of events have led to a more efficient management of the funds,'' he said.
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, a West Virginia Democrat, criticized the F.C.C.'s decision to reduce the contribution level by telephone companies and their customers by $550 million this year, only to find that the E-Rate program, under the new rules, is likely to suffer from a cash squeeze and may need to increase tariffs later to pay schools and libraries.
He and Ms. Snowe also criticized the commission's decision not to send any officials to the committee who could explain the decision to tighten the spending rules.
"I'm very disappointed that the F.C.C. declined to
Why editors still don't point to BugMeNot, instead of just complaining about the compulsory registration?
There's even a nice Firefox extension. Last time I checked, it was not on the official extensions page anymore, but you can grab it from the original homepage. It's working here, with the latest (0.10.1) version of Firefox.
FCC didn't create it. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, who is mentioned in the New York Times article, was among the drafters of the legislation that created the E-Rate program.
You libertarian twits and Republican dweebs never miss a chance to bash government whenever a corruption scandal makes its way into to the news, do you? If you weren't so blinded by your idiot ideologies, you'd see the cause of the corruption didn't stem from lack of oversight from the government, but from the non-profit Universal Service Administrative Company which adminsters the program for the FCC. And guess who makes up the Universal Service Administrative Company? Why it's the telecommunications companies, that's who. They're the ones that has allowed the financial abuse to go unchecked. In other words, it's corporation who failed to police themselves, and it's corporations that ripped off the taxpayers. So it isn't governmental corruption that's present here, it's the business-as-usual corruption of corporations.