ITIF-全民服务基金如何在减少支出的同时更好地为消费者服务（英）

itif.org How the Universal Service Fund Can Better Serve Consumers While Spending Less ELLIS SCHERER AND JOE KANE | SEPTEMBER 2025 Congress should reform and refocus the Universal Service Fund. It spends too much money, prioritizes the wrong problems, and funds it all with a high, sector-specific tax rate. Congress should reduce the overall size of the program and fund it with general revenue. KEY TAKEAWAYS  Private and federal investment have closed the broadband deployment gap. As such, the government should stop spending on obsolete, duplicative deployment programs.  Congress and the FCC should eliminate the High-Cost fund once current funding obligations are complete. The federal government should stop subsidizing companies’ operating expenses.  Instead, a narrower, Lifeline program should be the central USF program, providing a $30 per month voucher to low-income households for the broadband service of their choice.  Sector-specific USF fees are an ineffective contribution model. Consumers always bear most of the burden of taxes even when they are technically levied on companies.  Simply taxing more industries will recreate the current program’s flaws while introducing even more market distortions and unfairness.  With lower expenditures it will be easier to support USF. However, even then, Congress should fund USF as much as possible through appropriations or some other method to spread the burden to all taxpayers. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION | SEPTEMBER 2025 PAGE 2 CONTENTS Key Takeaways ................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 3 Distribution Reform ............................................................................................................ 3 Broadband Deployment Success Calls for New Priorities ..................................................... 3 Federal Deployment Subsidies Are Numerous, Disjointed, and Obsolete ............................... 3 Eliminate the High-Cost Program ...................................................................................... 4 1. Programs to Sunset After Completion ......................................................................... 4 2. Obsolete Cap-Ex Subsidies ....................................................................................... 5 3. Poor-Policy Op-Ex Subsidies ..................................................................................... 5 The 5G Fund ............................................................................................................... 7 A New and Improved Distribution Model: Modernized Lifeline Should Be the Flagship ........... 8 Contribution Reform ........................................................................................................... 9 Sector-Specific Fees