Rural Telecom Task Force Focuses on RUS During Hearing
Rural House members seeking to raise the profile of telecom issues used an informational hearing on Wed. to grill a USDA Rural Utility Service (RUS) representative on broadband loan policy. Curtis Anderson, RUS deputy administrator, received most of the attention from lawmakers at the first hearing by the Congressional Rural Caucus'(CRC) Telecom Task Force. While the stated purpose was to explore the telecom challenges facing rural America and educate rural members on telecom issues, several members came in with an understanding of RUS’s loan programs and some expressed their concerns to Anderson.
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Rep. Stupak (D-Mich.), also a member of the House Telecom Subcommittee, asked Anderson for specific information about how much of the $600 million in broadband loans RUS has distributed went to communities that already had at least one broadband service provider. Stupak said he was concerned that one broadband loan delivered to a company, called ETS, serving a Houston bedroom community may have been misapplied and there may have been other cases where RUS gave loans for areas that weren’t top priority. Stupak said the newly established community of “million dollar homes” may have been “underserved” but wasn’t the type of community Congress was looking to help when it established the broadband loan program. He said he believed most of the RUS broadband loan funding was going to incumbent service providers in rural areas. Anderson said he didn’t have the breakdown on loans Stupak sought but would get him the information soon. Stupak has in the past raised several questions about how the RUS is distributing the broadband loans.
Rep. Osborne (R-Neb.) also had pointed questions for Anderson about RUS loans, and said he too was concerned that 2nd and 3rd providers in some communities were getting loans before first providers in other communities. Anderson said the loan program set up by Congress allowed RUS to distribute loans to competitive providers to give consumers more choice. Osborne also asked FCC representatives about the proposed primary line restriction for USF funding, saying he didn’t support such a restriction.
Rep. Peterson (R-Pa.), CRC co-chmn., said telcos in his district complained that the RUS application process was “onerous and expensive.” He said engineering costs for the application often exceed $100,000 and the RUS has been too “risk adverse” in deciding which loans to award. Peterson also said that while RUS has gone to large cities to hold workshops on RUS loans, it should take those workshops deeper into rural areas. Rep. Davis (D-Tenn.) said he was hearing a lot of concern from telecom cooperatives in his district that they wouldn’t be able to survive if changes in technology and the telecom industry began sapping their established sources of revenue.
CRC Telecom Task Force Chmn. Gutknecht (R-Minn.) said the task force would hold at least one more hearing on telecom issues. He said the task force’s purpose was to raise the profile of telecom issues for members of rural districts. He said House members tend to listen to companies with “the biggest lobbyists” and sometimes don’t take into account the views of local telecom providers. “Many of the most challenging issues facing the industry directly impact rural America,” Gutknecht said. The hearing also featured updates on telecom policy from the FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus, NTIA, NARUC and the Appalachian Regional Commission.