Ql:nngr£nn nf fq£ l!tnit£b §taf£n Ba.sfrington, ilC!t 20515 May 2, 2017 The Honorable Ajit Pai, Michael O'Rielly, and Mignon Clyburn Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street SW Washington, DC 20554 Dear Chairman Pai, Commissioner O'Rielly, and Commissioner Clyburn: On May 6, 2014, 133 Members of Congress- 44 Senators and 89 House Members- signed bipartisan letters calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make tailored modifications to modernize the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) for the delivery of broadband services to consumers in high-cost portions of the United States served by small, rural rate-of-return-regulated local exchange carriers. Similar letters were sent in May 2015 by more than 176 Members of Congress, including 61 Senators and 115 House Members. The shared concern expressed in those letters was that rural consumers who wished to "cut the cord" on traditional voice "plain old telephone service" (POTS) and opt instead to obtain only fixed broadband services could not do so. As those letters noted, the FCC's old rules unfortunately tied USF support to a consumer's purchase of POTS, making it impossible for millions of rural consumers to obtain affordable "standalone broadband" without buying traditional telephone service as well. Despite steps by the FCC last year to address this concern, we are hearing continued frustration about the prices for and the availability of standalone broadband. Many operators remain unable or unwilling to offer such broadband because their prices would still be unreasonably high even after the reforms. Other operators may offer standalone broadband, but the costs they are forced to recover from the consumer far exceed what urban consumers would pay for the same service. All this means that, despite the reforms last year, millions of rural consumers are still not seeing widespread affordable standalone broadband services due to insufficient USF support. Meanwhile, the limited USF budget also created the need to reduce the amount available to carriers electing new "model­ based" USF support, resulting in tens of thousands of rural consumers receiving lesser broadband speeds than intended by the model or, even worse, no broadband at all. We understand the FCC is evaluating how to address concerns about the insufficiency of the current USF budget. Even as the FCC has moved to modernize these mechanisms as we requested, we are concerned that the lack of sufficient resources in the reformed programs (some of which remain capped at the same level as six years ago) may be undermining the desired effect of the reforms and falling short of the statutory mandate that reasonably comparable services at reasonably comparable rates be available to rural and urban Americans alike. We therefore encourage you to ensure sufficient resources are available to enable the USF mechanisms to work as designed- that is, to give rural Americans the opportunity to obtain affordable broadband and to advance broadband deployment in high-cost rural areas - along with any other program changes that may help achieve this goal. PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure rural American consumers and businesses have access to reasonably comparable voice and broadband communications services of their choosing at reasonably comparable rates. Sincerely, Kevin Cramer, Member of Congress Dave Loebsack, Member of Congress Robert Latta, Member of Congress Peter Welch, Member of Congress ~ ~ .. --·-·----~ - Adam Kinzinger, Member of Congress Mark Pocan, Member of Congress Congress Markwayne Mullin, Member of Congress Louie Gohmert, Member of Congress Steve Stivers, Member of Congress Lamar Smith, Member of Congress Todd Rokita, Member of Congress Jaime Herrera Beutler, Member of Congress Scott Tipton, Member of Congress Jackie Walorski, Member of Congress Kurt Schrader, Member of Congress Richard M. Nolan, Member of Congress Kristi Noem, Member of Congress Frank Lucas, Member of Congress ared Huffman, Member of Congress \. Blake Farenthold, Member of Congress Ann McLane Kuster, Member of Congress ~, Lynn Jenkins, Member of Congress Rod Blum, Member of Congress Collin Peterson, Member of Congress David Young, Member of Congress Tim Ryan, Member of Congress fJ. M.7 . . McKinley, P. E. Member of Cheri Bustos, Member of Congress Doug Collins, Member of Congress Rick Crawford, Member of Congress Darin LaHoo~, Member of Congress ,.. -·· Cw.RS Jo . Faso, Member of Congress Carol Shea-Porter, Member of Congress Doug Lamborn, Member of Congress Austin Scott, Member of Congress Tom O'Halleran, Member of Congress Luke Messer, Member of Congress Steve Russell, Member of Congress Tim Walz, Member of Congress Tom Cole, Member of Congress Rick W. Allen, Member of Congress Will Hurd, Member of Congress Mia Love, Member of Congress Brett Guthrie, Member of Congress ss Martha Roby, Member of Congress Chellie Pingree, Member of Congress Ed Perlmutter, Member of Congress IJ-~ ~~(/J Ron Kind, Member of Congress Roger Marshall, Member of Congress Mac Thornberry, Member of Congress Mike Gallagher, Member of Congress Michael McCaul, Member of Congress Chris Stewart, Member of Congress Diana DeGette, Member of Congress Nydia Velazquez, Member of Congress Bruce Westerman, Member of Congress Peter DeFazio, Member of Congress Tom Emmer, Member of Congress French Hill, Member of Congress Pete Olson, Member of Congress I Sensenbrenner, Member of Congress Steve Pearce, Member of Congress Steve Womack, Member of Congress Henry Cuellari Mell\ber of Congress Ruben . Kihuen, Member of Congress Evan Jenkins, Me Jim Costa, Member of Congress Chuck Fleischmann, Member of Congress es P. McGovern, Member of Congress Derek Kilmer, ~~mber of Congress Nanette Diaz Barragan, Member of Congress