The Free State Foundation - P. O. Box 60680 Potomac, MD 20859

Should Congress enact this legislative proposal? If not, why? Given the amount of money involved and the history of wasteful expenditures associated with earlier government-funded broadband subsidy programs, it is essential that Congress, the Administration, and the public at large have access to the information necessary to engage in meaningful oversight of the vast number of agencies and program. [...] A Free Market Think Tank……Because Ideas Matter 10 However, as the Free State Foundation argued in its Comments to the FCC on the Report on the Future of the Universal Service Fund, given (1) the promise of the BEAD program to extend broadband connectivity to all unserved remaining locations, to say nothing of the many other federal programs focused on that same goal, and (2) the fiscally unsustain. [...] In deciding which programs to merge or eliminate, Congress should consider the extent to which the entity's program expertise and capabilities are more less firmly embedded and proven, and whether the entity has demonstrated in the past a commitment to efficiency and effective administration of government funds. [...] Given that the programs for which the FCC, USDA, NTIA, and Treasury are responsible make up the lion's share of the overall total of federal dollars appropriated, the need for prompt implementation of these coordination commitments cannot be overstated, especially given the absence of a national broadband strategy. [...] Notably, in a Public Notice seeking input for a required report to Congress on its MOU with NTIA and the USDA, the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau stated simply that "[t]he agreement has established a formal channel for information sharing and coordination among the Agencies, bolstering the Agencies' existing dialogue, and has contributed to an expanded awareness of the details of funding progra.