WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission has extended its deadline for deciding how much money to raise for a controversial program that subsidizes Internet access for schools.
The agency was to have decided by Tuesday how much long-distance telephone companies should pitch in, but on Monday put off the decision until the end of the week.
Last week, a group of Congressmen opposed to the program turned up the heat on the agency and demanded that no money be raised for the second half of the year. They charged that assessments on long-distance carriers for the program would raise consumers' phone bills.
The debate should come to a head on Wednesday at an FCC oversight hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee's communications subcommittee.
Lawmakers objected to the FCC's handling of the program after AT&T and MCI said they would pass on the 5 percent surcharge to customers. Beginning in July, both companies would use the surcharge to pay for their share of the program, as well as other longstanding subsidies that support basic phone service in low-income and rural areas.
But supporters of the program said the companies were to blame for adding surcharges at the same time the FCC had lowered by billions of dollars the charges the companies must pay to local phone carriers for beginning and ending long-distance calls. FCC officials also argued that about three-fourths of the new charges related to the older subsidy programs and had nothing to do with the schools and libraries fund.
The carriers, on the other hand, said they cut long-distance rates after the FCC lowered access charges. To cover increased costs from subsidy programs, they added the surcharges.
More than 30,000 schools and libraries requested US$2 billion under the program mandated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
The FCC collected $625 million in the first half of the year for schools and libraries and said that long-distance carriers could collect about $1 billion in the second half.
On Monday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) joined the stop-the-subsidy chorus and said he'll help lead a House effort to prevent telephone customers from footing the bill.
"We'll probably block it in the next two weeks," Gingrich told a communications industry trade show in Atlanta. Gingrich didn't give details, but added to applause: "It is wrong for five unelected, appointed commissioners to be able to establish a tax on every telephone line in the United States."
Meantime, Vice President Al Gore reiterated his strong backing of the program. "I strongly oppose any effort to pull the plug ... and deny our children the full promise of the information age," he said in a statement.
