Word: fcc
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...what Congress gives it can also take away. So the FCC is scrambling to answer the most pointed complaints. It promised earlier this month to revamp the bureaucracy it built around the program and to cut Fishman's salary by $50,000. It is considering scaling back its initial spending. And Kennard vows that schools will not be allowed to use the money to buy computers, software or other ineligible items, and that poorer schools will see their applications handled first...
...Congress, of course, that passed the law authorizing the program, or at least authorizing something. A modest three sentences of the massive Telecommunications Act of 1996 told the FCC to expand an existing industry-funded program that provides low-cost telephone service in rural areas and inner cities into one that would hook up schools and libraries. "We gave them much more of an opening than we have in the past," says John McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. "They did what bureaucrats do when you give them money and power...
...their bills. In July, they warn, they'll place a line-item charge on residential users as well. Phone companies, which are trying to outdo one another by offering service for pennies a minute, claim the surcharge is the only way they can keep their rates competitive. But the FCC argues that in exchange for picking up the tab to wire these institutions, it has lowered other fees the long-distance companies pay. The commission also says carriers stand to gain part of the business generated from this new market...
...debate is likely to get lost on the consumer. "You can call it what you want," says Paul Harman, a Georgia accountant who complained to the FCC after his company noticed the charge. "It's just another form of taxation. The consumer pays in the end." Lawmakers have begun to hear similar complaints. At a hearing in February, Congressman Ed Bryant, a Tennessee Republican, waved a copy of a telephone bill sent him by a constituent who was confused and angry over the $4 surcharge his company was having to pay. "How shall I explain this tax to my constituent...
...their bravado in public, however, Administration officials were scrambling behind the scenes last week to head off anything that might be called a Gore Tax, and they hinted that a deal is in the offing. On Friday the Commerce Department called on the FCC to do what it could to assure that any charge the residential consumer sees would not be more than $1 a month per telephone line. "I am totally happy to have a debate over whether or not it's worth $1 a month to wire the schools," said Ron Klain, the Vice President's chief...