[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 500 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 500

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 in order to require the Federal 
 Communications Commission to fulfill the sufficient universal service 
   support requirements for high cost areas, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 8, 2001

Mr. Burns (for himself, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Daschle, Mrs. Lincoln, and Mr. 
    Dorgan) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 in order to require the Federal 
 Communications Commission to fulfill the sufficient universal service 
   support requirements for high cost areas, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Universal Service Support Act''.

SEC. 2 REMOVAL OF IMPEDIMENTS TO SUFFICIENT SUPPORT MECHANISMS.

    Section 254 of the Communications Act of 1934 is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(m) Removal of Impediments to Sufficient Support Mechanisms.--
            ``(1) Removal of caps on high cost support mechanisms.--The 
        caps and limitations on universal service support contained in 
        sections 36.601(c), and 36.621(4) and 54.305 of the 
        Commission's regulations (47 CFR 36.601, [etc]) shall cease to 
        be effective on the date of enactment of the Universal Service 
        Support Act. The Commission shall not, on or after such date of 
        enactment, enforce or reimpose caps or limitations on support 
        mechanisms for rural telephone companies or exchanges they 
        acquire based on fund size or other considerations unrelated to 
        the sufficiency of support to achieve the purposes of this 
        section.
            ``(2) High cost support and nationwide average 
        calculations.--The Commission shall--
                    ``(A) calculate that portion of the high cost 
                support mechanism attributable to loops that have costs 
                that are in excess of 115 percent of the nationwide 
                average under section 36.631 of the Commission's 
                regulations (47 CFR 36.631) as in effect on the date of 
                enactment of the Universal Service Support Act; and
                    ``(B) calculate the nationwide average unseparated 
                loop cost for purposes of sections 36.621 (a)(1)-(3) 
                and 36.622 of those regulations (47 CFR 36.621 and 
                36.622) as in effect on such date of enactment of such 
                Act, taking into account the elimination of caps and 
                limitations of support pursuant to paragraph (1) of 
                this subsection.''.
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