Why Your Voice Matters Right Now: Congress Is Asking How to Fix (and Future-Proof) the Universal Service Fund

TL;DR: A bipartisan, bicameral working group in Congress wants public input on the future of the Universal Service Fund (USF), the engine behind E-Rate for schools and libraries, Lifeline for low-income households, Rural Health Care, and High-Cost support for rural networks. If you care about reliable, affordable internet in classrooms (and beyond), this is your moment to be heard. Comments are open until Monday, September 15, 2025 (11:59 PM ET), and you can submit them at https://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/usf Quantity matters; please submit a response even if just to one question to show your support!

What’s happening?

Congressional leaders on the Senate and House communications subcommittees formed a USF Working Group and opened a public Request for Comment (RFC). They’re asking educators, libraries, providers, states, community leaders—all of us—to weigh in on how USF is working and what should change. The portal summarizes the four USF programs and provides a simple way to submit feedback at https://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/usf

Two reasons make this timing especially important:

The Supreme Court upheld the USF’s constitutionality on June 27, 2025, removing a legal cloud and clearing the runway for practical reform.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) ended on June 1, 2024, shrinking at-home affordability options for millions of families and putting more pressure on schools, libraries, and communities to keep learning connected.

Quick refresher: What is the USF?

The USF supports four programs that keep people and places connected:

E-Rate (Schools & Libraries) – helps districts and libraries afford internet access and internal connections.

Lifeline (Low-Income) – helps qualifying households afford phone/broadband.

High-Cost (Connect America) – supports networks in rural/remote areas where build/operate costs are high.

Rural Health Care – supports connectivity for healthcare providers in rural communities.
That’s the official breakdown from the comment portal.

What, exactly, is Congress asking?

The Working Group poses nine questions. Here’s a teacher/admin-friendly translation so you can pick the ones you’re best positioned to answer:

How should Congress measure success?
What metrics would prove each USF program is doing its job (e.g., affordability, reliability, learning time preserved, security, outcomes)?

Are the programs meeting the law’s goals (Section 254)?
Do the four programs still deliver “advanced services” to schools, libraries, rural areas, health providers, and low-income households? Where are the gaps?

Is the FCC using consistent performance metrics?
Should there be a unified USF “report card” so progress is comparable across programs?

What program-level reforms would help most?
For each program, what changes would improve transparency, accountability, cost-effectiveness, administration, and its role in supporting universal service? (Yes—this is where E-Rate administrators and tech leaders can be very specific.)

How should we stabilize the funding base?
What reforms to the contribution factor (how the USF is funded) will keep the programs sustainable without whiplash?

How do we reduce waste, fraud, and abuse—and still improve outcomes?
What guardrails or process improvements would keep dollars focused on impact?

How can USF coordinate better with other federal broadband efforts?
Think FCC, NTIA/BEAD, Treasury, USDA, state programs—how do we align and avoid duplication?

Does the FCC already have the authority to make your recommended changes?
If not, what would require Congress to step in?

Is USAC (the USF administrator) sufficiently transparent and accountable?
Should its role change in any way?

Why this matters to K-12 (and how to frame your comment)

Classroom continuity: Reliable, affordable bandwidth is now table stakes for instruction, assessments, digital curriculum, and safety systems. E-Rate keeps those lights on. (If your district has data on outages avoided, cost per Mbps trends, device density, or network upgrades, include it.)

Equity & access: With ACP gone, many families’ at-home connections are fragile. School and library connectivity (and coordinated community plans) matter even more to learning beyond the bell.

Security: Cyber incidents can wipe out instructional time and budgets. Your real stories about phishing/malware spikes, MFA rollouts, or incident response show why reliability and security must be considered together.

Rural reality: For small and rural districts, affordability and last-mile options are still challenging. Your local market context helps Congress see what’s working and what isn’t.

How to submit a comment (5 minutes or less):

Use the portal (you can answer just a subset of questions, even just one!): Universal Service Fund (USF) Working Group – Request for Comment. Deadline: Monday, September 15, 2025, 11:59 PM ET at https://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/usf

Or email your remarks (especially if you want to attach charts/screenshots): USFWorkingGroup@fischer.senate.gov

Helpful Resources

Keep Our Communities Connected, a coalition of organizations working to do just that, hosted a webinar last month to help explain the process and its importance. You can find more information on Keep Our Communities Connected at https://www.keepourcommunitiesconnected.com/

Here’s the webinar: Responding to the USF Working Group’s Request for Comment (recording). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgjkGSx4ZXE

Here’s the slide deck that accompanied the webinar: August Q&A Webinar/Workshop on USF Task Force RFC (PDF). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VdsfIdb1ToLPUhdawpGS3Ome22HHd0wm/view?usp=sharing

Final thought

Education leaders don’t often get such a clear invitation to shape national connectivity policy. If USF is the engine, E-Rate is the drive shaft connecting policy to the classroom. Let’s make sure the people doing the work, the CTOs, tech teams, librarians, and superintendents, are involved in the future evolution of these essential programs.