Broadband Breakfast on July 2, 2025 – The New USF Working Group

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Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the Universal Service Fund on Friday, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress feel they need to reconfigure the Universal Service Fund. Lawmakers launched the USF Working Group on June 12, 2025, aiming to work out the future of the multi-billion-dollar broadband funding program.

This Broadband Breakfast live session will feature staff from the offices of USF working group members and include a lively discussion about the future of the subsidy program. How might the outcomes of the working group influence the future of the USF? What reforms are being considered to ensure the sustainability of the USF? What prompted lawmakers to relaunch the USF Working Group?

Panelists

• Christopher Mitchell, Director of Community Broadband Networks, Institute of Local Self-Reliance
• Evan Swarztrauber, Principal, CorePoint Strategies
• Michael O'Rielly, President, MPOrielly Consulting
• Drew Clark (moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Reform to Universal Service Fund Still Urgently Needed, Say Experts

The Universal Service Fund remains unstable and in need of structural change, panelists said.

Broadband BreakfastMaggie Macfarlane

Christopher Mitchell is the Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) in Minneapolis. Mitchell is a leading national expert on community networks, Internet access, and local broadband policies. He hosts audio and video shows online, including Community Broadband Bits and Connect This!

Evan Swarztrauber is a non-resident senior fellow on broadband and telecom policy at the Foundation for American Innovation, where he hosts The Dynamist podcast. He is also Principal and Founder at CorePoint Strategies, a technology and telecommunications policy consulting firm. Previously, he served at the Federal Communications Commission as a policy advisor to Chairman Ajit Pai and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

Michael O’Rielly is currently President at MPORielly Consulting Inc., Visiting Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Senior Fellow at the Media Institute, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Free State Foundation, and Member of the International Advisory Committee of APCO Worldwide. He served as a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission from 2013 through 2020. Before joining the FCC, Mr. O’Rielly held a variety of leading staff positions during 20 years on Capitol Hill in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, ending as Policy Advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip.

Breakfast Media LLC CEO Drew Clark has led the Broadband Breakfast community since 2008. An early proponent of better broadband, better lives, he initially founded the Broadband Census crowdsourcing tool to collect and verify broadband data left unpublished by the Federal Communications Commission. As CEO and Publisher, Clark presides over the leading media community advocating for higher-capacity internet everywhere through topical, timely and intelligent coverage. Clark also served as head of the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, a state broadband initiative.