Feenstra Introduces House Companion to Senate Bill that Would Assess ISPs, Big Tech
The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether the $9 billion-per-year Universal Service Fund is Constitutional.
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2025 – Reps. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, and Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., introduced last week a bill that would require big tech companies and broadband ISPs to contribute to the Universal Service Fund.
Feenstra’s office said the full text, yet to be released, was identical to the Senate version introduced last month. The $9 billion-per-year fund supports rural broadband networks, plus internet discounts for low-income households, schools and libraries, and healthcare centers. It’s funded by fees on interstate voice revenue, a pool of cash that’s shrinking while expenditures remain consistent.
The bill would direct the Federal Communications Commission to finish within 18 months a rulemaking to ensure broadband providers and ‘edge providers’ – companies providing search engines, cloud computing services, streaming services, and other things – “contribute on an equitable and nondiscriminatory basis to the specific, predictable, and sufficient mechanisms established by the Commission to preserve and advance universal service.”
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Edge providers that brought in less than $5 billion or transmitted less than 3 percent of U.S. broadband data in the most recent year would be exempted, as would ISPs or edge providers that don’t have enough revenue to contribute substantially.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the near future on whether the USF’s funding structure and the 1996 law that stood up the fund are constitutional. Experts and program supporters have said they expect the fund to be upheld, but it’s not certain what justices will do. If some part of the fund is found to be invalid, it could need more significant reform.
Separately, a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers have been working on modernizing the USF for years. The group recently relaunched this Congress, and the lawmakers are planning to take new comments from stakeholders in the coming weeks.
Broadband providers have advocated for including tech companies in an updated USF contribution pool, while the software giants say it’s unnecessary. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has also advocated for assessing tech revenue. Last year, former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told lawmakers that either could raise consumer prices, and floated looking at online ad companies.
Harsha Mudaliar, policy advisor to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, said at Fiber Connect earlier this month that the working group in the last Congress had produced a legislative proposal, which she called “very thoughtful,” before efforts stalled due to the legal challenge and turnover in Washington. She didn’t say what it entailed or what the modernized contribution base would be.
ISPs were indeed happy to see the House bill.
“Representative Feenstra’s proposal is a step toward modernizing the USF to meet the demands of today’s communications landscape. Congress should act with urgency to secure and strengthen this essential national commitment,” Brandon Heiner, senior vice president of government affairs at USTelecom, said in a statement.
