USF Funding Exceeded $8.5 Billion in 2024
USAC says spending increased by more than $400 million over 2023
WASHINGTON, Apr. 4, 2025 – The budget of an internet subsidy program overseen by the Federal Communications Commission rose by about 5 percent in 2024, reaching more than $8.5 billion mostly used to bolster the finances of rural-based broadband providers.
The Universal Service Administrative Company, which oversees the Universal Service Fund, revealed in its March 31 annual report that USF funding rose by more than $400 million in 2024.
Some of this spending was attributed to an increase in Lifeline program spending following the demise of the Affordable Connectivity Program on May 31, 2024.
Aside from funding the $942.9 million Lifeline program, the USF spent $4.5 billion supporting rural broadband ISPs, $2.6 billion funding access to the internet for schools and libraries through the E-Rate program, and $531.7 million on rural healthcare services.
The program is currently funded by end-user fees on voice providers, reaching a record 36.6 percent in the second quarter of 2025.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, among others, supports funding the USF through annual congressional appropriations.
The USF program has been challenged in the Supreme Court following a July 2024 ruling in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the USF program violated the non-delegation doctrine, which is designed to limit the authority of Congress to delegate legislative authority to other institutions.
