USF Working Group Relaunched
The fund's contribution factor will decrease slightly to 36 percent for the third quarter.
Jake Neenan

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2025 – Lawmakers from both parties and both chambers of Congress relaunched their Universal Service Fund Working Group Thursday. They’re set to take more comments on the future of the $8.5 billion-per-year broadband subsidy in the coming weeks.
“I’m glad to once again join bipartisan, bicameral leaders to modernize and strengthen the USF and ensure it remains well-equipped to connect Americans no matter where they live. I’ll keep fighting to protect this vital program for the communities that depend on it,” Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., said in a statement.
The fund supports rural broadband networks, plus internet discounts for schools and libraries, low-income households, and healthcare centers. It’s been funded since the 1990s by fees on interstate voice revenue, a pool that’s shrinking as expenditures remain flat. Lawmakers have been working for years on modernizing the program, a task that proved difficult and was further complicated by legal challenges to the fund, plus the recent turnover in administration and Congress.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision soon in the case challenging the fund as unconstitutional. A conservative nonprofit argued its funding structure illegally took taxing power from the legislature. At oral arguments in March, justices appeared to be leaning toward the government’s position that Congress put proper guardrails on USF and the fund didn’t need upending.
Along with Luján, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., is taking the lead among Republican senators. Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., Gary Peters, D-Mich., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., are also on board.
On the House side, Reps. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., the chair and ranking member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee Subcommittee, are leading the group’s efforts.
Luján started a group in May 2023 to work on the issue. Klobuchar, Capito, Peters, and Moran were also involved then, as was Matsui.
A new comment portal for stakeholders to give input on the future of the fund will open on Fischer’s website “in the coming weeks,” according to Luján’s office.
ISPs have tended to argue for assessing fees from big tech companies to help pay for the USF something FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has supported, and the tech giants counter broadband provider revenue alone could fund it. 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 last week that the working group in the last Congress had produced a legislative proposal, which she called “very thoughtful,” before efforts stalled. She didn’t say what it entailed or what the modernized contribution base would be.
Telecom trade groups were pleased with the lawmakers getting back to work on the issue.
“We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and work with lawmakers to strengthen USF and deliver on the promise of universal connectivity for all Americans,” USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter said in a statement.
The FCC also announced Wednesday the USF contribution factor, or the percent of eligible revenue to be paid into the fund, would be 36 percent for the third quarter of 2025. That’s down from 36.6 percent this quarter, a historical high.