[Politech] Weekly column: Is it time for the federal e-rate program to die? [econ]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Mon Mar 21 2005 - 20:13:50 PST


http://news.com.com/Cheaper+phone+bills+on+the+horizon/2010-1071_3-5626169.html

Cheaper phone bills on the horizon?
March 21, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

Don't get too excited yet, but there's a chance your monthly telephone 
bill will get a few dollars cheaper.

Some members of Congress have begun speculating whether a government 
entitlement program riddled with waste and corruption and funded by 
taxes on telecommunications companies should be terminated. If the 
so-called E-rate program ended, the average phone bill would drop by $10 
or more a year, an annual total of $2.25 billion.

Rep. Joe Barton, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, 
suggested at a hearing last week that the E-rate program had become a 
billion-dollar boondoggle. "This committee has no choice but to develop 
legislation to scrap the status quo and apply some common sense to the 
E-rate program," the Texas Republican said.

[...remainder snipped...]
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Mar 21 2005 - 20:41:16 PST