Washington, D.C. - Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today sent a letter to Universal Service Administrative Company CEO Radha Sekar requesting the audits conducted during the preceding three fiscal years for both the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Legacy High-Cost and Rural Health Care programs in order to better understand the potential for waste, fraud and abuse in the programs.
Today’s letter comes after a November 2017 letter to the FCC from Pallone, which has yet to be answered, urging the Commission to immediately address issues within the Legacy High-Cost Program. The High-Cost Program is by far the largest Universal Service Program, spending $4.5 billion each year.
Last year, Pallone began reviewing waste, fraud and abuse in the Legacy High-Cost Program. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is conducting an investigation into the Program at Pallone’s request. The FCC’s Office of the Inspector General also notified Pallone last year that the FCC lacks the resources necessary to properly oversee the Legacy High-Cost Program.
“I am concerned that the FCC is failing to adequately address waste, fraud and abuse in the legacy portion of the High-Cost Program and is instead directing its resources solely to smaller programs within the Universal Service Program, such as the Rural Health Care Program," Ranking Member Pallone wrote to Sekar. “To better understand why the FCC is failing to address waste, fraud and abuse in the Legacy High-Cost Program and is instead focusing its resources on the smaller universal service programs, I request that the Universal Service Administrative Company provide to my office the audits conducted during the preceding three fiscal years."
Pallone is requesting that the Universal Service Administrative Company provide:
* The audits conducted as part of the Payment Quality Assurance Program and the Beneficiary and Contributor Audit Program for the Legacy High-Cost Program and;
* The audits conducted as part of the Payment Quality Assurance Program and the Beneficiary and Contributor Audit Program for the Rural Health Care Program.
The letter to Universal Service Administrative Company CEO Radha Sekar can be found HERE.
