Can Congress Delegate to the Federal Communications Commission the Power to Determine, Within Statutory Limits, the Amount That Providers Must Contribute to a Fund to Subsidize Access to Telecommunications and Can the Federal Communications Commission, in Turn, Delegate This Authority to a Private Corporation?

In 1996, Congress amended the Communications Act of 1934 to make it easier for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ensure that affordable and reliable communications services remained available throughout the United States—an objective known as “universal service.” In particular, the act authorized the FCC to require telecommunications carriers to contribute to a Universal Service Fund. The act then authorized the FCC to use the fund to subsidize universal service. Using its authority under the act, the FCC designated a private nonprofit corporation to assist in administering the fund by, among other things, recommending universal service contributions and paying out subsidies. After the FCC effectively adopted the administrator’s recommended universal service contribution rate, a group of consumers, a nonprofit corporation, and a carrier challenged the whole scheme in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]