Washington, DC – The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) reported today that its members have unanimously approved a resolution warning that changes under consideration at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to the Universal Service Fund (USF) would move away from what is currently a “ very equitable, nondiscriminatory, and competitively neutral approach to funding the USF” in favor of an approach that would harm America’s “most vulnerable” consumers, including many Latino Americans.

As approved at the LULAC 76^th Annual Convention in Little Rock, the resolution states:  “.. A drastic shift in USF funding support would hardest hit low-income, residential and low-volume long distance users, a disproportionate number of who are Latino, whose interests are promoted by the League of United Latin American Citizens...”

The FCC currently has under consideration alternative methodologies for calculating contributions to the USF.  Especially detrimental to low-income and low volume users would be the per-number collection proposal that shifts the burden from a fair “pay for what you use” arrangement, to a flat fee system that would serve as a de facto tax increase ranging from 1,233 percent (at $1 per month per line) to 2,567 percent (at $2 per month per line) for low-volume users.

The resolution also notes:  “In addition to unfairly impacting minorities generally who may be low-volume long distance users, consumers on low or fixed incomes, or have multiple phones; a switch to a connection-based methodology would impact a special category of Latinos who rely heavily on pre-paid cell phones as their preferred choice or their only option for wireless service, including: Latino families who have children and teenagers; Latino elderly who may live alone or travel; Latino seasonal workers or students in the U.S.; Latinos who want cell phones for emergency or security purposes; Latinos who are on public assistance or fixed incomes; and Latinos who cannot meet credit or security deposit requirements.”

Commenting on the resolution, Gabriela Lemus, Director of Policy and Legislation for LULAC and Co-Chair of the Keep USF Fair Coalition, said:  “A drastic shift in USF funding support from usage basis to subscriber base would mean that residential customers would pay the same as business customers and low volume callers would pay the same as high volume callers, which is particular unfair and burdensome to consumers on fixed-incomes who may see their phone bills increase even when they budget to make few or no long distance calls.  The current revenue-based funding methodology provides a very equitable, nondiscriminatory, and competitively neutral approach to funding the USF and the proposed alternative connection based methodology does not.”

To view the resolution, please visit the resources page at www.keepUSFfair.org