The FCC’s budget for salaries and expenses would be cut 8.2 percent, equal to roughly $28 million, if a Congress doesn’t act to stop sequestration before Jan. 2, the White House said. The news came in the administration’s much anticipated sequestration report Friday, which detailed sharp across-the-board cuts to the budgets of most federal agencies. An industry group and a union representing FCC employees said the report shows the negative impact that sequestration will have on federal employees, private industry and the economy as a whole.

Industry and agency officials gathered at the FCC Thursday for a detailed explanation of the proposed Connect America Fund Phase II cost model, presented by CostQuest Associates. The goal of the CostQuest broadband analysis tool (CQBAT) is to identify the high-cost portions of broadband buildout throughout the country, defined by the ABC Coalition as anything over $80. A map presented at the meeting showed most of the high-cost areas exist in the western half of the country, and some loops can even cost in excess of a million dollars. This can happen when a dedicated plant is required to serve a single customer, said CostQuest President James Stegeman.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said it may be time for Congress to abolish the USF. The senior House Commerce Committee member and its former chairman spoke in a C-SPAN interview about the fund created by the Telecom Act of 1996 and being expanded by the FCC to cover broadband. Barton, on an episode of The Communicators to be shown Saturday and Monday, was sharply critical of FCC net neutrality rules. Limited privacy legislation could still be enacted in 2012, he said.

The FCC takes its visits to deployment sites and meetings with carriers “very seriously,” and continues to make adjustments to its USF reforms “as necessary,” Chairman Julius Genachowski told Alaskan members of Congress in a letter made public Friday (http://xrl.us/bno76j). Genachowski wrote in response to correspondence from the Alaskan lawmakers urging the commission to grant a waiver to Windy City Cellular, which operates on the remote island of Adak (CD Aug 13 p6). Genachowski pointed to the April “Benchmarks Order” in which the Wireline Bureau revised the high-cost loop support benchmark categories to reflect similarly situated providers, added new variables, and adjusted the phase-in period of the changes. Genachowski noted the reform was unanimously approved by the commission, and said it was important to “keep moving forward” on implementation, and “not roll back progress.” He also pointed to the six-month waiver already granted to Windy City, which gave the carrier $40,000 “to support the status quo” in its service area while the commission considered a petition by its parent company, Adak Eagle Enterprises. “During my trip to Alaska last year, I had an opportunity to visit deployment sites and meet with many of the Alaska carriers to get an understanding of the unique challenges they face. We take these visits and meetings very seriously, and the Commission -- and the staff on delegated authority -- continues to make adjustments to our reforms as necessary,” the letter said.

Accipiter deserves a limited and targeted waiver of the FCC’s USF rules, President Patrick Sherrill told the chief of the Wireline Bureau and aides to Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel, Robert McDowell, Mignon Clyburn and Chairman Julius Genachowski (http://xrl.us/bno7rx). Accipiter wants the commission to use Accipiter’s most current line count data as a “replacement variable” in the per-line formula and regression formulas for determining its USF limitations, it said. A waiver, while still capping Accipter’s support, would let the telco maintain service and repay its loans, it said.

NTCA continues to have concerns about the transparency, accuracy and predictability of regression analysis-based caps on USF support, President Shirley Bloomfield told aides to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, an ex parte filing said (http://xrl.us/bnote5). The commission should adopt no further caps without first gathering data and evaluating the effects of reform on consumers and broadband deployment “before deciding upon what next steps, if any, might be necessary,” NTCA said.

Through Sept. 11 International Broadcasting Convention, RAI Amsterdam -- http://xrl.us/bnj8h5

In his first trip home as FCC commissioner, Ajit Pai criticized what he called an unstable and unpredictable universal service model that discourages long-term investments in rural broadband networks. “Our rules of the road can’t change every year or two, and Washington’s funding formulas for carriers shouldn’t redistribute money annually in an arbitrary or haphazard manner,” he told a rural broadband roundtable in Oswego, Kan., according to a copy of his prepared remarks (http://xrl.us/bnooja). Pai called for a “transparent system for distributing funds, one that companies can understand to plan their investments and that government watchdogs can follow to guard against waste, fraud, and abuse.” Pai, who grew up in a rural part of southeastern Kansas, spoke of his experience dealing with a rural communications landscape very different from the one in cities. “When rural issues cross my desk at the Commission, they aren’t just abstractions to me,” the text said.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai is heading home to talk telecom with Kansans, he revealed in a blog post Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnodwx). Pai plans to speak on reforms of the USF and the best ways to accelerate rural broadband deployment. He will also address his hometown Rotary Club and local high schools on how the FCC can help the private sector serve small towns. Meeting with Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., in Pittsburg, the two will hear perspectives on the telecom industry from local businesses, he said. Pai will also visit Kansas City to learn about Google’s fiber project there, the “local regulatory streamlining” that sped its construction, and consumer reaction. “Hopefully, there are lessons to be learned from the project that can be applied in other markets across the country, big and small,” Pai wrote.

Higher education is ready to work with the commission on a connections-based contribution system, or an adjusted revenues-based system, the nonprofit association Educause told FCC officials (http://xrl.us/bnodj9). Under a numbers-based regime, higher education would pay up to 20 times more in USF fees than under the current revenues-based system, Educause said. Without end-users from whom to recover these additional fees, the added funds would ultimately have to come from staff salaries, and reduced student services, the group said.