INCOMPAS filed comments with the FCC in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on promoting fair and open competitive bidding and modernizing the E-Rate program.

"A school with an Internet connection today is not guaranteed an affordable, secure connection tomorrow. As schools adopt AI and other bandwidth-intensive tools, the Commission should modernize E-Rate to meet those needs, preserve competitive choice and tailor its program integrity rules to the roles participants actually play," said Taylor Abshire, Attorney and Policy Advisor for INCOMPAS.

In its filing, INCOMPAS recommended that the FCC:

• Evaluate the continued need for E-Rate based on the ongoing affordability, capacity, reliability and security of school and library networks, rather than the presence of an Internet connection alone.
• Preserve support for special construction, lit and dark fiber, and self-provisioned networks, with price remaining the primary factor in bid evaluation.
• Maintain the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) framework tied to E-Rate funding while respecting local educational and content decisions.
• Narrow the proposed definition of "consultant" to exclude entities performing only ordinary commercial functions, while preserving generally applicable program integrity obligations.
• Expand Category Two eligibility to cover cybersecurity equipment, software and services through a functional, technology-neutral standard.

Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), along with nearly the entire Senate Democratic Caucus and more than 60 members of the House Democratic Caucus, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr asking him to withdraw the FCC’s proposal to eliminate or limit the E-Rate Program.

The members said that for nearly 30 years, E-Rate has helped close the digital divide and ensure students and library patrons can access the internet regardless of their income or zip code. They said ending or sharply curtailing E-Rate would impose severe costs on schools and libraries, weaken economic growth, undermine American technological leadership, and jeopardize national security.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, released a report on the E-Rate Program. The report estimated that consultants collect between $200 million and $400 million every year to help schools and libraries navigate the E-Rate program’s application, bidding, and reimbursement process.

The report recommended that the FCC simplify its E-Rate rules to reduce reliance on consultants and require public disclosure of consultant compensation alongside E-Rate applications and funding awards. The report also urged Congress to consider bringing both E-Rate and the broader USF into the annual appropriations process and focusing program support on high-cost and high-need schools.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a decision in a case reviewing the FCC’s fourth quarter 2025 universal service contribution factor.

The court said that because Congress never specifically authorized the FCC to establish USAC, the FCC violated the Government Corporation Control Act by creating the corporation.

The court also said that by relying on USAC to set the contribution factor, the FCC exceeded its statutory authority. The court granted Consumers’ Research, et al.’s petition for review, vacated the fourth quarter 2025 contribution factor, and remanded to the FCC for further proceedings.

CCIA has issued a study focusing on the supply chain costs to the FCC’s Covered List regime, which now bars routers, drones, inverters, and robots made anywhere abroad.

The study found domestic-only production-location determinations will cost U.S. firms about $4.4 billion over five years, and the FCC's overall regime will cost up to $7.7 billion. The study finds that barring only adversary-country production (allowing production in friendly countries) would reduce costs by $4.3 billion while keeping every named-entity prohibition.