Byron Dorgan: “I have been working on a sense-of-the- Senate resolution which I hoped to have the agreement of a number of Members of…”

“I have been working on a sense-of-the- Senate resolution which I hoped to have the agreement of a number of Members of the Senate who have similar interests on the issue of the using universal service funds for the purpose of reaching a balanced budget in the budget reconciliation conference that is now going on. I know that sounds foreign as a subject to those who are not familiar with it, but I want to explain it a little bit and describe why this is important. I have spoken to a number of Senators in the Chamber this evening-- Senator Stevens, the distinguished chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Rockefeller, Senator Hollings, Senator Daschle, Senator Snowe, and others who are concerned about something that is happening in the reconciliation conference that could have a significant impact on the cost of telephone service in rural areas in this country in the years ahead. Here is what it is. Our country has been fortunate to enjoy the benefits of a telecommunications system that says it does not matter where you live. If you live in an area where you have very high-cost service, there will be something called a universal service fund that helps drive down that high cost so that everyone in this country can afford telephone service, universally affordable telephone service. That is what the universal service fund is designed to do and has been designed to do for a long, long while.…”