WASHINGTON (April 29) -- Acting upon a request by the Committee on Energy and
Commerce, the U.S. House of Representatives today issued a subpoena to Cheryl L.
Parrino, Chief Executive Officer of the Universal Service Administration Company
(USAC), for unredacted records related to the Committee’s investigation of the
troubled E-rate (schools and libraries) program.
Following the Committee’s initial request for documents, USAC submitted
thousands of pages of records. However, many of those documents contained
information which had been omitted because of concerns over confidentiality.
Although USAC has been fully cooperative with the Committee’s
investigation, it became legally necessary for the Committee to subpoena Parrino
and USAC in order to obtain unredacted documents critical to its investigation.
The subpoena was signed today by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman
Billy Tauzin (R-LA).
“This information is important for us to obtain if we are going to be
successful in eliminating fraud and abuse in the E-rate program. I have asked
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman James Greenwood (R-PA) to
hold hearings on this problem. Those hearings should begin this summer,”
stated Chairman Tauzin.
