Among the challenges facing the next Congress is oversight of the $6 billion federal telecommunications Universal Service Fund. This fund provides support for telecommunications companies serving low-income families or high-cost areas of the country, as well as direct support to schools and libraries. All consumers pay for USF through a fee directly listed on landline and wireless telephone bills.

Today, the USF is unstable. It taxes a rapidly dwindling service called “interstate telecommunications services,” with AT&T, MCI, and other languishing long-distance carriers as the primary contributors. Consumers are switching to wireless services taxed at a lower rate, as well as e-mail and Voice over Internet Protocol services from traditional long-distance.

Consequently, next year consumers’ taxes for the fee could increase to 12% from 9%. MIT economics professor Jerry Hausman calculates that the federal universal service fee is one of the most inefficient means of raising funds for the federal government.

The Schools and Libraries Program under USF, authorized to disburse up to $2.25 billion annually to schools and libraries, primarily in urban areas, faces particular problems. Congress held hearings this spring and found fraud. The Department of Justice and the FCC have many fraud investigations under way.

From 1997 through this summer, the Universal Service Administrative Company operated on a cash-flow basis, making commitments based on projected future revenue rather than cash in the bank. This summer the General Accounting Office concluded that USAC did not have sufficient reserves to meet obligations, thereby violating a federal law called the Anti-Deficiency Act.

USAC suspended making new commitments for telecommunications services and computer equipment to schools and libraries in August and resumed making new commitments only last week.

USAC itself was the subject of a 1998 GAO investigation that questioned the authority of the FCC both to create a private corporation and to delegate to it the administration of federal funds.

The Schools and Libraries Program has been politically sensitive since it was created seven years ago. Coordinated in part with the Gore presidential campaign in the late 1990s, the pro gram helped provide internal wiring to connect schools and libraries to the Internet. Today, practically all schools and libraries are connected to the Internet and have multiple sources of funding for updating equipment and software, yet the federal Schools and Libraries Program remains in place.

Congress can no longer ignore the USF’s problems. Stabilizing and preserving universal service on a sound legal footing is perhaps the top telecommunications issue for the new Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens. Previous chairmen have had other priorities.

Ironically, universal service was once both sound and stable. Until 1996, universal service was an almost invisible $2 billion program with clear accounting safeguards primarily supporting small rural telephone companies.

The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 came despite the reservations of many senators that telecommunications competition would benefit urban America at the expense of rural America. These senators, largely from rural Western states, insisted on specific provisions to “preserve and advance” universal service as it was known in 1996. In more direct language, money would continue to flow from urban America to small companies in rural Western states.

But, as with so much else about the Telecommunications Act of 1996, USF evolved in unintended directions. Between 1998 and 2003, the top three states receiving funds were California, Texas, and New York, the three most populous states. Much of the money flows into urban areas of urban states. The largest corporate recipient is Bell-South, hardly a small rural company. By any measure, the states represented by the chief advocates of universal service in 1996 have fared remarkably poorly under fund distributions.

American consumers are spending $6 billion on a program legislated for one purpose but commandeered for another. The program needs improvement now. First, Congress should find a more efficient funding mechanism, either general revenue or a fee applied to the 10-digit numbering system. Second, Congress should insist on better accountability of funds. Third, Congress should find a means to ensure that the program is narrowly tailored to its statutory language rather than being hijacked for the political causes of the day.

In short, universal service needs accountability. Senator Stevens is just the person to insist upon it.

Mr. Furchtgott-Roth, a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, can be reached at hfr@furchtgott-roth.com.