Addressing the Risk of Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline Program

Senate Commerce Committee
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
10 am
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=7B8EB7...

Witnesses

• Mr. Seto Bagdoyan, Director, Audit Services, Forensic Audits & Investigative Service, Government Accountability Office
• Commissioner Chris Nelson, Commissioner, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission
• Ms. Deborah Collier, Director of Technology and Telecommunications Policy, Citizens Against Government Waste
• Dr. Jeffrey Eisenach, Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Adjunct Professor, George Mason University School of Law

The Lifeline program, which subsidizes telephone and broadband service for low-income consumers, was the subject of a recent study by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO). In its report, GAO describes recurring failures of evaluation and oversight creating persistent risk of waste, fraud, and abuse and threatening the ability of Lifeline to serve its intended purpose.