Chairman Carr Sees Dead People

On January 27, 2026, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Carr posted a press release announcing that the FCC will vote on a reform proposal so that “only living and lawful Americans participate in the Federal Lifeline Program.” A motivating factor in the reform, the press release continued, was the finding from the FCC’s Inspector General report that 116,000 dead people used the Lifeline program. Over nearly five years, this cost taxpayers $5 million in costs to reimburse carriers. Specifically, the FCC’s Office of Inspector General found 116,808 deceased beneficiaries between December 1, 2020, and September 30, 2025. According to the Universal Service Administrative Company, the Lifeline program spent $4.92 billion from 2020 to 2025. Since the OIG report does not include the final three months of 2025, we will subtract the average monthly 2025 Lifeline expenditure from the overall 2025 figure to arrive at $4.69 billion in Lifeline expenditures for the period covered by the new OIG report. As a percentage of total Lifeline disbursements, the “dead people on Lifeline” problem is small—just 0.1 percent of all expenditures.