FCC Chairman Carr Proposes New Reforms to Ensure that Only Living and Lawful Americans Participate in Federal Lifeline Program

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the FCC will vote in February on proposals to reform the Lifeline Program, which accounts for nearly $1 billion in spending every year. These proposals are designed to enhance program integrity, prevent fraud, and ensure that federal dollars go only to eligible low-income Americans. The Lifeline program provides a discount on phone and Internet services for qualifying low-income Americans, but in recent years, rampant abuse of the system has been uncovered, necessitating a closer look at the FCC’s rules. A new Inspector General Advisory shows that Lifeline providers received nearly $5 million in federal dollars to provide phone or Internet service to hundreds of thousands of dead people. The Advisory, which looked at the three opt-out states, shows that 81 percent of this fraud took place in California while the state had been allowed to run its own process to verify subscriber eligibility. Chairman Carr recently revoked California’s ‘opt-out’ status.