Whether FCC’s Lifeline Program is a Benefit Subject to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

The Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a "slip opinion", concluding that the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program constitutes both a "Federal public benefit" and a "Federal means-tested public benefit" under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), the federal welfare reform law. Because Lifeline meets both definitions, the program must comply with PRWORA's eligibility restrictions, which generally limit federal benefits to U.S. citizens and certain categories of lawfully present non-citizens ("qualified aliens"), and bar most qualified aliens from receiving means-tested benefits until they have been in the country for at least five years. OLC's rationale rests on two main pillars: first, that Lifeline is a form of "welfare" or similar public assistance funded by appropriated federal funds—specifically, the Universal Service Fund (USF), which the FCC, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Government Accountability Office all treat as a permanent, indefinite appropriation—and second, that eligibility is determined by income or financial need, satisfying the definition of a means-tested benefit. OLC further concluded that the FCC's current enrollment practice of collecting a Social Security Number (SSN) from prospective subscribers is insufficient to verify immigration status, because non-qualified aliens and those who have not met the five-year residency requirement can nevertheless obtain an SSN. As a result, OLC told FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that the agency must implement additional verification safeguards—and noted that the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system, administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), is one available tool FCC could use to verify immigration status, subject to a data-use agreement with USCIS.