Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr appointed seven members to the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). Each position has a three-year term beginning on January 1, 2026, and ending on December 31, 2028. 

Public Knowledge and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance are launching the Connectivity Policy Corps, a nationwide program advancing digital inclusion and broadband policies that shape America’s digital future. The CPC will advance digital equity by elevating local expertise, storytelling, and community organizing into policy action that will inform debates surrounding broadband adoption and affordability to better connect and serve all Americans.

In response to a request from the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) staff, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) provided non-confidential information on application and enrollment data as it relates to the Safe Connections Act (SCA) of 2022. As of November 30, 2025, 5,429 applications were created for the emergency Lifeline benefit through the SCA.

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted an order that will save the American public millions of dollars. Specifically, this action denies a request by Lifeline providers to extend the FCC’s COVID-era waiver of the program’s non-usage rules. In their requests, petitioners wanted the FCC to interpret the COVID-era waiver as extending one additional day because doing so would allow them to receive federal subsidies for an entire additional month, despite the continued non-usage of the service.

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) submitted the contribution base amount to be used for the first quarter of calendar year 2026 (1Q2026). The total projected collected interstate and international end-user revenue base to determine the contribution factor for the Universal Service support mechanisms for 1Q2026 is $7,604,470,744. This amount was derived using the projected collected revenue reported on the FCC Form 499-Q submissions.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in May 2025 that the Universal Service Fund program is constitutional, Congress renewed its efforts to modernize the program. In August, the bipartisan, bicameral USF Working Group again invited public input through a request for comments on the future of USF funding structure and programs.

On November 20, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau released its decision to change how the Lifeline program is run in California. Specifically, the FCC decided to remove California's special permission to use its own Lifeline eligibility verification system instead of the federal system (the National Lifeline Accountability Database and  Lifeline National Eligibility Verifier). Starting February 1, 2026, California will lose its special permission to check eligibility for federal Lifeline applications using its own state system. Instead:

The Federal Communications Commission administers a multibillion federal program that provides low-income Americans with a discount on their phone and Internet services. Millions of people living in California have benefited from this federal Lifeline program. The FCC has a responsibility to ensure that states like California have safeguards in place to prevent abuse of the federal program and mechanisms that prevent federal dollars from flowing to ineligible people.

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, Senate Communications Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) urged the Commission to investigate whether federal communication subsidies are being improperly extended to undocumented residents. Citing California’s new law, A.B. 1303, which expands the state’s Lifeline program to “individuals not lawfully present in the United States” and bars cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Sen Cruz argues that such policies violate federal law and misuse taxpayer funds.

When the Supreme Court released its decision in June 2025 declaring that the Universal Service Fund is constitutional, telecommunications and broadband industry groups breathed a collective sigh of relief while also calling on Congress once again to pass reforms to strengthen and improve the USF, which supports several high-cost and low-income telecommunications programs to the tune of $8 billion/year.