Carr Levels Particular Criticisms at California Over Lifeline Controversy
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr singled out California on Thursday, criticizing its Lifeline verification and indicating that the commission would take a particularly hard look at the state for possible Lifeline fraud. The FCC's February meeting will include an NPRM about restricting funding to only American citizens and a few classes of non-citizens and about not letting “opt-out” states use their own verification processes (see 2601280058). The agency last year revoked California's ability to do its own Lifeline verification because the state barred the sharing of information about subscribers with federal agencies, including immigration authorities (see 2511200031).
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Carr and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) got into a social media fight Wednesday over an FCC inspector general advisory alleging that Lifeline providers in California, Texas and Oregon got nearly $5 million in Lifeline funding to provide phone or internet service to 116,808 dead people (see 2601270051). The advisory said California accounted for 94,596 of that total.
Asked if the FCC was taking a particular look at California, Carr said Thursday that the level of Lifeline controls in the state are "really concerning." Speaking to media after the agency's regular monthly meeting, the chairman said the commission was "going to make sure we hold bad actors accountable." The FCC would also look at a variety of remedies, he said. He didn't mention Texas or Oregon.
Carr argued that any action taken to reduce people wrongly receiving Lifeline would be an economic boon for consumers, since they ultimately pay higher contributions on their phone bills when the number of Lifeline recipients is inflated.
Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez said the Lifeline NPRM is "deeply political," with the FCC targeting California "to tip the scales against perceived political enemies of this administration." The issues California faces as a larger state "are being weaponized and amplified to call for wholesale revisions of this proven and effective legal federal program."
Gomez said the FCC will end up taking away support from eligible subscribers, not just fraudulent ones, and new, complex requirements and delays in subscriber benefits will lead some to drop out. The supposed fraud found by the inspector general is minuscule compared with the overall size of the program, but the FCC is using those findings as justification to go far beyond the inspector general's recommended solutions, Gomez added.
The inspector general called for the FCC to "recover funds paid to providers for deceased individuals who were claimed as subscribers" and reverify subscriber eligibility to de-enroll any who are deceased. The advisory also recommended that all opt-out states be required to share all subscriber enrollment and transfer information with the National Lifeline Accountability Database/National Verifier "to ensure duplicate enrollment detection and prevention." It made no recommendations about immigration status, and its report doesn't address the issue.
The California Public Utilities Commission posted on social media Wednesday that the FCC acknowledges that "the vast majority of California subscribers were eligible and enrolled while alive," and improper payments "reflect lag time between a death and account closure, not failures at enrollment." The CPUC called it "misleading -- and political -- to single out California" for a nationwide issue.
Carr replied that Newsom was "misleading the public about this concerning California fraud." The inspector general advisory "specifically identified the tens of thousands of people that were enrolled 'AFTER THEY HAD ALREADY DIED.' " It also made clear that payments to providers for people who died or may have died before enrollment went on for several months on average, and sometimes as long as 50 months, Carr said. "Normal 'lag time' does not account for all of that."