Civil rights group: ?GAO Report Bolsters Need for Lifeline Broadband Expansion?

Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor for the United Church of Christ's media justice ministry and co-chair of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Media and Telecommunications Task Force, explains how a recent Government Accountability Office report reiterates the need for Lifeline expansion:

The Lifeline program allows our nation’s most vulnerable communities to maintain telephone service that would otherwise be unaffordable – service that is essential for connecting with loved ones, searching for employment, pursuing further education goals, engaging fully as citizens, and calling 911. But a recent GAO report, commissioned by Sen. John Thune, R. S.D., to evaluate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) reforms to the Lifeline program, quickly drew fire from some Republican leaders. They allege that the FCC should not work on expanding the program to broadband until it addresses points raised in the GAO report.

But to call to a halt the FCC’s planned reform efforts based on this report would be to ignore its findings.

GAO found that the FCC has fully implemented seven reforms designed to increase accountability and strengthen internal controls. The most important reform—the duplicates database, which ensures that participating telephone companies are not double dipping – has been fully implemented. About 2.2 million duplicate enrollees were eliminated between 2011 and 2013 under the FCC’s reforms, saving $260 million.

And while Lifeline’s critics have alleged that the increase in the size of the program over the last 10 years is evidence of fraud, GAO found that the large increases in Lifeline enrollment may well have been because of increases in poverty. GAO found that the number of Lifeline-eligible households increased by 15 percent between 2008 and 2012, from 35 million to 40 million. SNAP enrollment also increased 64 percent from 2008 to 2012.

GAO Report Bolsters Need for Lifeline Broadband Expansion (The Leadership Council, May 8, 2015)

Expand Lifeline to include broadband (Speed Matters, Mar. 16, 2015)

Civil rights group urges expansion and improvement of Lifeline (Speed Matters, Mar. 18, 2015)