Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on Lifeline program reforms to create more procedural hurdles and administrative burdens that risk making enrollment and participation more complex, more surveilled, and more punitive in an already underutilized program. Public Knowledge contends that the Commission should reimagine this proceeding to be more consumer focused by examining the central issues of affordability and what is preventing households from accessing the Lifeline program.
The following can be attributed to Alisa Valentin, Broadband Policy Director at Public Knowledge:
“For more than 40 years, Lifeline has been a program dedicated to meeting the communications needs of the nation’s most vulnerable consumers. Unfortunately, the item before the Commission fails to confront the central question of how the FCC can be more responsive to the growing affordability crisis.
“Too often, ‘waste, fraud, and abuse’ rhetoric is used as a political shield to sidestep meaningful reform and instead revives debates about ‘deservingness’ to distract from what is truly at stake. The stakes are clear: the rising cost of broadband service and the steady erosion of consumer protections at the FCC. When policy is driven by an FCC Chair who has an audience of one, all consumers ultimately pay the price.
“As Public Knowledge and our coalition partners emphasized in our meetings with offices, responsible stewardship of federal dollars alongside modernization of connectivity programs are important goals. Yet, this NPRM risks abandoning the agency’s role as a facilitator of universal service in favor of acting as a gatekeeper to access. Despite these concerns, we remain committed to advancing sound, consumer-centered proposals that strengthen Lifeline and uphold the Commission’s universal service mission both before the FCC and with Congress.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.