The head of the Federal Communications Commission seeks to subsidize broadband internet access for low-income Americans by expanding a program that currently helps them pay for phone service.
In a May 28 statement on the FCC website, Chairman Tom Wheeler said it was time to bring Lifeline, a program dating to the Reagan administration that helps low-income Americans afford basic phone service—and, since 2008, mobile phone service—into the Internet age.
“In 2015, broadband access is essential to find a job: more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 job openings are online,” Wheeler wrote. “Americans need broadband to keep a job, as companies increasing require basic digital literacy skills. We rely on broadband to manage and receive healthcare, and to help our children do their homework. A 2012 study estimated that broadband helps a typical U.S. consumer save $8,800 a year by providing access to bargains on goods and services.”
“While more than 95 percent of households with incomes over $150,000 have broadband, only 48 percent of those making less than $25,000 have service at home,” he added. “A world of broadband “haves” and “have-nots” is a world where none of us will have the opportunity to enjoy the full fruits of what broadband has to offer.”
Lifeline has come under attack by Republicans in the recent past over claims that the program is ridden with fraud and abuse. Wheeler’s plan is already coming under attack from some Republican lawmakers.
“It’s no great secret that the Lifeline program is full of fraud and has very few accountability standards in place to prevent abuse,” U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said in a statement posted on his website. “Why the FCC wants to expand this program before addressing the regular reports of ongoing fraud is beyond me…I cannot support any expansion of a program that has so few safeguards in place to protect the legitimacy of the program and the American taxpayers who pay into it.”
Wheeler’s proposal is expected to face resistance from Republicans similar to Wheeler’s ultimately successful effort to have broadband internet regulated as a public utility earlier this year.