If the current Affordable Care Act debate has shown us anything, it’s that Americans stand staunchly opposed to having their hard-earned income taxed to fund fraudulent, wasteful, and in some cases necrotic ends. FCC Chairman Brenden Carr shares this sentiment and has demonstrated that he stands with everyday Americans by announcing proposals targeting fraud and program integrity for the FCC’s Lifeline program.
The Lifeline program was established by Congress to ensure that low-income Americans can receive affordable communications service. It is funded by the Universal Service Fund, which raises money through a “fee” that is really a mandatory tax phone services. This hidden tax currently amounts to nearly one-third of the price of phone service per consumer.
The lifeline program comes in the form of subsidized phone and internet services for low-income qualifying Americans, efforts which cost the nearly 1 billion each year to accomplish this task. The subsidies, however, don’t always go to those who are eligible.
An Inspector General Advisory released on January 26 reported that $5 million federal dollars aimed at providing subsidized internet services was sent to hundreds of thousands of dead people. Out of the three opt-out states the advisory looked at, 81of the fraud took place in California, which had been allowed until recently to run its own verification process.
Chairman Carr issued the following statement, which is worth reading in full:
“A recent Inspector General Advisory shows that Lifeline providers received nearly $5 million in federal dollars to provide phone or Internet service to more than 116,000 dead people in the three opt-out states. Over 80% of those scams took place in California alone. That type of waste, fraud, and abuse is completely unacceptable.
“Similarly, FCC regulations do not adequately ensure that these federal dollars flow only to people that are here lawfully. There has been a recent rise in non-citizens fraudulently obtaining social security numbers. And the current verification process does not do a good enough job at preventing duplicative subscriptions and similar abuse.
“So the FCC will be voting on a plan to address all of these issues. Your hard-earned dollars should only be going to those households that Congress intended to benefit.”
The Commission has taken several steps over the year to protect the integrity of the Lifeline program. In November of 2025 the FCC made the decision to require California’s adherence to the federal verification process that applies in nearly every other state.
Chairman Carr also announced an open meeting on February 18th to discuss the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. If adopted, the FCC will seek comment on several steps to protect the integrity of Lifeline including steps ensuring the support is used to benefit legal, living, and eligible Americans, streamlining the program to avoid shareholder confusion, and increasing the efficiency of the program.
To read the full IG report, click here.
ATR applauds Chairman Carr’s commitment to the rule of law, which will also save subscribers at least $5 million.
