Trump's FCC today voted to move forward with its plan to slowly dismantle a program that helps bring broadband to the poor. The FCC's Lifeline program was created by the Reagan administration in 1985 and expanded by Bush Junior in 2005. It provides a modest $9.25 month credit to homes struggling to make ends meet that can be used on wireless, phone, or broadband service. And while the program has seen its share of fraud and waste over the years, since 2013 the FCC had been making notable strides in cleaning up the program.
Instead of fixing the problems with the useful program, FCC boss Ajit Pai is slowly but surely making moves to dismantle the program entirely.
Today the agency voted 3-2 along partisan lines (pdf) to impose new limits on the program, potentially preventing low income homes that qualify for the program from receiving the modest subsidy. The FCC is also taking steps to prevent smaller independent ISPs from doling out subsidies to qualified applicants. Some of the changes take effect today, while some of them will be passed after a brief public comment period.
Critics of the vote -- like FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, say the restrictions on non-incumbent ISPs is a not-so-subtle effort to drive broadband customers on independent ISPs back into the hands of incumbent ISPs.
"Over 70 percent of wireless Lifeline consumers will be told they cannot use their preferred carrier and preferred plan, and on top of that, they may not have a carrier to turn to after that happens," Clyburn said.
Consumer advocacy firms like Public Knowledge were similarly unimpressed by the FCC's latest decision.
"There is already widespread consensus in the FCC’s docket by consumer advocates, civil rights organizations, Tribal groups, and telecommunications service providers that the FCC’s new anti-Lifeline proposals are wrongheaded and counterproductive to Chairman Pai’s oft-stated goal to close the digital divide," wrote the groups. "Of the 50+ filings in the docket in the three weeks since the FCC published its Lifeline proposal, there is no support for the FCC’s plan, and dozens of filings from veterans, senior citizens, civil rights organizations, Tribes, and the wireless industry explicitly urge the FCC not to move forward with its plan to stifle affordable broadband access for America’s most vulnerable."
Harold Feld, a lawyer focusing on telecom issues and consumer rights, had even less kind things to say about the FCC's latest decision.
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56 members of Congress also sent a letter to Ajit Pai lambasting him for dismantling, instead of repairing, a program that has historically had bipartisan support.
"If your newly proposed changes were implemented, they would jeopardize access for countless individuals who use the internet to look for employment and educational opportunities, to access social services, or to find crucial health information," the lawmakers wrote.