Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said Tuesday that federal investigators uncovered widespread fraud in the Lifeline subsidy program, including tens of thousands of deceased individuals who were reportedly enrolled for benefits in California.
Carr addressed the issue during a policy discussion with Breitbart News. During the conversation, Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle asked Carr about steps being taken to combat fraud, referencing the administration’s announcement that JD Vance would lead a national initiative targeting fraudulent activity following directives issued by President Donald Trump.
In response, Carr explained the structure of the Lifeline program and why the FCC has taken a closer look at how it has been administered in California under Governor Gavin Newsom.
“The Lifeline program is a federal program that you pay for,” Carr explained. “It is effectively an assessment that appears on your monthly telephone bill. We collect that money, and it goes to do a lot of things, but one of the things it does is to provide subsidies for phone or internet service for low income households.”
Carr said that over the years the program has repeatedly drawn the attention of individuals seeking to exploit it.
“Well, turns out, over the years, it has been very attractive to fraudsters,” he stated. “And the FCC’s inspector general did a report and advisory and found that in California alone, over 94,000 dead people were signed up for and getting Lifeline in California — itself was in charge of vetting to see who’s eligible for Lifeline or not.”
According to Carr, the FCC has already moved to change how eligibility is verified in California.
“So we’ve now revoked California’s authority to conduct its own vetting,” Carr remarked. “We now make California join almost every other state to go through a federal vetting process for Lifeline and we’re putting in place a very simple two-part test.”
He explained that recipients must meet two basic criteria in order to qualify.
“To get these federal subsidies, you must be both a lawful and living beneficiary,” he continued. “Some people say we were setting the bar too high by a lawful and living beneficiary standard.”
Carr added that the FCC plans to strengthen verification procedures by making greater use of national databases that track deaths.
“There’s death registries, death databases that should be doing a much better job of vetting and checking. So we are starting a proceeding where we’re going to make sure that there’s a much better job being done of that,” Carr added.
The chairman also argued that problems with fraud extend beyond the Lifeline program, pointing to issues in California’s emergency response system.
“The fraud goes much beyond that,” he commented. “There’s also a recent story where Gavin Newsom came in, and I think in his first week in office, said he was going to improve the state’s aging 911 systems. You call 911 that’s a call that you always want to go through.”
Carr said the state invested heavily in an effort to modernize the system but that the upgrade ultimately failed.
“There’s an antiquated, outdated system in California,” Carr continued. “Gavin Newsom pledged $450 million to solve that antiquated, outdated 911 system. Once they upgraded the system, they turned it on, it didn’t work. So they’ve shut it down. Apparently, as best as I can tell, the $450 million is gone, and California is still stuck on the old, antiquated 911 system.”
Carr said the FCC has created a specific initiative aimed at identifying misuse of federal funding programs.
“So we are working hard at the FCC,” he said. “Again, we have a very specific work stream, just looking at instances of waste, fraud and abuse, and we’re going to continue to direct change. But again, millions and millions of dollars is just going up in smoke all across the country.”
When asked about consequences for individuals who participate in fraudulent schemes, Carr said regulators are exploring stronger penalties that would prevent offenders from receiving benefits from any federal program.
“There’s a whole — we call it debarment process, where if you’re caught violating one federal program, you should be kicked out from all federal programs,” he noted. “There’s been some holes in how that’s worked at the FCC, and we’re looking to close that out.”
Carr concluded by saying the commission is considering tougher enforcement measures to ensure that those involved in fraudulent activities face broader restrictions.
“So if you’re participating in a bad scheme at the FCC, you’re not just kicked out of FCC programs, but potentially all federal benefit programs,” he concluded. “And so we’re looking to be much more aggressive there with the bad actors.”
{Matzav.com}
