Potential Appetite for Lifeline Revamp Eyed Before Senate Commerce Hearing
Supporters and critics of the Lifeline USF program will closely follow a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing on issues identified in a critical May GAO report on the program for signs of whether the Senate has a sufficient appetite to pursue legislation to revamp parts of the program, lawyers and lobbyists said in interviews. The hearing and a Sept. 14 Senate Homeland Security Committee one will examine the GAO report, which said the Lifeline program’s management remains deficient despite FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. efforts to improve controls over finances and enrollment by low-income consumers (see 1706290037).
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Senate Homeland Security confirmed Tuesday that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will testify Sept. 14, as expected (see 1708300051). USAC acting CEO Vickie Robinson and GAO Forensic Audits and Investigative Service Director-Audit Services Seto Bagdoyan also will testify, the committee said. Bagdoyan and South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson will be among the five witnesses at the Senate Commerce hearing. Free Press Deputy Director Jessica González will also appear, the committee said.
González is likely to defend the Lifeline program and its recent revamp efforts, while Bagdoyan and the other witnesses are likely to argue that more significant changes are needed, three lobbyists said. "My underlying message to the committee will be that the federal government must work closely with the states to cooperatively manage and oversee the Lifeline program in order for it to effectively reach the low-income customers who truly need assistance," Nelson said in a statement.
Senate Commerce members' “energy level” during the Lifeline hearing may indicate whether there's any “real appetite” for advancing a legislative fix for the program, a telecom lobbyist said. Stakeholders will monitor whether “the tone of questions” that Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and others ask “represent a level of outrage that would be called for” to make a bill's passage feasible now, the lobbyist said. “The American people deserve better than a program so plagued by fraud, waste, and abuse,” Thune is expected to say at the start of the hearing. He criticized Lifeline oversight after the GAO report's release. One lobbyist voiced skepticism because Senate work on a Lifeline bill during the last Congress stalled (see 1606210064).
Lifeline is “ripe for reform” and Senate Republicans are “certainly open to reforming it,” but pro-revamp stakeholders are closely watching whether any Senate Democrats back Senate Homeland Security ranking member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., in calling for fixes, one pro-revamp lobbyist said. “It may take a Democratic champion to move something on Lifeline at this point because it's clearly easy to get 47 Senate Republicans” to back a revamp bill but a handful of GOP holdouts could doom the measure without some Democratic backing, the lobbyist said. “If McCaskill wants to be that champion,” it could ease the way for Senate action, the lobbyist said. McCaskill blasted the “complete lack of oversight” of Lifeline indicated in the GAO report, and Senate Homeland Security's hearing heightened speculation that McCaskill may file new Lifeline legislation. McCaskill's office didn't comment.
It's not clear what form a Lifeline bill from McCaskill or other senators would take, but possibilities could include reworking the never-introduced Lifeline budget cap legislation that McCaskill and Thune worked on last year or elements of the aborted 2016 budget cap deal between Pai and FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael O'Rielly, one telecom lobbyist said. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., refiled his End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act (HR-3546) in late July in a bid to curb the Lifeline program (see 1708020029). Sponsors of the Preserving State Commission Oversight Act (HR-1139/S-421), which would mandate a continuing role for states in designating eligible telecom carriers for participation in the universal service program, could be an oversight change for the Lifeline program (see 1702160074).
Lifeline's supporters largely aren't optimistic the Senate Commerce hearing will focus on a bipartisan compromise on Lifeline fixes, with some claiming a lack of balance given the presence of only one known supporter of the program in González. Balance “doesn't seem to be the purpose of the hearing,” said Davis Wright attorney Danielle Frappier, who represents Lifeline wireless providers. “We've gone through [these hearings] before and there never seems to be someone who will” point out how Lifeline's problems compare with those experienced in the E-rate program and other government programs, she said. The GAO report includes data up to only 2014 and therefore doesn't fully reflect fixes to Lifeline management and other program tweaks, Frappier said. But it's not clear the extent to which that will be clarified Wednesday, she said: “Lifeline should be fixed” but work on a revamp shouldn't be done in an environment of hysteria.