Rep Blackburn Wants Answers From FCC on Lifeline

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) took aim at the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program and wants the FCC to freeze the program until it can answer whether the government subsidy for telecom service to low-income Americans was used by terrorists.

In calling out the program, she repeated her invocation of the Boston bombers from an April 24 hearing on the program, saying in a release, "The fact that the FCC can't even comment on whether or not the Tsarnaev brothers, the Boston Marathon bombers, participated in the Lifeline program is further proof the program is mismanaged and dysfunctional." Reps Blackburn and Tim Griffin (R-AR) said the program remains "plagued" by waste, fraud and abuse and called on the FCC to freeze the fund until she got answers. The letter also said that Lifeline-supported phones are "often" found at crime scenes and used in drug deals, citing law enforcement officials.