Affordable Communication Is Under Attack

The support structures that assist low-income families cannot work unless those in need have functional means of communication. Doctors monitoring children with fragile health, employers who can offer an extra shift to a struggling worker, nutrition support programs like SNAP which must confirm income eligibility — all these must be able to communicate with a low-income person, often within limited timeframes. Our collective and individual economic well-being is dependent on communications tools. But the current chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing to cut off almost 70 percent of the households that use the Lifeline program by cutting off the companies with the most popular and affordable Lifeline products. Not only that, but he is proposing to cut off support for voice service outside of rural areas and impose ineffective and administratively complex budget caps and mandatory co-pays which will particularly harm the most vulnerable on the program, including seniors and people with disabilities. The voices of people of faith and moral conscious can make a difference to this program and to the connective tools that will bring economic security to millions of people in the United States. We need to ensure that we do not become a society divided between the “information rich” and “information poor,” leaving struggling people without the tools to succeed in modern society.

[Cheryl Leanza serves as policy advisor to the United Church of Christ’s historic media advocacy ministry, UCC OC Inc]