Chairman Wheeler's Response to Senator Vitter Regarding Waste, Fraud and Abuse in the Lifeline Program

On October 24, 2014, Sen David Vitter (R-LA) wrote to Federal Communications Chairman Tom Wheeler regarding the FCC's efforts to curb waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program, and particularly the Commission's Office of Inspector General's (OIG) request for Section 1811 criminal investigators. On December 29, 2014, Chairman Wheeler responded by saying the FCC's Fiscal Year 2015 appropriation does not provide additional requested funds to fully deploy a Universal Service Fund strike force, but that despite this funding situation, the FCC has achieved considerable success in reforming all the USF programs, including Lifeline.

He wrote, "We also have significantly increased our efforts to tackle waste, fraud and abuse in the Lifeline program, including coordination with OIG and the Department of Justice on various joint investigations. Our Lifeline enforcement actions during the last two years include twelve Notices of Apparent Liability proposing over $90 million in fines against companies for violating rules limiting Lifeline subscriptions to one subscriber per household." He went on to write that, "In addition to its aggressive enforcement efforts aimed at Lifeline program noncompliance, during 2013 and 2014 the FCC carried out eight enforcement actions involving violations of its USF contribution rules, resulting in payments to the U.S. Treasury totaling approximately $3.3 million."