Commissioner Pai’s $500 million question highlights ongoing problems with Lifeline

[Commentary] Recently, Commissioner Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission dropped a telecommunication bombshell: the agency’s Lifeline program, much venerated in Washington circles but often derided outside the beltway, may be wasting nearly $500 million annually on fraudulent accounts. This announcement should be alarming, given the FCC’s extensive efforts in recent years to reduce waste in the federal universal service fund. It should also cast doubt upon the wisdom of the agency’s 3-2 vote earlier in 2016 to expand the program without hard budgetary limits, rather than designing a new universal service system to serve the broadband age.

[Daniel Lyons is an associate professor at Boston College Law School]