Critics on both the left and right say Ajit Pai’s FCC is hurting poor people

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says he wants to help poor people. “I have often said that my highest priority as chairman is closing the digital divide–the gap between those who have access to next-generation technologies and those who don’t,” he told a Senate committee in September when talking about reforms to a subsidy program called Lifeline. But critics say he’s doing the opposite, including with that very program. Unlike in the net neutrality debate, critics of Chairman Pai’s latest efforts are now coming from the left and the right. They’re calling it “the FCC War On The Poor.”

They organized a briefing headlined by the two Democratic FCC commissioners, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, and Reps Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Gwen Moore (D-WI). Chairman Pai’s plan to cut waste and fraud in the government’s Lifeline phone and internet subsidy program would restrict the $9.25 monthly discount to customers of major ISPs and phone companies, like Verizon and T-Mobile. That cuts out resellers like TracFone, which ride on top of the major carriers networks and are the most popular with Lifeline users.