Democratic Senators Push FCC Chairman Pai to Reverse Lifeline Decision

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) are leading more than a dozen senators (all Dems except independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont) calling on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to reverse his decision to withdraw Lifeline broadband subsidy authorizations from nine companies.

Chairman Pai said the decision was due to 1) procedural errors, 2) because they were issued in the waning hours of the previous Administration, something Republicans warned against, and 3) because he suggested the FCC needed to hit the pause button on expanding the low-income subsidy program until it got a better process for monitoring for waste, fraud and abuse. The senators -- who also included Al Franken (D-MN), Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) -- said they were deeply troubled by the action. They said the chairman was undermining the program, making it more difficult for low income residents to afford critical communications services, and appearing to run counter to his pledge in the first days of his chairmanship to make closing the digital divide a priority under his watch. The senators pointed out that the customers of at least one of the nine would have to be disconnected.

Evoking section 706 of the Communications Act, they said that the FCC has an obligation to ensure “consumers in all regions of the country, including low-income consumers” have access to “advanced telecommunications services,” and asked him to reconsider the decision.