During the Pandemic, the FCC Must Provide Internet for All

During Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s tenure, the number of Lifeline recipients has decreased by 40 percent and the program’s budget has shrunk accordingly. Less than 20 percent of Americans who are eligible for Lifeline take advantage of it. While Chairman Pai cloaks his so-called Lifeline “reforms” as efforts to root out “waste, fraud, and abuse,” the majority of his actions have little to do with maintaining the integrity of the program and more to do with harming its recipients.

If we want to make sure all Americans can participate fully in our society, our economy, and our culture during this national emergency and beyond, the FCC’s war on Lifeline must stop. If the agency is not willing to strengthen and expand the program even on a temporary basis, then Congress, in its next stimulus bill, must mandate that it do so. Anything less will ensure that the digital divide in this country will remain a yawning gap.

[Gigi Sohn is a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Benton Institute senior fellow and public advocate.]