NARUC Lifeline Resolution Backers Say National Verifier Reduces Legitimate Users

The NV launched November in Colorado, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, and January in Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Dakota and South Dakota. An attorney for Lifeline providers last week said enrollment is down nearly 30 percent under Chairman FCC Ajit Pai and could drop another 30 percent (see 1901230036). NARUC passed a resolution in July urging the FCC to require application programming interfaces to be included in the NV so carriers can help low-income fund recipients with enrollment (see 1807180018).

“The FCC continues to push forward with these hard launches,” said resolution sponsor Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades: “It’s not been working in the states” that launched. Many low-income people could be denied support because the FCC has “created such a difficult framework for determining eligibility,” including by not accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Medicaid cards, said Rhoades.

Barriers to Lifeline seem by design, because certain FCC members “don’t like this program and would like to see it smaller,” the Democrat said. “Making it incredibly difficult for people to participate in it is one way to do that.” Rhoades noted she revised the resolution to clarify it blames the FCC and not Universal Service Administrative Co. for implementing commission policy.

“For two years, opponents of cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program have harped on the need for a National Verifier, which they have argued would solve the problem,” emailed an FCC spokesperson. “Now that the National Verifier is up and running, it’s curious that those same parties want to undermine its safeguards and delay its rollout. The unfortunate fact is that Lifeline has the highest improper payment rate of any program overseen by the FCC -- 21.93% -- and further reforms to prevent the abuse of these federal funds must be a priority.”

“The draft NARUC resolution is timely," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement: "USAC’s implementation of the National Verifier deserves scrutiny, including from states whose citizens could be impacted."

Users will lose coverage “not because they aren’t eligible, but because the national verifier does not function as it was intended,” emailed South Dakota Public Service Commissioner Chris Nelson (R). The former chair of NARUC’s Telecom Committee said he mostly agrees with the resolution: “Because the verifier does not query all of the necessary databases to determine eligibility, providers must still conduct manual verifications which increase their workload and makes for a very inefficient process.” Nelson hopes “this resolution, if passed, will convey to USAC the dire need for them to ‘finish the job’ they were given to provide a verifier that works.”

Idaho Public Utilities Commissioner Paul Kjellander wants to learn more at the NARUC meeting. The former Republican state House member hasn’t heard about any problems in his state since the NV launch. The idea behind taking a soft and phased approach is to identify problems and try to correct them before it’s fully rolled out, the Telecom Committee ex-chair said.

California has had an “extremely simple” and “highly successful” state program for years with no evidence of fraud, but the FCC wants to “reinvent the wheel” rather than use that state as a model, said Consumer Action Executive Director Ken McEldowney. Fewer will qualify for Lifeline unless there are changes, but the FCC seems to want to reduce the number of people on Lifeline, he said. The agency’s view of Lifeline is consistent with a general disconnect between the current federal administration and needs of the poor, he said.

The National Lifeline Association “repeatedly has sounded the alarm” about the national verifier and strongly supports NARUC adopting the Rhoades draft, said NaLA Chairman David Dorwart, representing Lifeline providers. States must have access to SNAP and Medicaid databases, and cards for those programs should be accepted as proof of eligibility, he said.

The resolution sees the “critical importance of rolling out the National Verifier in a customer-friendly manner, which also makes sure that only the eligible are enrolled,” a Tracfone spokesperson said. “There is no reason why the FCC cannot achieve both goals. Too much is at stake for policy makers to expect and demand anything less.” USTelecom and CTIA didn’t comment Thursday.

NARUC members filed one telecom draft resolution out of three across all committees for the meeting. The relatively few resolutions compared with past meetings might be partly due to the partial government shutdown, which made it harder to gather information and meant fewer policies requiring response, said Rhoades and Kjellander.