Clyburn Seeks Lifeline Sunset To Focus on Current Technology
DALLAS -- A leading government advocate for a Lifeline overhaul went a step further and sought sunset of the existing program to make way for updates reflecting current technology. In a Q&A Thursday at the Telecommunications Industry Association conference and in a subsequent interview, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn backed a rethinking of the program that she previously has said others have derided as "Obamaphone" though it "was created under President [Ronald] Reagan, and expanded to include cellphone service under the administration of President George W. Bush." Clyburn, who has long sought changes (see 1505220044), said an NPRM on the program is set for a June 18 FCC meeting vote. That item will seek to have the phone service subsidy pay for broadband connections (see 1505280037).
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Lifeline "has had its vulnerabilities, it has had its issues," Clyburn told the conference of the program that was set up to close a gap between those who couldn't afford basic phone service and those who could. Now, a third of Americans aren't connected to broadband, she said: "I say that we sunset the Lifeline program, we get rid of it, we come back with a 21st century product that meets the needs of those who are most vulnerable." If done "right, if we make this a 21st century model program," it can "meet the communications needs of those who are most vulnerable," who can eventually "graduate from the program," Clyburn said.
The Lifeline remarks came in the Q&A where Clyburn talked about looking after those less fortunate. She sees her charge to consider the obligations of "the most well heeled to those ... who have worn down their heels; we need to keep all of this in mind when we make a decision." The U.S. has "very significant pockets" where "we have some mandates we have not met," she said, saying the FCC National Broadband Plan was to her like "manna from heaven" and "forced us to look at what is important, what is missing" and how to bridge gaps. "The common platform that can bridge all of these things together is technology" and "we're at the epicenter from a regulatory standpoint," said Clyburn.
Don't think of Lifeline in a 1985 "sense," but in a modern one, Clyburn said in an interview about the program begun that year. "We cannot look through a historic lens." A "rebooted, reconstituted program" is needed to "really challenge how we can get competition in this space," she said. Clyburn hopes to "sunset [the] program and reconstitute Lifeline as we know it" as a means-based program for this century, she said: It should meet "the current needs of those who have economic challenges."
Clyburn also gave an update on FCC process reform efforts, which Commissioner Mike O'Rielly later said at the event he has been seeking. "We have been continually improving our internal processes," and items now are released within about three days of adoption, versus sometimes weeks, she said. Clyburn said Chairman Tom Wheeler named "someone from each of our offices" to work on an internal commissioner task force on how to improve management. She said the agency will "continue to be in a mode to be more transparent."
O'Rielly said he hopes for more process changes. O'Rielly, who has sought advance release of items commissioners vote on at meetings and other tweaks, said what he wants won't change the outcome of votes. That's because the chairman sets the tone, said O'Rielly. "He's still going to oversee 1,500 people, he's still going to set the agenda," while O'Rielly has five employees, he said. "It will not slow down items in any way." With O'Rielly often on the losing end on the "very few instances" when items aren't unanimous, he said that "there not a heck of a lot of negotiations when I am losing" on an item, so process changes won't make it more likely for him in the commission's political minority to prevail.