Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr discussed fraud in the federal Lifeline subsidy program during a Breitbart News policy discussion Tuesday, citing a report from the FCC’s inspector general that found more than 94,000 dead people signed up for benefits in California.
During the conversation, Breitbart News’s Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle asked Carr about actions targeting fraud and referenced the administration’s announcement that JD Vance would lead a national effort to combat fraud following directives from President Donald Trump.
Carr responded by describing how the Lifeline program operates and why regulators have scrutinized its administration in California under Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The Lifeline program is a federal program that you pay for,” Carr explained. “It is effectively an assessment that appears on your monthly telephone bill. We collect that money, and it goes to do a lot of things, but one of the things it does is to provide subsidies for phone or internet service for low income households.”
Carr said the program has historically been vulnerable to abuse.
“Well, turns out, over the years, it has been very attractive to fraudsters,” he stated. “And the FCC’s inspector general did a report and advisory and found that in California alone, over 94,000 dead people were signed up for and getting Lifeline in California — itself was in charge of vetting to see who’s eligible for Lifeline or not.”
Carr revealed the FCC has already taken steps to change how eligibility for the program is verified in the state.
“So we’ve now revoked California’s authority to conduct its own vetting,” Carr remarked. “We now make California join almost every other state to go through a federal vetting process for Lifeline and we’re putting in place a very simple two-part test.”
“To get these federal subsidies, you must be both a lawful and living beneficiary,” he continued. “Some people say we were setting the bar too high by a lawful and living beneficiary standard.”
“There’s death registries, death databases that should be doing a much better job of vetting and checking. So we are starting a proceeding where we’re going to make sure that there’s a much better job being done of that,” Carr added.
“The fraud goes much beyond that,” he commented. “There’s also a recent story where Gavin Newsom came in, and I think in his first week in office, said he was going to improve the state’s aging 911 systems. You call 911 that’s a call that you always want to go through.”
“There’s an antiquated, outdated system in California,” Carr continued. “Gavin Newsom pledged $450 million to solve that antiquated, outdated 911 system. Once they upgraded the system, they turned it on, it didn’t work. So they’ve shut it down. Apparently, as best as I can tell, the $450 million is gone, and California is still stuck on the old, antiquated 911 system.”
Carr outlined how the FCC has established a dedicated effort to examine potential misuse of federal funds and subsidy programs.
“So we are working hard at the FCC,” he said. “Again, we have a very specific work stream, just looking at instances of waste, fraud and abuse, and we’re going to continue to direct change. But again, millions and millions of dollars is just going up in smoke all across the country.”
When asked about accountability for individuals involved in fraudulent activity, Carr said regulators are considering broader penalties that could prevent violators from accessing federal programs entirely.
“There’s a whole — we call it debarment process, where if you’re caught violating one federal program, you should be kicked out from all federal programs,” he noted. “There’s been some holes in how that’s worked at the FCC, and we’re looking to close that out.”
Carr added that the commission is examining ways to strengthen enforcement mechanisms.
“So if you’re participating in a bad scheme at the FCC, you’re not just kicked out of FCC programs, but potentially all federal benefit programs,” he concluded. “And so we’re looking to be much more aggressive there with the bad actors.”
