Media Contact: 
David Grossman, (202) 418-2100
david.grossman@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER CLYBURN
On the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Lifeline Report
  -
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2017 – The following statement can be attributed to FCC 
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn:
“We have a statutory obligation as a Commission to ensure all Americans, including low income 
consumers and those living in rural and insular areas, have affordable voice and broadband 
access. Recognition of this responsibility goes hand-in-hand with my long stated belief that we
must aggressively root out waste, fraud, and abuse in all of our universal service programs, 
including Lifeline.
“In recent years, the Commission has taken numerous steps to achieve this goal, including setting 
up a national eligibility verifier, adopting a periodic recertification requirement and ensuring that 
people who are signed up are actually using their service. The Lifeline program already has a
very low improper payment rate of 0.45%, and it must be noted, that many of the issues 
highlighted by the GAO’s report will be addressed by the national eligibility verifier. I am 
pleased that the work on this effort is proceeding as planned, and will work with my colleagues 
to address all of the GAO’s recommendations. 
“Today the FCC’s Lifeline program remains the only means-tested universal service program, 
where only the consumers who cannot afford to be connected are given the ability to do so. So
while we invest in the infrastructure needed to bring connectivity into every community in 
America, we must not forget that ‘if we build it, they will come’ only holds true if the services 
are affordable. 
“Some may use the limited findings of this report as justification to cut back on the Lifeline 
program even further, but that would be catastrophic for those most in need. The answer is not 
denying access to those who cannot afford connectivity and access to critical services like 911, 
the next steps should include rolling up our sleeves and addressing any imperfections that
remain. 
“We have a choice to make: be short-sighted and weaken a program designed to assist our 
nation’s most vulnerable or fix what may be broken so that this agency is actually upholding its
Congressional mandate to ‘make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United 
States…a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service 
with adequate facilities at reasonable charges…for the purpose of promoting safety of life and
property….’  
“Instead of widening the digital divide, let us have an honest conversation about how to make 
voice and broadband even more affordable and accessible for economically challenged
Americans.”
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Office of Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: (202) 418-2100
Twitter: @MClyburnFCC
www.fcc.gov
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official
action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).