FCC proposes restricting phone and internet subsidies to citizens only

The FCC created the Lifeline program in 1984 under Ronald Reagan to make sure low-income families could afford basic phone service

Congress later codified universal service in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and the FCC expanded Lifeline to cover wireless in 2005 under George W

Bush and broadband in 2016 under Obama The program has always been bipartisan It currently provides $9.25 per month toward broadband or $5.25 for voice-only service to eligible households.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr released the draft NPRM on January 28, 2026, and the full commission voted to adopt it on February 18

The proposal asks for public comment on dozens of potential rule changes, from fraud prevention to eligibility restrictions to data collection requirements

Public comments are due 30 days after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register This is the most comprehensive proposed overhaul of Lifeline in over a decade.

The FCC Office of Inspector General found that Lifeline providers claimed reimbursements for more than 116,000 deceased subscribers across 🌴California, 🤠Texas, and 🌲Oregon over a four-and-a-half-year period ending in September 2025

🌴California accounted for roughly 94,000 of those cases

The total cost was approximately $5 million Chairman Carr revoked 🌴California authority to run its own verification process and now requires federal verification for California applicants.

The NPRM most consequential proposal would classify Lifeline as a federal public benefit under PRWORA, the 1996 welfare reform law signed by Bill Clinton. PRWORA restricts federal public benefits to U.S. citizens and qualified aliens, which includes green card holders, refugees, and asylees but excludes DACA recipients, TPS holders, people with pending asylum applications, and undocumented immigrants. Qualified aliens may also face a five-year waiting period before becoming eligible.

The proposal seeks comment on requiring all Lifeline applicants to provide their full nine-digit Social Security number instead of just the last four digits. It also proposes using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database to check immigration status. Privacy advocates warn that collecting full SSNs from millions of low-income people creates a massive target for identity theft and data breaches.

Commissioner AGAnna Gomez, the only Democrat remaining on the five-member FCC, voted against the NPRM. She accused Chairman Carr of proposing the same cruel and punitive eligibility standards recently imposed for Medicaid coverage and warned the changes would exclude seniors, people with disabilities, rural residents, and Tribal communities. Gomez said she supports anti-fraud measures but not new barriers that block eligible people from enrolling.

Nine advocacy organizations lobbied FCC commissioners against the proposal before the vote

Public Knowledge, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, and the National Consumer Law Center met with staff from each commissioner office

The National Lifeline Association, which represents Lifeline providers, supported the anti-fraud provisions but warned that the current $9.25 monthly subsidy is far too low NaLA noted that Lifeline plans offer just 4.5 GB of mobile data, not enough for job searches, telehealth, or children schoolwork.

The PRWORA classification creates a legal precedent that could affect other FCC programs funded through the Universal Service Fund, including E-Rate for schools and libraries, the Rural Health Care program, and the High-Cost program for rural carriers. If Lifeline qualifies as a federal public benefit subject to immigration restrictions, advocates worry the same logic could be applied to broadband infrastructure programs. The Congressional Research Service has documented ongoing legal debates about which federal programs PRWORA actually covers.