Maryland gives away nearly twice as many cellphones as there are residents eligible to receive them.
FREE STATE DISTRIBUTES NEARLY TWICE AS MANY
PHONES TO PEOPLE ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
AS ARE QUALIFIED TO RECEIVE THEM
ONLY OKLAHOMA’S RECORD OF ABUSE IS WORSE
A controversial program that provides free cellphone service to Americans on public assistance came under intense scrutiny Thursday as a congressional subcommittee overseeing the Federal Communications Commission’s “Lifeline” telephone program cited Maryland as one of the biggest abusers of the government giveaway.
Officials testifying before the committee told members the Free State distributes almost twice as many free cellphones as there are qualified people in Maryland to receive them.
Other leading state offenders are Oklahoma, Alaska, Louisiana, Arkansas and Georgia.
Members of the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology heard testimony from a variety of experts who said Lifeline had experienced explosive growth due in part to lax oversight and abuse.
The number of recipients of free phones in Maryland was nearly twice the total that should be eligible, the experts said, ranking the Free State as the second highest target, behind Oklahoma, for fraud and waste in the country.
Lifeline is a government benefit program that provides discounts on monthly telephone service, landline or wireless, for eligible low-income consumers to help ensure they have the opportunities and security that telephone service affords, such as being able to connect to jobs, family, and 911 services.
It is supported by the federal Universal Service Fund (USF), which was created in 1997 by the FCC.
Lifeline’s budget has swelled from $800 million in 2008 to $2.2 billion in 2012. The program is financed by a charge on private cellphone bills generally referred to as a universal access fee. The giveaways were originally limited to landlines, but cellphones were added to the program in the late 1990s and became ubiquitous in 2008 when prepaid carriers such as TracFone won approval to distribute cellular handsets.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn says the free cellphone giveaway program has become a symbol of federal government mismanagement.
“I think that what it has come to be is more or less a symbol of the mismanagement, not only within this program but with the entire USF and the FCC’s budget,” said Committee Member Marsha W. Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican.
In citing Maryland as one of the most egregious abusers of the program, an analysis was presented to the committee revealing the number of free recipients in the state exceeds the number of legally eligible households by nearly 100 percent, ranking Maryland second in the nation only to Oklahoma in terms of abuse of the system.
According to a report broadcast late Thursday by WBFF Fox45-TV, in 2012 the FCC audited more than six million Lifeline beneficiaries and found that nearly 40 percent could not provide proof they were eligible for the program.
An angry Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.) told the government officials at the hearing: “I don’t think you all understand the anger that’s out there in America over this.”
No action was taken Thursday by the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.
VoB Staff report
alforman@voiceofbaltimore.org
