A Fla. state lawmaker whose Miami-Dade district includes a substa...
A Fla. state lawmaker whose Miami-Dade district includes a substantial proportion of low-income households urged the PSC to adopt a pending proposal for automatic Lifeline enrollment. Lifeline participation among eligible Fla. households is “profoundly disappointing,” State Rep. Juan Zapata…
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(R), member of the House Business Regulation Committee, said. The state loses $30 million annually in payments to the federal universal service fund “because the Lifeline and LinkUp programs have essentially been permitted to fail,” he said. Automatic enrollment would cut that deficit and provide “deserving and eligible Floridians [with] the services for which more fortunate Floridians have paid,” he said. The proposal by the Office of Public Counsel and AARP would require local exchange providers to work with the PSC and Dept. of Children & Families, automatically enrolling all Fla. households that qualify for public assistance. In a related action, the PSC granted Attorney Gen. Charles Crist’s (R) request to become a formal party to the Lifeline enrollment case. Crist said he supports automatic Lifeline enrollment.