The FCC should help poor families enroll automatically in Lifeline...

the public and seek comment on whether families should be eligible for the programs when their income is 150 percent of the poverty level, instead of the current 135 percent, the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service recommended Friday. The joint board also recommended that the FCC use USF to support broadband access. The FCC had asked the board for its thoughts “on how to improve” the USF program “given changes that include increasing migration to wireless service and the increased importance of broadband.” Federal joint-board Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Michael Copps agreed and concurred in part. Clyburn said she wants the commission to publish a comparative guide for Lifeline customers. She also said the FCC “should review whether the current state of competition for Lifeline products is insufficient to protect consumers.” Copps said he worried that the joint board’s review was too narrow. “I would simply note here that the need for universal service support for broadband is one of many reasons I continue to urge Title II reclassification and our decision today does nothing to temper my support for that course of action,” he wrote. Chairman Ray Baum of Oregon’s Public Utility Commission, a joint board member, concurred and dissented in part. He said the joint board didn’t focus enough on waste, fraud and abuse. “I am disappointed that we did not offer specific recommendations for tougher eligibility verification standards, to be implemented now, to stem the waste, fraud and abuse that appears to be occurring,” Baum wrote.