CPUC Commissioner Urges FCC To Grant Petition for Alternate IDs for Lifeline Verification

13. The CPUC said its petition is consistent with the FCC’s waiver that allows the state to administer Lifeline through its own database in lieu of the National Lifeline Accountability Database, in an ex parte filing posted Friday. Sandoval held separate meetings with FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel and members of their staffs. Sandoval also met with FCC Chief of Staff Ruth Milkman and Special Counsel-External Affairs Gigi Sohn in a joint meeting, met with Wireline Bureau Telecom Access Policy Division Chief Ryan Palmer and other bureau staff, and held a fifth meeting with Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc and other bureau staff. California verifies eligibility for 100 percent of federal and state Lifeline applicants, the CPUC filing said. The FCC-mandated use of SSN4 in 2012, but neither the federal government nor California has a similar requirement, the CPUC said. The CPUC’s January 2014 decision that extended the state’s Lifeline program to include wireless services recognized that the FCC’s SSN4 requirement makes the program “inaccessible for many Californians who are income or program eligible, do not have a Lifeline phone in their household, and would be eligible for Lifeline support, but for the lack of a SSN4,” the CPUC said. IDs that could be alternatives include a California driver’s license, a passport or a taxpayer identification number, Sandoval said during each meeting. She also lobbied for states to have access to the network outage reporting system (see 1502200026).