House Lawmakers Fight Over Fast-Tracked GOP Lifeline Bill

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said his bill would restore Lifeline to its “original intent.” He said “serious issues” remain in the Lifeline program now, referring to circumvention of the national eligibility database. He called reining in Lifeline “simple good governance” given what he saw as its waste, fraud and abuse. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the Rules Committee and the lone co-sponsor, said on the floor Lifeline abuse “is more widespread than I first thought,” lauding the bill. “What we’re doing is we do not believe government has any business in funding the fraud that has been made available.” Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., also supported the measure. “This administration has continued to expand existing programs for their own political benefit,” Allen said, invoking the “Obamaphone” label.

GOP leadership bypassed the Commerce Committee in bringing HR-5525 to a floor vote. No Commerce Committee Republicans spoke on the floor in favor of Scott’s bill, introduced Thursday. A roll call vote was requested, slated for after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Both the legislation and Scott’s Financial Services Lifeline floor amendment on deck for possible floor consideration this week are “plainly inconsistent with long-standing communications policy and why it is important to allow the legislative process to work through the established committee process, as the Speaker has repeatedly urged,” CTIA President Meredith Baker told Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a letter. “This approach is inequitable and if it is Congress’ desire to end wireless provider access to the USF programs, that effort should be matched with a dollar-for-dollar reduction in what wireless providers pay into the USF.”

“H.R. 5525 not only ignores the exponential rate of mobile broadband adoption in recent years, but it also creates an undue new tax on American telecommunications consumers,” said Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry in a blog post. “By requiring providers to continue to contribute to USF and diverting funds to the U.S. Treasury for deficit reduction, the bill would take an existing user fee and convert it into an arbitrary new tax on telecommunications services.”

Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., led Democratic opposition on the floor and blamed Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “Today, Speaker Ryan and the Republican majority is bringing a bill to the floor that would eliminate the successful Lifeline program that provides millions of low-income Americans access to basic communications services,” Pallone said. “This bill will do absolutely nothing to help taxpayers. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill would essentially create a $1.2 billion tax. Specifically, the bill directs the FCC to continue collecting funds from the American people that had been used for the Lifeline program, but not pay any benefits out. Rather than cut taxes, this bill creates a new one.”

“I am surprised and disappointed that my Republican colleagues have chosen today to end that tradition of bipartisanship on behalf of struggling families,” Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., shouted on the floor. He said the bill would “take service away” from older Americans, students and unemployed workers. The bill “will not save a dime from consumers,” Takano said. Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., urged opposition: “The poorest of the poor are depending on you to vote no.”

The bill “does not eliminate the Lifeline program,” Scott countered on the floor. “It does move it back to landlines and away from the cellular services.” Pallone questioned Scott’s motivations and slammed the circumvention of committee process. “When it comes down to it, congressional Republicans already know there are significant problems with this bill,” Pallone said. “They don’t want it to pass. That’s the only way to explain why they came up with this cynical procedural move to ignore regular order and set up the bill to fail.”