The Federal Communications Commission has signaled there are still concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic’s ongoing impact on broadband access.

On its own initiative, which means not in response to any request, the FCC's Wireline Competition bureau has extended the waivers of various Lifeline rules through Dec. 31, 2021. It is only the latest in a series of extensions as the pandemic continues despite vaccination and masking efforts.

Lifeline is the low-income subsidy program for advanced telecommunications, broadband and voice.

Over the course of the pandemic, the FCC issued eight different orders relating to various procedural hoops that it saw as hurdles during the medical crisis.

“[W]e find good cause to extend, on our own motion, our prior waivers of the Lifeline program rules governing documentation requirements for subscribers residing in rural areas on Tribal lands, reverification, recertification, general de-enrollment, and income documentation,” the FCC said.

“Extending the waivers … will allow additional time for the benefits of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination efforts to continue and will allow additional time for individuals who have lost jobs and faced other challenges as a result of the pandemic to recover,” it added.

The bureau also signaled that it could issue another extension if circumstances warrant.

A number of groups including Common Cause and the Open Technology Institute are calling on the FCC to provide unlimited talk and text to Lifeline recipients. 

Lifeline is the Universal Service Fund program that provides basic telecommunications services to low-income residents. 

Related: Bill Expands Access to Broadband Subsidies 

They want the change immediately and say it is to protect civil rights, specifically by providing equal access to life-saving services during the pandemic.  

They also point out that the services can help those assembled in mass protests against police brutality and systemic racism. 

Related: Jobless Numbers Cited in Call for Major FCC Lifeline Expansion 

"The pandemic has once again shone a light on the critical importance of telecommunications in health and education. Let’s ensure that we all can afford the connections that many of us take for granted," the groups told the FCC.

"Benton urges the FCC to act to help our most vulnerable neighbors during this national emergency. The pandemic has once again shone a light on the critical importance of telecommunications in health and education. Let’s ensure that we all can afford the connections that many of us take for granted," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, another of the groups seeking the change. 

Saying the FCC will still include broadband in its Lifeline low-income subsidies program, FCC chair Ajit Pai will return the eligibility portion of that program to the states and will not authorize nine federal lifeline authorizations he rescinded last month.

Related: FCC's Pai Rescinds Lifeline Eligibilities for Nine Telcos

“Going forward, I want to make it clear that broadband will remain in the Lifeline program so long as I have the privilege of serving as chairman," Pai said in a statement Wednesday (March 29).. "And we will continue to look for ways to make the program work even better."

Lifeline is a Universal Service Fund subsidy for basic telecommunications services for those least able to afford them.

But he also said the law was clear that it was the states, not the FCC, that had primary responsibility for approving which companies can participate, and that it was the FCC -- under his predecessor, Tom Wheeler -- that last year "snatch[ed] this legal responsibility away from states and decid[ed] to create its own federal ‘Lifeline Broadband Provider’ designation process."

Related: Pai Explains Lifeline Moves

He pointed out that a dozen states were challenging the FCC's federal eligibility framework in the D.C. federal court, that he was not going to defend it, and in fact would unwind it. "I am therefore instructing the Office of General Counsel to ask the D.C. Circuit to send this case back to the Commission for further consideration.  And the FCC will soon begin a proceeding to eliminate the new federal designation process," he said.

He also made it clear the FCC was not going to grant the pending eligibilities of a handful of new authorizations issued under Wheeler.

“I do not believe that the Bureau should approve these applications," Pai said, echoing his comments when he rescinded the authorizations, but now it wouldn't make sense given that he said the process is illegal. "[I]t would be irresponsible for the Bureau to allow companies to sign up customers for subsidized broadband service through an unlawful federal authorization process that will soon be withdrawn."

Pai cited a prominent Democrat for backup for his decision. "As Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) recently observed in introducing bipartisan Lifeline legislation with Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), we need to ‘return the role of state utility commissions in determining Lifeline eligibility. State utility commissions are key to policing against fraud and harmonizing federal and state initiatives that will help us close the digital divide.’"

Pai said by letting the states take the lead -- he signaled that with a decision to allow New York more flexibility in allocating Lifeline money -- "we will strengthen the Lifeline program and put the implementation of last year’s order on a solid legal footing. This will benefit all Americans, including those participating in the program.”

Expect Pai to get some pushback from Hill Dems anyway.

A bitterly divided FCC voted 3-2 along party lines to reform the Lifeline subsidy almost exactly a year ago following the collapse of an agreement among Pai, fellow Republican Michael O'Rielly and Democrat Mignon Clyburn that would have capped the fund, something Chairman Tom Wheeler did not want to do--eventually Clyburn said she could not support the cap either.

The collapse of the deal led to an investigation by congressional Republicans in how the deal fell apart.

FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly has asked the CEO of the Universal Service Administrative Co., which administers government telecommunications subsidies, for help in heading off potential waste in the E-rate (schools and libraries) program, specifically overbuilding of existing plans.

In a letter to CEO Chris Henderson, O'Rielly, who was named by new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as chairman of the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, said that in meetings with outside parties, his staff continues to hear concerns that universal service fund subsidies are being "wasted on overbuilding existing networks, some of which themselves are built with subsides from the USF high-cost program.

He wrote that in such cases, ratepayer dollars [from the Universal Service Fund, or USF] are going to support artificial competition.

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In his letter, O'Rielly included an article from a suburban Washington paper citing a suburban school system that planned to seek E-rate funding for a backup fiber network when there is a private company that has provided service to the schools, plus a county-operated broadband network also capable of serving the schools.

O'Rielly said he does not think that the subsidy rules allow for funding backup networks. "Instead, any universal service funding for broadband deployment should be targeted through the high-cost program to unserved communities most in need of support.

He wants the answers to a number of questions by Feb. 17, including how many applicants had sought subsidies for self-construction, how many of those would mean overbuilds, including their own networks, how USAC determines when self-construction is the most cost-effective method, and how many requests were denied because it was not the most cost-effective method.

FCC Chairman Pai has drawn some heat for withdrawing some Lifeline subsidies in part to come up with a better way to vet them for potential waste, fraud and abuse. O'Rielly backed Pai's decision.

The Lifeline program is also a USF subsidy.

The Senate Commerce Committee has released the findings of an FCC Inspector General (IG) report into the leak of information surrounding a failed compromise on Lifeline reform between Republican commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly and Democrat Mignon Clyburn.

The report concludes that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler did authorize "the release of the fact that a compromise order with a cap on Lifeline [might] be on the agenda," but that that was within his right as the chairman to change the nature of the information from nonpublic to public.

The conduct was neither improper nor illegal, but unusual, the IG said.

The report also concluded that the chairman did not authorize the disclosure of the amount of the cap on the fund, and "found no evidence that the information was provided to the press in an attempt to unduly influence the outcome of the vote."

FCC Communications Director Shannon Gilson explained to the IG that "throughout the morning of March 31st, the FCC Office of Media Relations had been inundated with calls from the press and that it was clear many reporters and stakeholders were already aware a deal was being crafted by Commissioner Clyburn and the Republican commissioners. Thus, because she felt it would be beneficial to get the story out accurately, Gilson sought and received authorization from Wheeler and Milkman to provide the press with high level details."

"The IG report found that the Chairman properly used his authority to make public certain information about the changing state of play regarding the Lifeline Order," said FCC press secretary Kim Hart. "The report also found that he did so in response to intense media interest in the item and to ensure accurate information was being reported, not to improperly influence another Commissioner as has been alleged."

An FCC official speaking on background called it "curious" that Wheeler staffers had very clear recollections of what happened the morning of the meeting, while staff in "other offices" could not recall details about their conversations with reporters.

Then there was the fact that while the IG found the chairman had not authorized the leak of the amount of the cap, it got out anyway.

“The findings by the inspector general reveal significant dysfunction and a lack of transparency at the FCC,” said Commerce Chairman Sen. John Thune. “Under the agency’s current interpretation, the FCC chairman is free to leak cherry-picked details about proceedings and deliberations while other commissioners are gagged and even kept in the dark about decisions by the chairman to approve such leaks. Worse yet, the FCC is not keeping a record of decisions by the chairman to disclose non-public information. This report is yet another indication of increased partisanship and dysfunction at the FCC that underscores the need for Congress to reform how the agency does business.”

Thune last April sought the investigation into how a compromise Lifeline proposal fell apart and what role the possible disclosure by the FCC of nonpublic information played in that process.

Wheeler had proposed a soft cap of $2.25 billion on the low-income Lifeline advanced telecommunications subsidy, which the FCC is migrating to broadband. That would have been an extra $750 million in spending and even that could be exceeded if necessary. Republicans were looking for a cap and the compromise was $2 billion and no going over that unless the FCC commissioners vote to raise it.

In a letter to Wheeler back in April, Thune said events surrounding the FCC's March 31 meeting, at which the Lifeline proposal was voted, raised "new questions about the Commission's policies for the disclosure of nonpublic information."

In launching the investigation, Thune said the delays were "highly unusual -- they certainly were for the generally punctual Wheeler commission -- and cited media reports, including Multichannel News/Broadcasting & Cable stories, about the compromise and the delay.

Thune said the leaks of info appeared "designed to engage outside interest groups to disrupt the deal struck between the Republican Commissioners and Commissioner Clyburn.

The March 31 meeting was delayed for over three hours after the Republican-backed compromise was struck and then fell apart after commissioner Clyburn decided she could not support a cap on the Lifeline fund, which subsidizes advanced telecom to low-income residents. The FCC is migrating the fund to broadband, but ultimately voted not to cap the fund, though approaching the $2.25 billion allocation would trigger a review of the fund.

How she came to that conclusion was what the Republicans wanted to know.

The Lifeline vote was 3-2, and particularly contentious, with the Republicans complaining about the collapse of the deal and laying blame at Wheeler's feet, suggesting he had tried to get stakeholders opposed to the cap to submarine the deal of which he was not a part. Wheeler has said there was no such strategy to kneecap the compromise, and the suggestion that there was "balderdash."