FCC’s Carr, Newsom Clash Over California Payouts to Dead People

Brendan Carr, the chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission, accused California Governor Gavin Newsom of spreading “a lot of misinformation” after an agency report found the Golden State allowed thousands of dead people to enroll in a subsidized phone and internet program.

The FCC’s office of inspector general found that nearly 117,000 deceased people across California, Texas and Oregon received benefits from the Lifeline program totaling $5 million over a four-and-a-half year period ending in September. According to the report, released on Jan. 26, between 16,700 and 39,300 people were enrolled in the program following their deaths. Those three states are the only ones that didn’t use a federal participant verification system.