OPINION:
Imagine that your phone shuts off tomorrow. It is not because you forgot to pay, but because you could not. There was simply nothing left over after rent and groceries.
Now there will be no calling your children’s school, no pulling up a job application due by midnight, and no checking whether you can pick up an extra shift.
For millions of Americans, this is not a thought experiment. It is a Tuesday.
Take a single mother who has to work nights at a warehouse just to make rent. She has no time to sit at a library computer and no extra $50 a month for home internet. Without a mobile broadband plan, she cannot be reached if her children need her. She cannot apply for a better-paying job. She is cut off from today’s world — and that is precisely what affordable broadband access would change.
The Lifeline program provides affordable broadband access to millions of American households who would otherwise have none.
In the National Lifeline Association’s 2026 subscriber survey of more than 83,000 enrollees, 96% said they cannot afford any monthly fee, and 85% said they would lose service entirely if they had to pay one.
More than 35,000 participants — 43% — had zero internet access before enrolling.
This is not a program subsidizing people who, without it, would continue to have the connectivity they need. It is the only thing standing between millions of Americans and complete isolation from everyday life.
Subscribers use it for what matters most: 81% to stay in touch with family, 66% for healthcare, nearly 40% for work and 30% for education. A grandmother connecting with her grandchildren. A veteran reaching a doctor. A job seeker filling out an application accessible only online. This is what essential connectivity looks like in practice.
The Universal Service Fund is a federal program overseen by the Federal Communications Commission and administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co., which collects fees from telecommunications companies to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable phone and internet services. USF encompasses four programs: Lifeline, E-Rate, Rural Healthcare and High-Cost.
Some have argued that many other federal programs support internet access, but that is not quite the full story. Although dozens of federal programs support building broadband infrastructure across America — including the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program and other USF programs — only one is designed to ensure that using those networks is affordable. That is Lifeline.
More than half of Lifeline subscribers do not have a bank account. Nearly half live in temporary housing or are unhoused. These people are not gaming the system; they are the people the system was built to reach.
Nearly all policymakers — Republicans and Democrats, industry and public advocates — agree that the USF needs reform.
These reforms will necessarily increase the cost of Lifeline, which has been kneecapped by a 2012 support amount that cannot provide the connectivity needed in 2026 for low-income households to thrive. Reforms must also fix how USF is funded — a need that has drawn bipartisan agreement among policymakers and industry stakeholders alike.
Most important, policymakers agree that this “contribution reform” is necessary. That consensus is rare in Washington.
You may have recently read about strong pushback against a contribution reform proposal that would require internet service providers to contribute to the USF for the first time — remarkable, given that nearly every USF dollar is spent to support internet access. This is where the consensus needs work.
The question of which companies contribute and how much is difficult, but the moment for resolution is now.
Given the essential and unduplicated nature of Lifeline, it is imperative that Washington not allow early positioning to form walls that block Americans from receiving these services.
This is not a partisan idea. It is a recognition that in a modern society, connectivity is the baseline tool for participating in work, school, healthcare and life as we know it, no matter your ZIP code — one-third of survey respondents said they live in rural areas.
Contribution reform is not easy, but it is necessary. Congress must find a way to structure it — or Congress will be the reason millions of Americans do not have full access to the program that keeps their phone line connected to family, the workplace, emergency services, teachers and childcare providers. That is Lifeline.
• David B. Dorwart is chairman of the National Lifeline Association.
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