By Kelcee Griffis

Law360 (March 17, 2020, 7:35 PM EDT) -- The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday announced it is easing regulations for the Lifeline internet and phone subsidy program to make it easier for low-income households to stay enrolled amid the coronavirus pandemic.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said his agency is temporarily suspending or relaxing measures intended to lower the likelihood of fraud in the program, including lengthening the deadline for certain verification procedures meant to ensure program participants are legitimate.

"As Americans across the country turn to online services to enable social distancing measures, the importance of access to affordable communications, especially for low-income households, has only increased," Pai said in a statement. "I don't want any American consumers experiencing hardships because of the pandemic to lose connectivity."

Cracking down on subsidy abuses has been one of Pai's main goals as FCC head, and he's led the agency in rolling out a new verification system to make sure participants are truly eligible to enroll in Lifeline, which generally offers low-income households about $10 a month toward phone and internet bills. He also announced an investigation into whether Sprint and other carriers wrongly claimed subsidies for more than 1 million inactive Lifeline accounts.

However, Pai has also made maintaining connectivity a priority as schools close and Americans receive work-from-home orders in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which often causes flu-like symptoms in individuals and can lead to death. The agency recently made moves to expand telehealth funding, and nearly 200 phone and internet providers have pledged not to discontinue service to any customers. Internet service providers also promised to waive late payment fees and open carrier-specific Wi-Fi hot spots to the general public.

Meanwhile, Pai also praised local broadcasters for doing their part to keep communities informed and connected as major cities eye harsher measures to curb the spread of the virus. He said he spoke with station owners and industry representatives on the phone Monday, highlighting packages of public service announcements that the industry has made available in English and Spanish.

Public TV stations are also working with school districts to offer free educational resources to students experiencing school closures, according to America's Public Television Stations, a nonprofit that represents publicly funded broadcasters. The group said California, Nevada and Oklahoma are among the states making resources available through both broadcast and online platforms.

"These are examples of what public television stations do best: educate our children and serve our communities," said Patrick Butler, the group's president, in a statement. "Public funding by federal and state governments makes it possible for us to serve everybody everywhere for free, and in times like these the value of that investment is incalculable."

But there are still steps the FCC could take to expand existing connectivity options to more people, wrote the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition in a letter to the agency on Tuesday. For example, the FCC could clarify that schools and libraries that receive subsidized internet connections can open their networks to the general public without losing their funding. It could also allow educational institutions to purchase more bandwidth — given that last year's budget didn't foresee the demands a global health crisis — and suspend rules barring gifts so ISPs can donate additional capacity at no further cost to districts.

"Unfortunately, approximately one-quarter of people, including 7 million students, do not have access to broadband service at home," said John Windhausen Jr., executive director of the SHLB Coalition. "The FCC can and should take immediate action to leverage the broadband capabilities of our nation's community anchor institutions to make affordable broadband available to everyone."

--Editing by Alanna Weissman.

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