Court Tells FCC Its Attack On Tribal Broadband Subsidies Wasn't Based On The Facts
from the back-to-the-drawing-board dept
While FCC boss Ajit Pai is best known for ignoring the public and making shit up to dismantle net neutrality, his other policies have proven to be less sexy but just as terrible. From neutering plans to improve cable box competition to a wide variety of what are often senseless handouts to the industry's biggest players, most of Pai's policies are driving up costs for the rural Americans and small entrepreneurs he so breathlessly pledges fealty to.
One of Pai's biggest targets has been the FCC's Lifeline program, an effort started by Reagan and expanded by Bush that long enjoyed bipartisan support until the post-truth era rolled into town. Lifeline doles out a measly $9.25 per month subsidy that low-income homes can use to help pay a tiny fraction of their wireless, phone, or broadband bills (enrolled participants have to chose one). The FCC under former FCC boss Tom Wheeler had voted to expand the service to cover broadband connections, something Pai (ever a champion to the poor) voted down.
Some of the most frequently ignored in the battle for better connectivity are native populations and tribal areas. Under Chairman Ajit Pai's "leadership," the FCC voted 3-2 in late 2017 to eliminate a $25 additional Lifeline subsidy for low-income native populations on tribal land. As part of Pai's effort he also banned smaller mobile carriers from participating in the Lifeline program, a move opposed by even the larger companies (Verizon, AT&T) that stood to benefit.
The courts didn't much like Pai's attack on what, by any measure, was a pretty modest subsidy with historically bipartisan support. Back in August of 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit stayed the FCC decision pending an appeal. That same court late last week issued a ruling (pdf, hat tip Ars Technica) reversing the FCC's decision, shoveling the entire affair back to the FCC to try again. The court ruling rather politely points out that the lion's share of the FCC's justifications for its attack on Lifeline appear to have been, for lack of a more technical term, pulled straight from the FCC's ass:
"The Commission's adoption of these two limitations was arbitrary and capricious by not providing a reasoned explanation for its change of policy that is supported by record evidence. In adopting the Tribal Facilities Requirement, the Commission's decision evinces no consideration of the exodus of facilities-based providers from the Tribal Lifeline program. Neither does it point to evidence that banning resellers from the Tribal Lifeline program would promote network buildout.
Nor does it analyze the impact of the facilities requirement on Tribal residents who currently rely on wireless resellers. Further, the Commission ignored that its decision is a fundamental change that adversely affects the access and affordability of service for residents of Tribal lands. Similarly, in adopting the Tribal Rural Limitation, the Commission's decision evinces no consideration of the impact on service access and affordability. Its decision does not examine wireless deployment data related to services to which most Tribal Lifeline recipients subscribe."
Again, that's the court effectively telling the FCC that it made a sweeping policy decision without looking at the actual evidence or listening to contrasting viewpoints. If you've followed along with the agency's facts-optional attacks on net neutrality, much of which is based on completely fabricated telecom sector lobbyist nonsense, none of this should be particularly surprising. Consumer advocates like the EFF were quick to wonder if other Pai-era FCC policy choices will come to be dismissed as similarly lacking in the actual evidence department:
I suspect we are going to see a trend here. This reminds me of the AT&T/Verizon petition to the FCC to end the competition policies Congress enacted in '96. Same rationale the FCC lost on underlies that petition, which is cutting off small ISPs will come make them deploy more. https://t.co/4Fuveqr6p3
— Ernesto Falcon (@EFFFalcon) February 4, 2019
Given the net neutrality fight (opening arguments for which began last Friday) hinges heavily on whether the FCC supported the repeal with hard data (it didn't), the courts may similarly find the FCC there too acted in ways that were "arbitrary and capricious" and detached from objective reality.
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Filed Under: ajit pai, arbitrary and capricious, broadband subsidies, digital divide, fcc
Reader Comments
The First Word
“In other news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic.
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Guess Richard Bennett's going to have to do some serious damage control.
Oxygen tanks might have to be involved...
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Gentlemen! This is the FCC you can't have facts in here!!!!!
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Ajit Pai where's loser dance video?
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Just sell more things!
Asked for comment, the GOP Senate chair heading up the committees on Tribes, low-income, homeless, and unprivileged families: " These kind of subsidies are useless today. It is simpler than ever to sell a stock yourself without high brokerage fees. All these residents have to do is sell some stock, or take business class instead of first class on their next flight they can easily replace this lost income."
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Re: Just sell more things!
and what do hey sell?? Smart people dont sell land.. And states have restricted them from creating MORE gambling casino's.. And buying trinkets to make more trinkets is F'ing expensive anymore.. Go buy yarn, and make 1 sweater, and it will cost you $40 materials, to Sell for how much?? Can you raise sheep, on their lands?? not without water.. Can you raise Cattle? barley...and without water?? Want an Indian head dress?? full of chicken feathers?? if the coyotes dont eat the chickens.. How about starting a wildlife hunting expedition...Without water?? and even if they did, WE WOULD REMOVE all the money we GIVE THEM, because they made money.. If they dig for metals, can you guess what would happen?? Corps would jump on them and have the WHOLE reservation MOVED, so that the CORP could make more money..(been done before).
The person that wrote your comment has no history in WHAT has happened, what could happen, and what DOES happen..
Unless you are willing to DO THE JOB of protecting them, and their lands, and helping improve those....YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
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"The Commission's adoption of these two limitations was arbitrary and capricious by not providing a reasoned explanation for its change of policy that is supported by record evidence. "
... this sounds just like an arbitrary & capricious decision by the court.
All regulatory agencies routinely make arbitrary and capricious decisions -- that's why they exist as independent arbiters
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In other news, water is wet and the Pope is Catholic.
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How Adorable...
...thinking that "Facts" have any value to the FCC - or any other government agency.
The usage of "Facts" died along with "Truth" quite a while ago.
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The court is wrong. The FCC action WAS based on facts. They just happened to be the alternative facts that Pai and his owners preferred.
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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151022/09232532594/fcc-has-to-remind-isps-not-to-spend-taxpayer- subsidies-booze-trips-to-disney-world.shtml
Meanwhile, Native Americans and other poor are the real drain on the USF here... :rolleyes:
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Are these the same people shouting about illegal immigration?
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Awesome work
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great work
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Well shared
I think the court was wrong. their verdict was not good by the way.
Thanks for sharing it.
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Thanks
Thanks for writing this useful article keep writing you are a great author thanks a lot
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