Waste Watch Hundreds Of Millions In Waste Found In Federal Cell Phone Program June 13, 2012
EYEWITNESS ONLINE WEBCAST VIDEO C L I C K T O P L A Y
Eyewitness News continues to watch your tax dollars. We're taking a closer look at a federal program called Lifeline, which provides free cell phones to the poor. But did you know, you are actually paying for those cell phones.
Every person who pays their bill is helping to pay for those free government issued cell phones. It shows up as a "Federal Universal Service Charge" hidden among all those other fees on your cell phone bill. The money funds the Lifeline program, which provides free cell phones, with about 250 minutes on them to people who qualify for a long list of other types of government assistance. The lifeline program costs Americans $1.75 billion each year.
There has recently been a lot of concern about the program. It was established by the FCC in 1985 to provide a line of communication to everyone, even the poor. But in the past few years, the program has skyrocketed in cost and in scope. It expanded to cell phones in 2008, to help the poor look for jobs and have for emergencies. Now more than 13-million Americans have the connection.
The FCC admits there are real challenges facing the program. In just a few months, they've identified $200-million in waste. So starting this month changes are coming to the program, there's a new database, there will be pre-screening and they're implementing a one per household rule to try and cut out the waste and fraud but many like Representative Shelley Moore Captio are wondering if it will be enough. She says congress should take an even closer look at the program and questions how many people are actually using the phones to look for jobs.
If you have a government waste story, you can call us on our Waste Watch tipline, 304-346-1147, you can remain anonymous. You can also submit a tip to news@wchstv.com.
LINKS
Senate spent at least $381k since 2011 printing feel-good declarations The U.S. Senate has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on printing costs associated with passing simple resolutions declaring observances such as "National Chess Day," "National Safe Digging Month" and the "Year of Water."
CBO: Federal debt to double in 15 years Federal debt will double by the middle of the next decade and reach more than twice the size of the entire U.S. economy by 2037 unless Congress changes course on taxes and spending, the Congressional Budget Office said in its latest analysis.
Top GSA official tried to hide report on Vegas bash A top administrator at the General Services Administration who worked on President Obama's presidential transition team sought to keep secret the agency report that uncovered massive waste at a lavish taxpayer-funded GSA conference in Las Vegas, records show.
VP Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Weekend Trips Important: The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden's weekend trips is well over $1 million.
GSA Paid $1 Million in Bonuses to Staff Under Investigation The General Services Administration paid more than $1 million in bonuses to employees while they were being investigated for wrongdoing by the agency's inspector general, a U.S. lawmaker said.
Is TSA Wasting Millions of Your Tax Dollars? A new congressional report accuses the Transportation Security Administration of mismanaging its acquisition and management of airport screening equipment by storing millions of dollars in high-tech gear in a Texas warehouse instead of deploying it to airports
AP Exclusive: Waste watchdog got no-bid contract Gov. Rick Scott's chief of staff helped steer a no-bid consulting contract worth $360,000 to a friend who now leads a task force rooting out state government waste. Steve MacNamara was still working for the Florida Senate when he recommended Sarasota business consultant Abraham Uccello for the contract to streamline the Legislature's computer systems.
news@wchstv.com
