New bill targets CA’s ‘Obamaphone Fraud’ after state collected millions for dead people’s phone, internet service

A federal lawmaker introduced legislation Thursday aimed at cracking down on alleged fraud within a federal program that paid for dead people’s phone and internet service.

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is targeting the federal Lifeline program, which subsidizes the services for low-income Americans, after California was accused of taking in $3.8 million between 2020 and 2025 to cover the costs for 94,000 dead people.

“While Californians are taxed to the grave and back, its governor especially can’t pass the buck when the state is allowing providers to enroll dead people in a federal program,” Ernst told The Post.

A U.S. senator from Iowa introduced legislation Thursday aimed at cracking down on alleged fraud within the federal Lifeline program, accusing certain states, including California, of sidestepping federal safeguards meant to prevent abuse.

“While blue states are turning a blind eye to festering fraud, I’m working to stop it dead in its tracks,” Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, exclusively told The Post. “Lifeline – aka Obamaphone – is a grim reaper of a program that has funneled nearly $5 million worth of taxpayer funds to almost 117,000 deceased subscribers.”

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The legislation, titled the “No Lifeline for Dead People Act,” would require all telecommunications carriers to use the federal government’s National Verifier system to confirm a recipient’s eligibility before enrolling them in the program. The bill would effectively eliminate the ability of states to rely on their own eligibility systems in place of the federal verification process.

The federal Lifeline program subsidizes phone and internet service for low-income households.

Ernst is citing a report released last month by the Federal Communications Commission inspector general that found California received approximately $3.8 million between 2020 and 2025 for nearly 94,000 subscribers who were deceased.

“These subsidies cannot continue to R.I.P. off hardworking Americans, so I’m cutting off ‘Lifeline’ for dead people – they don’t need it anyway,” Ernst said.

While California accounted for the largest share of questionable enrollments, the FCC report also found alleged fraud beyond “blue states.” Significant verification gaps were also identified in Republican-led Texas, which was permitted to opt out of the federal National Verifier in favor of a state-managed platform. Oregon was another state named in the report.

Of the 116,808 deceased individuals in opt-out states, roughly two-thirds (77,446) died after they were enrolled, the according to to the report.

“The FCC acknowledges that the vast majority of California subscribers were eligible WHILE ALIVE, and that any payments made were largely due to lag time between death and account closure, not enrollment failures,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

Ernst’s office said the bill would permanently require use of the National Verifier system nationwide and prevent states from opting out in the future, arguing that stronger federal oversight is needed to prevent fraudsters from enrolling deceased individuals and collecting taxpayer-funded benefits.

Newsom’s office said what the bill was trying to address was “not fraud.”

“People pass away while enrolled in Lifeline. That’s not fraud, that’s the reality of administering a large public program serving millions of Americans over many years,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told The Post. “Since Undertaker Ernst is obsessed with helping rush people to their graves, you’d think she would know that already.”

Ernst is the latest addition to the phone and interest service fiasco.

Brendan Carr blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom on X in January, writing, “Gavin Newsom’s California was by far the worst offender of these opt-out states,” as the debate over alleged Lifeline fraud escalated online.

Newsom’s office quickly fired back, posting a “fact check” disputing the characterization and pointing to federal acknowledgments that most subscribers were eligible while alive.

The PUC, which oversees the state’s LifeLine program, also pushed back in a statement, noting that federal officials recognized the vast majority of enrollees qualified before their deaths and that improper payments largely reflected delays in closing accounts — not enrollment failures.

“We take program integrity seriously. But it’s misleading — and political — to single out California. This is a nationwide issue, not a California scandal,” the commission said.