Directs telephone corporations to use information regarding federal and state assistance programs that qualify recipients for telephone Lifeline service in offering such service.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2533
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 23, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. COMRIE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni-
cations
AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to providing for the
identification of federal and state assistance programs which qualify
recipients for telephone Lifeline service
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public service law is amended by adding a new section
2 92-j to read as follows:
3 § 92-j. Qualification for telephone Lifeline service. 1. The commis-
4 sion shall adopt rules and regulations, in accordance with federal laws
5 and regulations, which would require that every telephone corporation
6 offering a retail local service that is defined pursuant to subpart e of
7 part fifty-four of title forty-seven of the code of federal regulations
8 as a Lifeline service and receiving federal universal service support
9 pursuant to such subpart for such service provide such service to all
10 customers who are identified by such company through customer supplied
11 information or through information supplied by a third party as a
12 participant or eligible to be a participant in:
13 (a) any of the following federal or state assistance programs:
14 (i) medicaid,
15 (ii) food stamps,
16 (iii) supplemental security income,
17 (iv) low-income home energy assistance,
18 (v) state family assistance,
19 (vi) state safety net assistance,
20 (vii) veteran's disability pension,
21 (viii) veteran's surviving spouse pension,
22 (ix) national school lunch program,
23 (x) state earned income tax credit, or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03897-01-3
S. 2533 2
1 (xi) child health plus, as a recipient of free or subsidized health
2 coverage, or family health plus; or
3 (b) such additional federal or state assistance programs as may be
4 designated by the commission as a program that will qualify the partic-
5 ipant for such Lifeline rate.
6 2. The commission shall adopt rules and regulations, in accordance
7 with federal laws and regulations, establishing eligibility criteria for
8 consumers that are not enrolled in federal or state assistance programs
9 that would qualify such consumers for such Lifeline rate. For the
10 purposes of this section, the commission shall use solely income or
11 other factors directly related to income in determining the eligibility
12 criteria.
13 3. The commission will also establish rules requiring every cable
14 television company, as defined in section two hundred twelve of this
15 chapter that provides telephone service to customers in New York, to
16 contribute to the targeted assistance fund to help support companies
17 that choose to offer Lifeline service to their customers.
18 4. For purposes of this section, the "targeted assistance fund" is a
19 fund created in public service commission case 06-02-1998, and was
20 designed by the commission to fund programs such as Lifeline, emergency
21 services (E911), and the Telecommunications Relay Service for the hear-
22 ing impaired (TRS), on a competitively neutral basis.
23 § 2. This act shall take effect January 1, 2024.
