Grange pens letter to FCC in defense of Lifeline
The National Grange, the nation’s oldest rural advocacy organization, has filed many times at the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) to express support for the Lifeline program and its mission to make essential communications services affordable, especially for those living in rural communities. Today we are writing to support the filings in the above referenced docket from stakeholders about how critically important affordable broadband Internet service is to rural veterans.
As you know, approximately 1.3 million veterans (12 percent of all Lifeline beneficiaries) participate in the Lifeline program. As noted in the filing from NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA), veterans overwhelmingly come from, and return to, rural America, with approximately 24 percent of the Nation’s veterans living in rural areas.
