HARRISBURG, April 20 - House Democratic Whip Mike Veon today talked about legislation he is sponsoring to enroll more eligible consumers in Lifeline, a federal program under which telephone companies provide deep discounts in basic service rates to qualifying low-income customers.

He was joined by advocates for affordable basic telephone service at a Capitol news conference to discuss the legislation (H.B. 2571), which he and 46 co-sponsors introduced to promote wider use of the Lifeline telephone service by low-income Pennsylvanians. Most Pennsylvanians who qualify for the program are not aware of its existence.

"The Commonwealth has a well-established policy to promote universally available, basic telephone service. That policy, though well intended, is falling short of helping hundreds of thousands of low-income Pennsylvanians it was intended to reach," Veon said.

"Automatic enrollment is working well in a number of states to increase the number of people using the Lifeline service, and it does not increase consumer costs or costs to the telephone companies."

Pennsylvania Consumer Advocate Irwin Popowsky noted that money for the Lifeline program comes from a surcharge on interstate long-distance phone bills paid by all Americans, but that Pennsylvania receives much less in benefits than its residents pay into the fund.

"For every dollar that Pennsylvania sent to Washington for this national fund in 2001, Pennsylvania received just a quarter in return," Popowsky said.

Many of the state's most vulnerable residents depend on the telephone to link them with the outside world. The proposed legislation would establish an automatic enrollment process in Lifeline, while also making the terms of enrollment more flexible.

"In 2001, Pennsylvanians paid $24 million into the federal universal service fund specifically for Lifeline, but our low-income consumers only received about $6 million in Lifeline assistance that year. The balance of the money went to other states. Because of low participation, we gave millions of our ratepayers' dollars away," Veon said.

"There is no acceptable rationale for leaving low-income residents, many of whom are elderly or have disabilities, without an opportunity to benefit from the savings that could be derived from Lifeline telephone service," Veon said. "Automatic enrollment as established in my bill is even more compelling because there is no requirement for matching state funds that would burden telephone companies or their ratepayers."

All the customers added to Lifeline through the enrollment provisions in the bill would only receive the discount derived from the federal universal service Lifeline fund.

Another important feature of the legislation would end the current prohibition on Lifeline customers having more than one optional telephone service, such as Call Waiting or Caller ID.

"People with special needs often depend on these optional services for their safety and well-being. It is unfair to lock out people already burdened by poverty and disability from the savings of Lifeline while maintaining telephone service that is often their only link to the protective public safety services in their community," Veon said.

"For example, a woman in Erie who lives alone and uses a wheelchair was the victim of harassing phone calls. Because of her limited income, she receives assistance in paying her energy costs, which means she also qualifies for the federally funded Lifeline discount.

"But because she subscribes to both Caller ID and Call Waiting, she is not allowed to receive the price discount on her basic phone service. My bill would lift that prohibition. She still would pay the cost of the extra services she needs for her personal security, but she would save money overall," Veon said.

The bill has the strong support of the state Consumer Advocate, the Citizens for Consumer Justice coalition, AARP, the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project and the Community Justice Project.

Under Veon's bill, any customer who is automatically enrolled in Lifeline may opt out if they choose not to get the discount.

Several states have initiated automatic enrollment programs. While Pennsylvania is historically a leader in the percentage of customers who have telephone service in their homes, the FCC recently reported that the state's penetration rate of service dropped and its ranking among the states fell from first to ninth.

Veon estimates that as many as 1 million state residents could benefit from this federal discount program.

Mary Bach, the chairperson of the Consumer Issues Task Force of AARP Pennsylvania, said only about 10 percent of the state residents who are eligible for Lifeline are enrolled, despite regular outreach efforts by Verizon and other local telephone companies.

She noted that AARP succeeded in getting automatic enrollment passed in New Jersey.

Harry Geller of the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project and Marty Berger of the Pennsylvania Alliance of Retired Americans also spoke in support of the Veon legislation.