WASHINGTON — Since his first day on the job, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to make closing the digital divide and helping working-class families a priority of his administration. Since then he’s embraced policies and positions that do the opposite, including dismantling the Lifeline program, which subsidizes phone and internet access for families struggling to make ends meet.

Pai’s attack on Lifeline is just one of several actions that disproportionately harm low-income communities while concentrating media power in the hands of the elite. His FCC has also failed to defend reforms to exorbitant prison phone-call rates, blocked opportunities for communities to build their own broadband networks and repealed Net Neutrality protections that guarantee everyone has access to an open network.

On Thursday, Voices for Internet Freedom is hosting a congressional briefing to discuss how the FCC’s war on the poor harms the most disadvantaged in our society. Please join us:

WHAT: Congressional Briefing: The FCC’s War on the Poor

WHO: Opening remarks by Rep. Gwen Moore, Rep. Maxine Waters, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

Panel discussion by Erin Shields (Center for Media Justice), Rudy Gallardo (Lifeline subscriber), Cheryl Leanza (United Church of Christ), Olivia Wein (National Consumer Law Center), Lillian Tillman (former Lifeline subscriber).

WHEN: Thurs., March 8, 12-1:30 p.m. (Lunch will be provided.)

WHERE: Room 2044, Rayburn House Office Building, U.S. Capitol

CONTACT: To organize interviews contact Sandra Fulton: sfulton@freepress.net.

The event will be livestreamed here: facebook.com/centerformediajustice/.

Voices for Internet Freedom is a coalition of organizations fighting to protect the digital rights of communities of color. Voices'