News
Millions of Americans are at risk of losing benefits used to afford high-speed internet service within months if funding is not renewed for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
It has been several months since President Joseph Biden (D) sent a supplemental funding request, to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, to the Republican controlled House of Representatives but the request seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
Nearly 23 million households nationwide rely on the program, which provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands, according to the FCC.
Households are eligible for the ACP if their income is at or below 200 percent of poverty guidelines set by the government.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s letter to several senators and members of Congress, dated Jan. 8, said current funding for the ACP will run out by April of this year.
“At this point, more funding is urgently needed to keep the ACP in place, so that it can continue to support the households that rely on it and reach others that may be on the wrong side of the digital divide,” her letter stated.
Rosenworcel wrote that, if Congress does not renew ACP funding soon, nearly 1,700 internet service providers will be impacted “and may cut off service to households no longer supported by the program.”
The expiration of the ACP would also undermine the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, “for which the ACP supports a stable customer base to help incentivize deployment in rural areas,” according to Rosenworcel.
In October, the Biden Administration announced a request for $6 billion in additional funding to extend the ACP through December 2024.
According to the White House, Biden requested the money be allocated as an emergency request as part of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. Several industry leaders, like the CEO of the Rural Broadband Association, applauded the request at the time.
Now, with no additional funding provided, Rosenworcel wrote that the FCC will begin taking steps to start “orderly wind-down procedures” to prepare for the end of the program.
Her letter declared FCC would provide guidance to ACP providers, announce a date for stopping the enrollment for new households, and determine a projected end date for the program.
“The ACP is in jeopardy and, absent additional funding, we could lose the significant progress this program has made towards closing the digital divide,” Rosenworcel’s letter concluded. “Yet we have come too far with the ACP to turn back. Accordingly, the Commission stands ready to assist Congress with any efforts to fully fund the ACP into the future.”
Copies of the letter were provided to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Rep. Steve Womack (R-AK), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN).
All serve as either ranking members or chairs for relevant committees and subcommittees, like the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, chaired by Van Hollen, or the Congressional Committee on Appropriations, where Hoyer serves as a ranking member.
