Bipartisan bill aims to rescue broadband affordability program—just in time

Congressional leaders introduced a plan to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) for another year, the same week that the agency overseeing the low-income broadband program said it’s obligated to begin phasing it out.

The extension bill, rolled out Wednesday, is backed by Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate, reflecting strong bipartisan support for the program originally enacted as a pandemic response measure.

Bill sponsor Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said the package avoids a “funding cliff” at a critical moment so that needy households won’t lose access to key internet subsidies.

As Tech Brew previously reported, moderate Democrats asked their colleagues in November for $6 billion to continue the $30 monthly connectivity subsidies that flow to households already receiving low-income benefits like WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid. Wednesday’s package provides $7 billion for ACP’s continuity.

“This is a bipartisan, bicameral bill, and not like a bipartisan we-have-one-token-moderate bill,” Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel in the ACLU’s national political advocacy division, told Tech Brew. “There are multiple bill sponsors on both sides of the aisle here, and over 400 endorsements, which is the most endorsements I’ve ever seen for a bill. And I think that speaks to the fact that this bill is important.”

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told congressional leaders Monday that her agency must begin shuttering the program if they don’t step in imminently.

“Due to the lack of additional funding, and the fact that the projected end date is less than four months away, the Commission expects to begin taking steps this week to start orderly wind-down procedures to give participating providers, households, and other stakeholders sufficient time to prepare for the projected end of the ACP,” she wrote.

“The program initially came to life as a reaction to Covid-19 in 2021, at a time when Americans were adjusting to a new reality of working and learning from home and accomplishing most tasks virtually. It dovetails with the FCC’s preexisting Lifeline program, which offers a $9.25 per month discount on mobile and broadband plans to qualifying low-income households in a narrower slice of the population,” Tech Brew previously reported.

“The ACP’s voucher-like system, which lets individual users choose their desired plan and provider and includes wide participation among ISPs, has made it popular even among conservatives who might generally oppose additional government spending.”

According to an FCC fact sheet, nearly 23 million households have enrolled in the ACP since late 2021, and 1,700 broadband providers offer subsidized service through it.

Leventoff said the bills drew needed attention to the program’s short runway, which could galvanize its users to further pressure Congress to act.

“A big part of the idea behind this bill was to show that there’s a vehicle. There’s members that are thinking about this, championing this. Whether this bill moves or not, it creates a rallying point,” she said. “The problem is a lot of people who benefit from it just don’t know that that support is going to stop.”