23M low-income households appear set to lose internet subsides
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Congressional leaders did not include funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program in its final six spending bills.
About 23 million low-income households appear to be on the threshold of losing a $30-a-month subsidy for internet service after congressional leaders failed to include funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program in the final six appropriations bills.
Negotiators from the House and Senate on Monday announced that they had reached a bipartisan agreement to pass a spending budget and avoid a government shutdown. The details of the agreement were released early Thursday morning.
But U.S. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, a Democrat and supporter of the subsidy, told Route Fifty Wednesday that funding to keep the program running had not been included in any of the spending bills.
“It's really important,” said Welch, who had cosponsored a bipartisan bicameral bill in January to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP. “People will fall off because they won't get that $30-a-month subsidy [for internet access]. And a lot of them won't get back on.”
Indeed, unless Congress acts, funding for the program will run out at the end of April, according to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. If that happens, the FCC estimates that more than 17 million households will lose access to the internet or face disruptions in their service.
The agency has already started turning away hundreds of thousands of households seeking internet subsidies. According to FCC data, an average of 586,738 households a month and about 11,720 households per state had signed up for the program between January 2023 and January 2024.
Congress is not expected to pass its final six appropriations bills, including the Financial Services and General Government measure that funds the FCC, until just before the deadline at midnight Saturday morning. Given the tight timeline, Congress may have to pass another short-term spending measure to give members time to pass the bills over the weekend.
An FCC spokesperson declined to comment on funding for the ACP since Congress has not yet voted on the remaining spending bills.
Funding the program has been a top priority for local governments. Cook County, Illinois, Commissioner Monica Gordon, for instance, argued at a National Association of Counties press conference in February that the assistance “plays a pivotal role in bridging the digital divide” for the county’s 350,000 households on the program.
“Access to affordable internet is essential for individuals and families to fully participate in the modern economy and society,” she said.
President Joe Biden asked Congress last October to approve $6 billion to fund the ACP. And Welch said he will continue pushing Congress to pass a separate bill to keep the program running.
Sen. Patty Murray, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a supporter of the subsidy, did not mention the ACP at a press conference on Wednesday. But, she said, “these aren't the bills that Democrats would have written on our own. They are the result of very tough negotiations.”
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