BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Affordable Connectivity Program was created in 2020 during the pandemic. This will give low-income, veteran, and elderly households access to internet service as low as $30 per month.
Louisiana is actively engaged, with 62% of eligible households in the state participating, but these households could soon be cut off unless Congress approves more funding. .
EducationSuperHighway’s vice president of government affairs, Adeyinka Ogunlegan, is calling on Congress to provide additional funding for another year. Her organization works to close the broadband affordability gap.
“We have been asking Congress to allocate additional funds to continue the program because it is so important to so many families,” Ogunlegan said.
Without this program, many families would not have access to services that are a daily necessity for those who work from home or attend school online.
“They can use the internet to connect with their health care providers through telemedicine. That’s critical to their lives right now,” Ogunlegan said.
The program received more than $14 billion in funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but funding is now running dry.
“Everyone is lending a hand and we encourage more people to contact their legislators and ask them to allocate more funds to support this,” Ogunlegan said.
“Homeworkers like me cannot work from home without sustainable internet service,” Ogunlegan said.
Many Republicans and Democrats want more funding for the program, calling on U.S. senators like Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy to request an additional $7 billion to extend it into next year. ing.
Unless new funding is passed to extend the program, the program will end in April.
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