WASHINGTON, DC — Despite bipartisan support, a popular federal program that subsidizes internet access for tens of millions of low-income Americans is expiring at the end of this month.
The Affordable Connectivity Program offers $30 off your monthly internet bill and $75 off your monthly internet bill for eligible tribal land households. Eligible households can also receive his one-time discount of up to $100 when purchasing a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet.
What you need to know
- The Affordable Connectivity Program, which subsidizes internet costs for 23 million American households, will expire at the end of April.
- Despite bipartisan support, neither the House nor the Senate has passed an extension of the program.
- Some lawmakers want to force a vote in the House.
According to the White House, 23 million U.S. households are enrolled in the program, including 1.1 million households in Ohio, or nearly 1 in 4 households.
The program was part of a bill passed in 2021 to close the digital divide between those with internet access and those without. The bipartisan infrastructure deal provided $14.2 billion to subsidize internet access for low-income Americans.
The subsidies will be paid to internet providers, including Spectrum News’ parent company, Charter Communications.
A federal survey found that more than three-quarters of beneficiaries said losing their benefits would force them to change their internet plans or cut off their services altogether.
The program has already stopped accepting new enrollments and will be forced to cut off subsidies completely at the end of this month unless new funding is provided.
The $7 billion extension has 223 co-sponsors, including 202 Democrats and 21 Republicans. However, both the House and Senate have stalled with no votes, and lawmakers are increasingly dissatisfied.
“The excuses are always there. There’s too much going on. But this is something that’s important to people’s daily lives,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. “This could be added to any bill that passes the Senate or House.”
“I think it’s one of those things, like food and medicine, that we have to make sure everyone has access to. It’s really a necessary part of living in the 21st century,” said Sen. J.D. Vance. (R-Ohio) said in an interview in January.
Reps. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) and Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio) recently joined other House Democrats in calling for an update to the program.
Some Republicans, including Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), have raised concerns about oversight of the program and how it would be funded while cutting government spending. Latta said he supports renewing the program, but wants to find a sustainable way to pay for it.
In a statement, Latta’s office wrote:
“Congressman Latta is a strong advocate for ensuring that Americans have reliable and affordable access to the Internet. That’s why he joined the Universal Service Fund Working Group. We continue to work in a bicameral, bipartisan manner to find long-term funding solutions for affordable connectivity programs.”
Representative Yvette Clark of New York is collecting signatures to force a vote on the bill in the House of Representatives through an operation called an “exclusion petition.” However, his release applications are rarely successful, and only two of his cases in the past 30 years have resulted in new legislation.
Neither House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office nor Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office responded to requests for comment.
