The White House is pressuring Congress to extend federal programs to help families access the internet.
The White House is asking Congress to extend a subsidy program that helps one in six American households get internet access, a move Joe Biden says will provide every American household with reliable broadband service. It represents a key element of President Biden’s pledge.
“For President Biden, the internet is like water,” Tom Perez, a senior adviser and aide to the president, said on a call with reporters Monday. “This is an essential public necessity and must be affordable and accessible to everyone.”
The Affordable Connectivity Program offers discounts on internet bills for eligible families. The discount is $30 per month for most families and up to $75 per month for families living on tribal land. A one-time injection of $14.2 billion into the program through the bipartisan infrastructure bill is expected to run out of funding at the end of April.
“Just as we would never shut off our water pipes in a moment like this, we should never shut off our high-speed internet, which is the pipeline to opportunity and access to health care for so many people across this country,” Perez said. he said. .
The program has broad support from public interest groups, local and state-level broadband authorities, and telecommunications providers large and small.
“We tried very aggressively to help our members access the program,” said Gary Johnson, CEO of Minnesota-based internet provider Paul Bunyan Communications. he said. “Frankly, it was about having internet or not. This is hardly a subsidy, it’s something that allows you to have internet at all.”
Paul Bunyan Communications, a member-owned broadband cooperative serving households in north-central Minnesota, began sending out notices last month stating that the program could expire without Congressional action. One of 1,700 participating Internet service providers.
“Internet access and its importance seems to be a bipartisan issue,” Johnson said.
In fact, the program serves about the same number of households in Republican and Democratic districts, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Biden has likened his pledge to provide affordable internet to every American household to New Deal-era efforts to bring electricity to much of rural America. Congress approved $65 billion in several broadband-related investments, including ACP, as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act in 2021. He visited North Carolina last month to tout its potential benefits, especially in large areas of the country that currently lack access to reliable, affordable internet service.
Beyond its direct impact on enrolled families, the revocation of the ACP could have ripple effects on other federal broadband investments and undermine trust between consumers and internet providers.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently proposed legislation that would keep the ACP going through the end of 2024 with $7 billion in additional funding, 10 billion dollars more than Biden asked Congress to appropriate for the program late last year. A billion dollars more. But no vote has been scheduled to advance the bill, and it’s unclear whether the plan will gain priority in a divided Congress.
___
Harjai reported from Los Angeles and is a corps member for the Associated Press/American Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
