A bipartisan group of senators and representatives introduced legislation that would provide an extension of funding for a program meant to ensure that low-income households have access to broadband internet but that has been criticized by conservatives as wasteful.
The bill introduced Wednesday, the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, would provide an additional $7 billion in funding to the Affordable Connectivity Program, which offers more than 22 million households in the United States a $30 per month subsidy that can be put toward fixed or mobile broadband providers.
“I’m introducing the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act so more folks can connect to the internet they need,” Sen. Peter Welch posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The legislation was sponsored by Sens. Welch (D-VT), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Reps. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).
The ACP was enacted in November 2021 as part of the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure legislative package, which dedicated $14.2 billion to the program.
More than 1,700 participating internet providers may “cut off service to households” if the funding ends, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel wrote in a letter to Congress this week. Rosenworcel said the program would be wound down if funding was not extended.
Yet prospects for the legislation are uncertain, particularly in the Republican-led House, because of criticism from Republicans that the spending has mostly served to send money to people who did not lack access.
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“I have repeatedly expressed concerns regarding ACP’s ineffectiveness in promoting broadband adoption and wasteful enrollment of those who already had high-speed internet,” Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner. Cruz added that it would be “absurd to give billions of the taxpayer’s money to this program without a total overhaul” of the ACP program.
While the ACP is intended to help Americans save money, some economists found that it actually made internet access more expensive for all United States residents. Costs rose by $2.2 billion a year for broadband customers in aggregate because of the program, according to a report by the Economic Policy Innovation Center.
