The White House puts pressure on Congress extend a grant program which helps one in six American families afford internet access and represents a key part of President Joe Biden’s promise to provide reliable broadband service to every American home.
“To President Biden, the internet is like water,” Tom Perez, a senior adviser and aide to the president, said on a Monday call with reporters. “This is an essential public necessity that should be affordable and accessible to everyone. »
The Affordable Connectivity Program offers eligible families discounts on their internet bills: $30 per month for most families and up to $75 per month for families living on tribal lands. The one-time $14.2 billion infusion for the program through the bipartisan infrastructure law is expected to run out by the end of April.
“Just as we would not cut water pipes in a time like this, we should never cut off high-speed internet which is a pipeline to opportunity and access to health care for so many people across this country,” Perez said. .
The program has broad support from public interest groups, local and state broadband officials, and large and small telecommunications providers.
“We’ve been very aggressive in trying to help our members access the program,” said Gary Johnson, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications, a Minnesota-based Internet service provider. “Frankly, it was whether they had internet or not. It’s practically not a subsidy: it allows them to have access to the Internet. »
Paul Bunyan Communications, a member-owned broadband cooperative that serves homes in north-central Minnesota, is one of 1,700 participating Internet service providers that began sending notices last month saying the program could expire without congressional action.
“It seems to be a bipartisan issue: Internet access and how important it is,” Johnson said.
Indeed, the program serves almost equal numbers of households in Republican and Democratic congressional districts, according to an AP analysis.
Biden compared his promise of affordable internet access for all American households to New Deal-era efforts to provide electricity to much of rural America. Congress approved $65 billion for several broadband-related investments, including ACP, in 2021 as part of a bipartisan infrastructure bill. He visited North Carolina last month to tout its potential benefits, particularly in large parts of the country that currently lack access to reliable, affordable internet service.
Beyond the immediate impact on enrolled families, the expiration of the ACP could have a ripple effect on the impact of other federal broadband investments and could erode trust between consumers and their Internet service providers.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently proposed a bill to support the ACP through the end of 2024 with an additional $7 billion in funding, a billion more than Biden’s. asked Congress to take ownership for the program late last year. However, no votes are planned to advance the bill, and it is unclear whether the program will be prioritized in a divided Congress.
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Harjai reported from Los Angeles and is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.