Warner & Kaine Push to Extend Funding for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Program to Lower Internet Costs
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and 29 of their colleagues in urging Congressional leadership to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is set to run out in a few months. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which Warner and Kaine helped pass, to lower high-speed internet costs for low-income Americans. Over one million households in Virginia are eligible for the ACP, and approximately 424,000 Virginia households are currently enrolled in the program.
“We write to urge you to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides over 21 million working families with financial assistance for broadband access, to help bridge the digital divide so they can continue to afford the broadband services they need for work, school, health care, and more,” wrote the senators. “Should ACP funding not be extended, millions of Americans could be at risk of losing access to broadband.”
“Failing to extend funding would be irresponsible,” they continued. “We urge you to extend funding for the ACP in a government appropriations package and include a long-term solution that ensures efficient spending of taxpayer dollars.”
Virginians can go to GetInternet.gov to sign up for the ACP and find participating providers in their area.
As Governors and Senators, Warner and Kaine have long championed efforts to expand broadband access and lower internet costs in Virginia. Virginia has received over $1.5 billion through the BIL to expand broadband. The Fiscal Year 2023 government funding bill that Warner and Kaine voted for included $364 million for the ReConnect program to help rural communities access the internet. During the pandemic, the senators secured significant funding for broadband through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the December 2020 government funding bill, which included COVID relief, and the American Rescue Plan Act.
In addition to Warner, Kaine, and Rosen, the letter was signed by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The full letter can be found here and below.
Dear Leader Schumer, Speaker Pro Tempore McHenry, Leader McConnell, and Leader Jeffries:
We write to urge you to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP); which provides over 21 million working families with financial assistance for broadband access; to help bridge the digital divide so they can continue to afford the broadband services they need for work, school, health care, and more.
The ACP has been crucial to increasing broadband connectivity for millions of Americans, allowing them to maximize educational opportunities, stimulate economic growth, lower health care costs, and increase telehealth opportunities, while also ensuring that Americans can access the tools necessary to succeed in our growing and diversifying economy. As you finalize a government appropriations package, we urge you to include full funding for the ACP as well as a long-term solution that provides a sustainable, responsible funding stream, so that millions of Americans don’t lose access to critical connectivity services.
Established in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the ACP lowers the out-of-pocket cost of broadband service and devices for working families. The program provides a monthly discount of up to $30.00 per month off the cost of Internet service and equipment as well as a one-time discount of up to $100 off a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet.2 In qualifying rural communities and qualifying Tribal lands, the monthly discount may be up to $75.00 per month. This means that hardworking families across the country, small business owners, veterans, and seniors are all able to receive financial assistance to afford high-speed internet.
We know how important having reliable broadband is to the over 21 million households participating in the ACP, representing approximately 41 percent of eligible households enrolled nationwide. More are signing up every day because they need assistance to afford broadband where they live, work, and learn. At the current rate of usage, if Congress does not appropriate additional funds to the ACP, the program’s funds will be exhausted in just a few short months, several years earlier than the target date in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Should ACP funding not be extended, millions of Americans could be at risk of losing access to broadband. We would take significant steps backward in the progress we’ve already made to connect more Americans to the internet through additional federal broadband investments. In just the last 6 months, we’ve invested billions of dollars to build out critical infrastructure, making sure the most rural areas of our country have access to broadband services. The ACP ensures families can now afford those services. We cannot let them face a connectivity cliff by letting this program run out of money with no future assistance.
Failing to extend funding would be irresponsible. Without an extension, nearly 21 million families already enrolled in the ACP will lose access to affordable broadband services that are critical to their everyday lives; and, should this funding lapse, hardworking families previously enrolled in the ACP would have to go through the process of reenrolling, creating unnecessary obstacles for obtaining affordable, reliable broadband.
Thanks to the ACP, access to broadband services is becoming a reality for families and providing new opportunities for success. If this is the digital future, we cannot shut people out. We must extend funding for this vital program to ensure that the families already signed up, and the millions of other families that are still eligible to sign up, are not forced off a program that has given them a lifeline to access high-speed internet, including essential access to work, school, and health care services. We urge you to extend funding for the ACP in a government appropriations package and include a long-term solution that ensures efficient spending of taxpayer dollars. We appreciate your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
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