Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act (HR-889/S-341) lead Senate sponsor Mark Warner, D-Va., is considering attaching the measure’s language to the House-approved Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (HR-7024) ahead of the upper chamber’s consideration of the package. Lobbyists question whether there’s sufficient momentum for swift action on HR-889/S-341 despite communications industry interest. Meanwhile, a potential bid to allocate $3.08 billion from an FCC reauction of 197 returned AWS-3 licenses to fully fund the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program (see 2401240001) is unlikely to become part of the 2024 National Security Act supplemental appropriations package but could be a factor in talks for other must-pass legislation this year.
Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)
What is the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)?
The Affordable Connectivity Program was a recently expired subsidy for low-income households to lower the cost of purchasing broadband internet and connected devices. The program was signed into law as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and administered by the FCC up until June 1, 2024, due to expiration of the ACP’s funding.
Will the ACP Return?
Congress continues to debate restoring ACP funding, with immediate next steps likely to come from the Senate Commerce Committee or Congressional discussions on revising the Universal Service Fund.
Allowing the affordable connectivity program to lapse would have “significant downstream effect” on the economy, said FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez during a Q&A at ITI’s Intersect event Wednesday.
Congress should extend the affordable connectivity program, Wisconsin Public Service Commission Chairperson Summer Strand wrote Tuesday. “The ACP is an effective resource for millions of families,” said Strand. “Access to broadband infrastructure alone is not enough to bridge the digital divide … The path to internet affordability starts by extending the ACP.”
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson urged leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees Monday night to “provide additional funding” for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program before its original $14.2 billion allocation runs out in April. Lawmakers are eyeing how to allocate as much as $7 billion in stopgap funding to keep ACP running through the end of this year (see 2401250075). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed last week that the Wireline Bureau will freeze new ACP enrollments Thursday as part of winding down the program (see 2402010075). “As more cooperatives, and other internet service providers, work to build broadband networks in hard-to-reach rural and low-income areas, affordability will become increasingly critical to adoption of these essential services,” Matheson said in a letter to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and their ranking members. “Should programs supporting affordability fail, it could jeopardize access to broadband services for millions of customers.” Ensuring “that there is a consistent, dependable, and effective low-income broadband program, such as the ACP, will allow rural providers to deliver the highest quality broadband service to their communities at an affordable price,” said Matheson, a former House Commerce member who represented Utah as a Democrat. Enacting the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which would infuse $7 billion into the program for FY24 (see 2401100056), “or similar legislation would provide important short-term clarity and certainty ... while Congress works to address questions around the future of the program and develop a permanent funding solution.”
State broadband officials shed some light Tuesday into NTIA’s process for recommending changes to states’ broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) initial plans. NTIA’s so-called “curing" process lacks the transparency from earlier in the process when states sought public comments on drafts, some state and industry officials said during an FCBA webinar. States said they expect to use a mix of network technologies to reach everyone who needs high-speed internet.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel confirmed to congressional leaders Thursday that the Wireline Bureau will move forward with freezing new affordable connectivity program enrollments Feb. 8 amid the continued push to provide the program stopgap funding to keep it running once its original $14.2 billion allocation runs out in April (see 2401250075). Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., is beginning to cite a recent FCC Office of Inspector General report on its audit of ACP’s 2022 performance (see 2401300090) as vindicating Republicans’ misgivings about the program, which some lobbyists believe may complicate those funding efforts.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel warned the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee Tuesday that despite the FCC’s best efforts, the affordability connectivity program will run out of funding in April (see 2401250075). DAC approved a report from its Audio Description File Transmittal to IP Video Programming Working Group. The other four commissioners also spoke Tuesday.
TruConnect urged the FCC to also freeze benefit transfers for affordable connectivity program subscribers when the new enrollment freeze begins Feb. 8 (see 2401110072. The company made its argument during meetings with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr, Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks. TruConnect also met with Wireline Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 21-450. "An enrollment transfer freeze may provide additional time for Congress to renew ACP program appropriations by enabling the program funds to last longer than the projected late April expiration of funds," the company said.
California should allow low-income consumers to apply for the state's LifeLine program without providing the last four digits of their social security numbers, consumer advocates told the California Public Utilities Commission Friday. The CPUC last month sought comments about expanding the program for those without SSNs (see 2312200019). Lifeline providers said they would consider it if the state makes up for a possible gap in federal funding and waives liability for incorrect enrollments.
The FCC has made “significant progress” in its handling of the affordable connectivity program during 2022, but “improvements were needed” in measuring and providing public transparency on grant recipients’ spending of program money, the Office of Inspector General said in a Jan. 22 memo to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and other commissioners that publicly circulated Tuesday. Some congressional Republican leaders have raised concerns about the FCC’s handling of ACP amid a push to provide the program stopgap funding to keep it running through the end of this year. The Wireline Bureau said earlier this month it would freeze new enrollments Feb. 8 as part of the program's wind-down process.