Former President Donald Trump’s selection of Senate Commerce Committee member Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate puts a backer of additional funding for the FCC’s lapsed affordable connectivity program on the presidential ticket of a party that has many members who criticized the initiative. Vance is lead Senate GOP co-sponsor of the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565) and subsequent Secure and Affordable Broadband Extension Act (S-4317). Both propose giving the affordability program billions of dollars in stopgap funding for FY 2024 (see 2401100056). Vance also helped lead an unsuccessful bid to include $6 billion in ACP funding in May as part of the 2024 FAA Reauthorization Act (see 2405090052). Vance, a freshman senator, opposed former-FCC nominee Gigi Sohn and Commissioner Anna Gomez during their confirmation processes last year (see 2307120073).
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.
States hope they can increase federal engagement on telecom no matter who is president in 2025, current and former state utility commissioners said in interviews. In a possible second Donald Trump presidency, “the states and localities are really going to be where broadband policy is made,” predicted Gigi Sohn, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society senior fellow. Some said there is a lot of uncertainty about how a Trump administration might change rules for state grants under NTIA’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau removed K20 Wireless and its CEO, Krandon Wenger, from the commission's list of providers participating in the affordable connectivity program. In addition, it barred them from participating in any successor program. On Tuesday, the bureau denied K20 and Wenger's request to stay its removal order following a May order claiming they "engaged in serious, willful misconduct in violation of multiple ACP rules." In an investigation, the bureau found K20 "changed the non-tribal residential addresses associated with subscribers to false addresses on tribal lands when it transferred the subscribers to its ACP service." Providers receive a greater subsidy when tribal households are offered the benefit. A proposed $8 million fine was not imposed in the removal order (see 2405100032).
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that overruled the Chevron doctrine (see 2407010036) will likely heavily influence discussion during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the commission’s FY 2025 funding request, congressional aides and lobbyists told us. Chevron gave the FCC and other federal agencies deference in interpreting federal laws. Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is urging the commission ahead of the House hearing to drop a planned July 18 vote on a draft order and Further NPRM letting schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots in response to the ruling. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
California state senators pushed back on two digital equity bills Tuesday. Multiple Communications Committee members during a livestreamed hearing raised concerns about the Assembly-passed AB-2239, which would ban digital discrimination as the FCC defines it. Also, the committee scaled back the Assembly-approved AB-1588, which had proposed to update the California LifeLine subsidy program to support broadband for low-income households. The committee directed the LifeLine bill’s sponsor to find a compromise with industry opponents and other stakeholders over the summer recess that runs from July 3 to Aug. 5.
A top California communications lawmaker pushed back on industry opposition to a bill that would require $30 affordable internet plans as a condition of receiving California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) infrastructure grants. The Assembly Communications Committee voted 8-2, with two Republicans voting no, to advance SB-424 at a Wednesday hearing. In addition, the committee voted 10-0 for bills that set broadband labor standards (SB-1460) and expand eligibility for CASF public housing broadband grants (SB-1383). All three pieces of legislation, previously passed by the Senate, will go to the Appropriations Committee.
Contrary to some expectations, a draft order and Further NPRM allowing schools and libraries to use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services wasn’t expanded to include fixed wireless access and partnerships with nontraditional providers, based on the text of the draft released Thursday. Commissioners will vote July 18.
House Democrats rang alarm bells Wednesday over the Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Subcommittee’s proposal reducing FY 2025 allocations for NTIA and other Commerce Department agencies. The subpanel advanced its FY25 bill on a voice vote Wednesday after Republicans defended the proposed cuts, including a significant slashing of annual funding for the DOJ Antitrust Division. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo fielded repeated questions during a House Innovation Subcommittee hearing Wednesday about Republicans’ claims that NTIA’s requirement that broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program participants offer a low-cost connectivity option constitutes rate regulation.
Congress should renew the affordable connectivity program (ACP) and protect local authority in the right of way (ROW), mayors attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors conference said Sunday. City leaders adopted resolutions on ACP, ROW compensation and opposing the American Broadband Act (HR-3557), which is a package of GOP-led connectivity permitting revamp measures (see 2311060069). The conference adopted the resolutions as part of a unanimous consent agenda Sunday after the Technology and Innovation Committee approved them unanimously Friday. ACP “has been one of the most effective broadband benefit programs to date with its direct-to-consumer model to enroll low-income households and help ensure they can afford the internet connections they need for work, school [and] healthcare,” the first resolution said: The conference urges Congress to renew and extend ACP this year “to ensure eligible households have access to affordable high-speed internet.” The second resolution on local compensation noted that some members of the FCC, Congress and state legislatures “have wrongly characterized this balancing act among competing interests for the public rights-of-way and maintenance of local authority as a barrier to broadband deployment, putting the interests of national corporations ahead of the needs of communities by effectively granting those corporations subsidized access to local public rights-of-way that do not belong to the federal or state government.” Congress should pass a bill amending the Cable Act’s franchise fee section to correct the FCC and the 6th U.S. Circuit of Appeals misreading of the act “and make clear that no other provision of the Cable Act limits or preempts state or local fees or taxes on cable operators or on the non-cable services they provide,” it said. Also, Congress should approve the Protecting Community Television Act (HR-907 and S-340) “to make clear that the cost of non-monetary franchise obligations do not constitute a ‘franchise fee’ under the Cable Act,” the resolution said. And the FCC should act soon on a related remand from the 6th Circuit that has been waiting for action for more than two years, it said. The third resolution urged that Congress drop HR-3557, which “would bestow on broadband providers an unprecedented federal grant of access to state and local public property but impose no obligations on those providers to serve ‘unserved’ and ‘underserved’ Americans.”
The Affordable Broadband Campaign and WTA asked the FCC to reconsider its decision granting ISPs forbearance from Communications Act Section 254(d), which governs USF contributions. The contribution mechanism isn't "stable or equitable" and the declining revenue base is "hindering the ability of the commission to ensure that universal service is properly evolving," the groups said in a petition filed Monday in docket 23-320. The FCC granted ISPs forbearance in its May order restoring its net neutrality framework and reclassification of broadband as a Title II telecom service (see 2404190043).