Congress Can End Pandemic-Spawned Web Welfare

During the Covid pandemic, there was concern that some households would lose internet access. In the end-of-the-year omnibus spending bill in 2020, Congress created the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBBP). The EBBP was temporary at first, but of course, government programs don’t stay temporary. It was made into a non-emergency program in the bipartisan infrastructure law in the summer of 2021. The name was changed to the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). There was no broadband emergency. But Congress invented one to create a new welfare program whereby the federal government pays the internet bill for millions of households. Now, over 20 million households are enrolled in the ACP. For most of them, the $30 per month subsidy covers all or most of the household’s internet bill. The ACP is set to run out of funding in April, and Congress should let it. It’s a bad program that deserves to die.