ACP funding sees progress in the Senate but still unlikely to pass

Hopes came alive again in Congress that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which lapsed in June, could actually get funded. First, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a House bill on July 30, matching the language of a Senate bill that would extend the ACP with $6 billion and modify the program. On July 31, Democrats in the Senate Commerce Committee voted to advance an earlier bill – the ACP Extension Act – by attaching it as an amendment to the Plan for Broadband Act, legislation that would direct the NTIA to create a coordinated federal broadband strategy. Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) led the charge to attach the ACP Extension Act, which provides $7 billion in ACP funding without program modifications, as an amendment. New Street Research's Blair Levin pointed to the various hurdles the legislation would need to overcome. These include obtaining time on the Senate floor, which Levin calls "a precious commodity at this stage of the election season," as well as surviving a "likely Republican threat of a filibuster." In the House, it would require Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to bring the bill up for a vote, "something he has shown no interest in," said Levin. Levin put the prospects of ACP funding clearing any of those hurdles at "less than 50 percent."