Low-income

The Affordable Connectivity Program has 23 million participants nationwide—including 1.9 million households in New York State and nearly 1 million households in New York City. As broadband access becomes increasingly essential for connecting with education, employment, and services—and New Yorkers grapple with a widespread affordability crisis—New York can’t afford to reverse course on making broadband more affordable. Congress still has time to act in May to reauthorize funding for the ACP and New York’s congressional delegation should lead the charge.

Backers of a popular subsidy for Americans’ monthly internet bills are making last-minute appeals to leaders to keep the program funded, with Senate proponents hoping to attach the measure to a pending federal aviation bill set to pass Congress soon. The more than 22 million low-income households enrolled in the Affor

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled recently that federal telecommunications law does not stop states from regulating broadband rates. This was in relation to a 2018 law passed by the State of New York that required internet service providers (ISPs) to offer low-income rate plans for as low as $15 per month. ISPs appealed the new law, and a US District Court issued an injunction against the law. The recent ruling overturned that injunction and puts the law back into effect.

Regulators and members of the telecom industry are ratcheting up the pressure on Congress to renew an expiring internet subsidy program, which just downgraded its monthly subsidies from $30 to $14 as it enters its final month of operation. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) will fully cease providing financial support at the end of May if lawmakers fail to imbue the program with new funds. If nothing changes, more than three-quarters of participating households said they’ll have to change their internet plan or forgo service entirely, according to a Federal Communications Commission 

Speaker Johnson, it is time to call a vote. In less than four weeks, over 23 million U.S.

The Affordable Connectivity Program is about to run out—and Congress is watching it happen. When the ACP was created in 2021 as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the $14.2 billion Congress allocated was expected to last five years. But demand for the benefit was so high that in January the Federal Communications Commission announced the program would be winding down at the end of April, after just three years.

Without congressional action, funding for the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) will expire at the end of May 2024. With this in mind, the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media and Broadband convened a May 2 hearing on 'The Future of Broadband Affordability' to discuss congressional funding of U.S.

The likely expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program, the largest ever connectivity support program for low-income households, invites a discussion about the impact of the program and what alternative policy tools are available to promote digital equity. This study offers a preliminary assessment of the ACP’s goal to promote fixed broadband among lowincome households.

Electric cooperatives serve 92% of the nation’s persistent poverty counties and are deploying broadband networks in many hard-to-reach parts of the country. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association conducted a survey in the summer of 2023 that showed strong participation in and support for the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program by member co-ops.

The US Congress faces an imminent decision about the future of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and the connectivity it delivers to 23 million households.