SHLB Wants $5.25B for E-rate in Next COVID-19 Bill

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition urged Congress to seek $5.25 billion in emergency funding for the E-rate program in the next major COVID-19 legislative package. House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is circulating a discussion draft proposing $2 billion of “emergency broadband benefit” (see 2004140062). SHLB Executive Director John Windhausen called the recent filed Emergency Educational Connections Act (HR-6563) “helpful,” but “more needs to be done to help our schools and libraries.” HR-6563 would create a $2 billion FCC-run Emergency Connectivity Fund, which would disperse money to schools and libraries to buy Wi-Fi hot spots and other devices. “This level of funding will not be sufficient to address the home broadband need,” Windhausen wrote Pallone and three others -- ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore.; House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa.; and ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio. The pandemic “will likely persist at least into the fall of this year and perhaps long after that.” Funds for Learning estimates a $5.25 billion appropriation for E-rate would “cover broadband connection costs for all 7 million households that do not have Internet access at home for one year, plus an Internet-enabled device for each student, and network security,” Windhausen said.