White House Touts FCC Broadband Affordability Program Enrollments

Vice President Kamala Harris and other Biden administration officials touted the FCC’s $14.2 billion affordable connectivity program Monday as an example of successful implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as the program hit a milestone of enrolling more than 10 million households. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., is holding out hope that Congress could appropriate additional money for the FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund and other broadband programs by passing it as part of a balkanized chunk of the scuttled Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package (HR-5376) but told us he believes keeping the connectivity money isn't going to make or break his support.

“Every person in our nation and every parent, no matter how much they earn , should be able to access high-speed broadband internet,” Harris said during an event highlighting ACP. The program is aimed at giving all Americans the “opportunity to live healthier, happier, efficient and more prosperous lives,” she said, noting one in four U.S. households is eligible to receive ACP money. Eligible households receive up to $30 per month in discounts for broadband service, $75 for those on tribal lands, and up to $100 off a connected device if they pay a $10-$50 co-pay.

The FCC’s emergency broadband benefit program, ACP’s predecessor, ended with about 9 million households enrolled. Total enrollment in ACP began with the same number of households, according to the Universal Service Administrative Co.'s tracker. An additional 1 million households have enrolled since then. The FCC adopted a hybrid approach to allow most EBB-enrolled households to automatically transition into the new program (see 2201120038).

Closing the digital divide “means reaching 100% of us with high-speed internet access,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: ACP reaching 10 million households is “historic” because it’s the “nation’s largest-ever broadband affordability effort.” More than 1,000 providers are participating in ACP and more than 35,000 advocacy groups have been “working to spread the word” about the program, Rosenworcel said. Comcast “is an active participant” in the program and “working to get the word out to customers and community partners,” a spokesperson emailed. Cable providers "strongly supported" this program and NCTA "join[s] the administration in celebrating the milestone," said CEO Michael Powell, a former FCC chairman.

“This process” of repurposing elements of HR-5376 “has to start in the Senate,” Doyle told us earlier this month. “I think the attitude in the House right now is that we want to get as much done as we can get done, but we realize that it’s kind of silly to talk about” what House Democrats want to prioritize “until we know there’s 50 votes for it in the Senate.” The House-passed HR-5376 included $500 million for NTIA connected device vouchers, $490 million for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and $300 million for ECF (see 2111190042). “Whatever the Senate can get 50 votes for, I’m voting for,” Doyle said.

“I’m not going to be a stickler” by threatening not to vote for broken-up chunks of the reconciliation proposal if they don’t include any connectivity money, Doyle said: “Hopefully” the revised proposals include some connectivity money, but “it’s not like we haven’t gotten anything” already given the $65 billion for broadband included in IIJA. “You’ve got to wonder whether” it’s wise to prioritize appropriating additional broadband money beyond what IIJA provided “when there’s other programs that are going to cost money that we” didn’t already fund via the infrastructure law, he said.