Harris Urges More ACP Participation

Vice President Kamala Harris praised the FCC’s affordable connectivity program during an event Thursday in Charlotte and urged more people to enroll. NARUC passed a resolution Wednesday seeking more connections between the national verifier and state databases and urging state and federal agencies to collaborate on more outreach (see 2207200008). “We created this program because we know when we connect folks with high-speed internet, it is also a connection to opportunity … to live a healthier, happier and more prosperous life and importantly more affordable lives every month,” Harris said. ACP “saves working families over” $250 million. “About 13 million people are enrolled and these are students who can now study at their kitchen table instead of in the parking lot of a local fast-food restaurant, which is what so many of our students did, especially during the height of the” COVID-19 pandemic," she said: “The people who will benefit include parents who used to rely on their cellphone data plan to connect the whole family, which can be incredibly expensive. And now those families can stream and search and study on Wi-Fi” for free. “We need state and local governments to drive enrollment every way they know how” and “I know that” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) “is already hard at work on this front,” Harris said.