White House Expected to Seek $4B in Stopgap ACP Funding in Supplemental Request
The Biden administration is expected to seek about $4 billion in additional money for the FCC’s affordable connectivity program as part of a second part of the supplemental federal funding request it will send to Congress this week, communications sector lobbyists told us. House Democratic leaders are already highlighting the to-be-announced money as a priority alongside the stalled regular FY 2024 appropriations process once the chamber can elect someone to replace ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
That additional ACP funding would allow ISPs to keep providing subsidized broadband services to participating subscribers through the end of 2024, several broadband-focused lobbyists said. Current estimates peg ACP as likely to exhaust the initial $14.2 billion in funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act during the first half of 2024, a looming deadline that lawmakers already referenced multiple times this year (see 2309210060). The White House and OMB didn’t comment.
OMB Director Shalanda Young referenced the coming proposal in a Friday letter to Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., on the first supplemental budget request tranche, which focused on aid to Ukraine and Israel. “I anticipate submitting a request for supplemental funds” in the “coming days” that will include the ACP money and addresses other “urgent needs for millions of hard-working Americans,” Young said: OMB “is refining our estimates of funding required to … avoid the risk that millions of Americans lose access to affordable high-speed internet,” among other matters.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Friday cited during a news conference the coming supplemental domestic funding ask as one of several reasons lawmakers need to elect a new speaker. Republicans need to reopen the House so that "we can do things like” ensure that ACP continues to provide affordable broadband “access to people all across the country, in urban America, rural America ... in Appalachia.” House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., also referred obliquely to the coming ACP proposal Friday. The House was no closer to electing a new speaker Friday than it was at the beginning of the week, with the chamber leaving town for the weekend after the Republican caucus voted 112-86 Friday to jettison Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio as its designated nominee for the role (see 2310170072).
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr cited questions about ACP’s future during a Friday USTelecom event, saying any extension of that program should happen in conjunction with a revamp of USF’s contribution mechanism. “I don't think we're going to come back to contribution reform” unless it’s tied into the ACP extension, he said. Republicans on the House and Senate Commerce committees expressed a desire to pair the two issues in legislation (see 2305110066).
Carr warned Friday the FCC is “sort of heading in the wrong direction” by moving to reestablish much of its rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules (see 2310190020). As the Biden administration attempts to “spur private sector builds” through NTIA's broadband, equity, access and deployment program, the FCC is “slowing down those builds with this just outdated regulatory onslaught,” Carr said: There could be a “tremendous amount of harm here” as a result. The FCC should focus on other issues, including robocalls, spectrum and infrastructure law revamps, he said.
House Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., didn’t reference the Biden administration’s pending ACP ask during the USTelecom event, instead focusing on a continued push to get floor consideration of the panel-cleared American Broadband Deployment Act (HR-3557) (see 2305240069), as a way of improving connectivity access. Rodgers acknowledged HR-3557 still doesn't have bipartisan backing, nearly five months after House Commerce advanced the measure, “but we’re continuing to work with the Democrats when it comes to barriers we’re facing.” The House also needs to “get a speaker in place so that we can bring this bill to the floor,” she said.
Some industry officials expressed concern about various roadblocks to broadband deployment efforts. Brightspeed Chief Operating Officer Tom Maguire said permitting was a major reason his company has builds on hold. Ziply Fiber CEO Harold Zeitz agreed and said it's important to also consider building wherever no fiber exists to reach unserved communities. With about one third of AT&T's network covered with fiber, the company is “making decisions every day about where to build with just private investment” from a permitting perspective, said Erin Scarborough, its president-broadband and connectivity initiatives. Participants need to use funding from BEAD and other federal programs “as efficiently as possible,” but it's “still not enough” given the resources ISPs have already invested in bridging the digital divide, she said.