ACP Backers See Biden Internet Affordability Mention in SOTU Bolstering Funding Push

Backers of Congress giving the FCC stopgap funding to keep the affordable connectivity program running through FY 2024 latched onto President Joe Biden's short mention of internet affordability in his State of the Union speech Thursday night to bolster that push. Biden also said Congress should pass comprehensive data privacy legislation and briefly touched on other tech policy issues. He didn't mention the House Commerce Committee's push to require TikTok Chinese owner ByteDance to divest the app for it to continue operating in the U.S., despite its supporters' rapid push to advance it (see 2403080035).

Biden touted the federal government's rollout of money from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including $65 billion for connectivity, which is “providing ... affordable high-speed internet for every American, no matter where you live -- urban, suburban, or rural communities in red states and blue states.” Biden called out congressional Republicans who voted against IIJA, saying “some of you who’ve strongly voted against it are there cheering on that money coming in.” If “any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know,” he said.

Biden didn’t mention stopgap funding for ACP during his speech, but he sought $6 billion in an October supplemental appropriations request for that purpose (see 2310250075). The FCC last week said in an update on its wind-down of ACP that it will be able to provide only “partial” reimbursements for the program in May (see 2403040077). NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson called Biden’s speech a chance "to act on a once-in-a-generation investment. We have one shot to get it right.”

Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., highlighted her January filing of the ACP Extension Act (HR-6929/S-3565), which would give the program $7 billion for FY24 (see 2401100056), ahead of Biden's speech. Absent ACP's subsidy, “millions of Americans” like Milton Perez, an ACP recipient in Clarke's district who was her guest at the State of the Union, “would be denied the low-cost, reliable broadband they’ve come to depend on,” Clarke tweeted Thursday night.

“It’s up to Congress to protect these benefits for Americans & their families,” Clarke said. She later thanked Biden for underscoring “no matter where you live, every single American deserves affordable high speed internet.” Biden “knows that urban or rural, red state or blue state, every community needs high-speed internet,” tweeted S-1669 lead sponsor Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt. “We're working together to invest in broadband, so everyone can get connected.” Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., brought New York Institute of Technology medical student Briteny Xu, whose family receives the ACP subsidy, as her State of the Union guest.

Congress “MUST protect” ACP by passing HR-6929/S-3565 if the U.S. is to reach Biden’s goal of “making sure that everyone has affordable, reliable high speed internet,” tweeted ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Jenna Leventoff. ”Less than 60 days” remain before ACP’s funding runs out, so “the time is now.”

Biden also touted the Chips and Science Act’s funding for bolstering U.S. semiconductor manufacturing during the speech. “Instead of having to import semiconductor chips, which America invented I might add, private companies are now investing billions of dollars to build new chip factories here in America,” he said: Those grants have created “tens of thousands of jobs, many of them paying over $100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree.” Biden also cited administration-initiated action combating “junk fees,” including the FCC's "all-in" video service pricing NPRM adopted in June (see 2306200042).

Biden urged congressional passage of “bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online,” echoing a similar request he made in his 2023 State of the Union (see 2302080031). Lawmakers should “harness the promise of AI and protect us from its peril,” but also “ban AI voice impersonation,” he said. The FCC unanimously adopted a declaratory ruling in February prohibiting voice-cloning technology in robocall scams (see 2402080052). Commissioners approved the ruling in the wake of robocalls made ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary election in which an AI-generated voice mimicked Biden (see 2401230054).

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., highlighted Biden’s privacy legislation mention. “Republicans and Democrats agree the best way to truly secure people’s data is for Congress to pass comprehensive data privacy and security legislation that enacts one national data privacy standard,” Rodgers said. Biden “must work with Congress to end the patchwork of state privacy laws, protect kids online, and prevent bad actors and foreign adversaries from surveilling and exploiting Americans’ data.”

“Congress has the opportunity to ensure consumers have greater protection and businesses greater certainty across the board if they proceed with federal guidelines for how data is to be used and collected,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association President Matt Schruers. “At a time when responsible online services are updating policies to collect less data, laws that would require the collection of more personal data for companies to prove compliance would hinder more than help the situation we are trying to solve.”