The White House asked Congress for nearly $56 billion in supplemental funding for FY2024. The request includes $6 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and $3.1 billion to fully fund the FCC’s Rip & Replace program. (See industry reaction in an article earlier in this newsletter.)
The ACP pays up to $30 per month toward broadband costs for eligible low-income households. It was expected to run out of money next year. If Congress agrees to the entire Biden Administration request, the ACP would be funded through December 2024.
If granted in its entirety, the Rip & Replace request would fully fund the program meant to reimburse smaller, rural carriers for the cost to remove, dispose and replace untrusted network gear from Huawei and ZTE. Without full funding, many carriers could not start the work, and others have been stuck in limbo for months, with the work partially done, Inside Towers reported. The FCC recently extended the project deadline for six carriers, calling the funding shortfall no fault of the carriers.
The funding request comes as the House has finally elected a new speaker and work can resume on the lower chamber. New Street Research Policy Advisor Blair Levin says new House Speaker Rep. Michael Johnson (R-LA) will hear a lot from his constituents about the ACP. That’s because more than 84,000 households are enrolled in the program in his district, “almost double” the average congressional district, according to Levin in a client report. The numbers suggest that because he’ll hear a lot about ACP from constituents, he “may be more amenable to a compromise on the issue than others might be.”
Still, NSR continues to believe “given the chaotic politics” in Washington, D.C. refunding the ACP “is an uphill fight,” notes Levin. If ACP does run out of money next spring, that’s “likely to cause federal and state government pressure on ISPs to come up with ways of keeping low-income households connected that will be materially worse for the ISPs than the current system,” Levin writes.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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