BROWNSVILLE, Texas - One of the Rio Grande Valley’s leading proponents for bridging the digital divide has taken on a new project - making sure the Affordable Connectivity Program is kept alive.
Diane Milliken Garza, PhD, executive director of the Rio Grande Valley Philanthropic Foundation, says she is disturbed to learn ACP could be axed without more funding from Congress.
“The poor and the marginalized will always need affordable connectivity...in the same way that they need support for other quality of life needs,” Milliken Garza told the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service, in an exclusive interview.
“Millions of households were able to access internet service through the Affordable Connectivity Program. However now the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has announced the projected end of funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program without new congressional action. This announcement is disturbing to the Rio Grande Valley Philanthropic Foundation.”
The Rio Grande Valley Philanthropic Foundation was founded in Brownsville in 1997 and has just started expanding across the entire Valley. The first regional challenge that the expanded foundation has begun addressing is the lack of connectivity that affects a very large percentage of the Valley’s population.
“I am so saddened to learn that the ACP could be ended. I am trying to get hold of Lesley Ward, chair of AT&T. I am going to see if there is any way they could help us in the RGV to continue the connectivity plan. It is a long shot but it seems everything is a long shot,” Milliken Garza said.
Milliken Garza points out that ACP began on December 31, 2021, after Congress had passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In the legislation, $14.2 billion dollars was appropriated for the ACP, the largest broadband affordability program in U.S. history.
“The Affordable Connectivity Program is an FCC benefit program that has helped at least 23 million households across the nation access and afford the broadband internet connectivity they need for work, school, and healthcare, and to fully participate in modern life,” Milliken Garza said.
The philanthropist explained why ACP is so important.
"Our present and our future are now irrevocably interwoven with the World Wide Web. By providing connectivity to those who have not had access to it right now, immediately…will absolutely change lives,” Milliken Garza said.
“However, the ACP is not a permanent solution to the problem of establishing local broadband service. In no way does the program compete with the building of a broadband service for our region. What it does do is provide, to those who qualify by income, the essential connectivity services that they would not be able to access without this support.”
The Rio Grande Valley Philanthropic Foundation was used as the conduit to receive ACP funding for a Public Wireless' initiative called the Educational Technology Program. Students at Brownsville ISD are among the recipients of the initiative.
“This program meant that instead of qualifying households getting a discount for broadband services and devices, now they would pay absolutely nothing. The RGV Philanthropic Foundation had already begun the work to be the local facilitator for the free Educational Technology Program,” Milliken Garza explained.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently wrote to members of Congress to explain the importance of the Affordable Connectivity Program. In the letter she warned that the program would have to end without more money.
“We have successfully connected millions upon millions of households to broadband services,” Rosenworcel said. ‘The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established a historic and unquestionably successful program to make broadband affordable, and we now appear on the brink of letting that success slip away. Disconnecting millions of families from their jobs, schools, markets, and information is not the solution.”
On January 11, a bicameral, bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers announced the introduction of the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act, which if enacted would provide $7 billion to extend the life of the ACP, presumably to give Congress more time to establish a more permanent funding mechanism for the popular program. Without this additional funding, the FCC expects to deplete the initial $14.2 billion provided for the program and to have to shut down the program in April of this year, potentially causing millions of households to lose their broadband benefit.
Rosenworcel welcomed the legislation: “I’m grateful to Sens. Welch, Vance, Rosen, and Cramer and Reps. Clarke and Fitzpatrick for their bipartisan leadership as we seek to maintain the historic progress we’ve made through this program.”
ACP funding is currently expected to last through April with only partial support available in May 2024.
“The ACP is in jeopardy and, absent additional funding, we could lose the significant progress this program has made towards closing the digital divide. We have come too far with the ACP to turn back,” Rosenworcel added.
Here is a copy of the letter Rosenworcel sent to members of Congress:
January 8, 2024
The Honorable Maria Cantwell
Chair
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation United States Senate
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Madam Chair:
I am writing to provide you with an update on the status of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). In 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and appropriated $14.2 billion dollars for the ACP, the largest broadband affordability program in our Nation’s history. This program now helps nearly 23 million households nationwide—in rural America, urban America, and everything in between—get online and stay online so that they have the high-speed internet service they need to fully participate in modern life.
At this point, more funding is urgently needed to keep the ACP in place, so that it can continue to support the households that rely on it and reach others that may be on the wrong side of the digital divide. In light of demand, the remaining funding we have is insufficient to fund the ACP to consumers beyond April 2024. However, the Administration requested an additional $6 billion to extend the ACP as part of its domestic supplemental funding request to Congress, which, alongside program changes, would extend the program through the end of calendar year 2024.
If Congress does not provide additional funding for the ACP in the near future, millions of households will lose the ACP benefit that they use to afford internet service. This also means that roughly 1,700 internet service providers will be affected by the termination of the ACP and may cut off service to households no longer supported by the program. Moreover, as the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration previously informed Congress, losing the ACP would undermine the historic $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, for which the ACP supports a stable customer base to help incentivize deployment in rural areas.
Due to the lack of additional funding, and the fact that the projected end date is less than four months away, the Commission expects to begin taking steps this week to start orderly wind- down procedures to give participating providers, households and other stakeholders sufficient time to prepare for the projected end of the ACP.
First, the Commission will offer ACP providers guidance on the timing and requirements for notifying participating households about the projected end of the ACP. To avoid consumer confusion and minimize the risk of consumer bill shock, providers must give consumers specific, frequent notice about the projected end of the program and their ACP discount, and how that will impact their internet bill.
Second, the Commission will announce a date for stopping the enrollment of new households in the ACP. While this step will preclude additional households from benefiting from this important program, it is necessary to slow the depletion of the remaining funding and reduce volatility in the program. This step will also stabilize the number of households affected by the end of the ACP and reduce consumer confusion. Ending ACP enrollments will also mean that the more than 240 outreach grant awardees across the country will need to wind down their grant-funded ACP outreach.
Third, the Commission will formally determine the projected end date for the program. After this date is determined, the Commission will provide notice about the remaining time for the ACP and other information to facilitate the end of the program.
In summary, the ACP is in jeopardy and, absent additional funding, we could lose the significant progress this program has made towards closing the digital divide. Yet we have come too far with the ACP to turn back. Accordingly, the Commission stands ready to assist Congress with any efforts to fully fund the ACP into the future.
Sincerely,
Jessica Rosenworcel
