Senators encourage Congress to extend funding for lower internet costs in low-income households

The Affordable Connectivity Program’s funding is set to expire in a few months.

Created by the Infrastructure Law, the program lowers the high-speed internet costs for low-income Americans. More than one million Virginian households are eligible for the ACP, and approximately 424,000 Virginia households are enrolled in the program.

U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia were joined by Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and 29 colleagues today in encouraging Congressional leadership to extend funding for ACP.

“We write to urge you to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides over 21 million working families with financial assistance for broadband access, to help bridge the digital divide so they can continue to afford the broadband services they need for work, school, health care, and more,” the senators wrote. “Should ACP funding not be extended, millions of Americans could be at risk of losing access to broadband.”

The senators continue by saying that not extending funding “would be irresponsible. We urge you to extend funding for the ACP in a government appropriations package and include a long-term solution that ensures efficient spending of taxpayer dollars.”

Virginia has received more than $1.5 billion through the Infrastructure Law to expand broadband.