Congress' budget bickering is about to claim another casualty: a widely praised program that helps low-income families afford broadband internet service.
The federal government's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provides qualifying families with a discount on internet service of up to $30 per month and up to $75 per month on qualifying tribal lands.
Nearly 23 million households have signed up for ACP since its 2021 launch. Roughly 1.7 million of those are in Texas, and 122,000 are in Bexar County. Experts have called the program the most successful government initiative for conquering the digital divide. Broadband service is increasingly necessary for anything from applying for jobs, doing homework and accessing health services, they point out.
But with funding running out and Congress mired in another budget showdown, the Federal Communications Commission stopped accepting new ACP applications on Feb. 8 and warned users it will wind down the program as soon as April if lawmakers don't act.
"It's one of the federal government's most successful programs," telecom industry analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics said. "It gives low-income Americans an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty. If we're serious about not wanting a permanent underclass in this country, it seems like a program we should be supporting, not shutting down."
In a recent Recon survey, roughly half of ACP participants said they are only able to afford broadband access because of the program.
"Even if half of those people are fibbing, that's still an enormous number of people who will be losing access to the Internet," Entner said.
Jobs, school and health
To Entner's point, a study of ACP participants who subscribe to Cox Cable's broadband service found that half credited the subsidy to being able to obtain home internet for the first time. What's more, 70% of those customers credit home internet access for helping them find a new or a better job.
Indeed, broadband has become such a part of daily life that it's become essential not just for job assignments but school assignments, registering for government programs, banking, paying bills and renewing prescriptions, experts said.
For example, roughly a quarter of teens living in households that make less than $30,000 annually say they sometimes can't finish their homework due to a lack of reliable computer or internet access, according to the Pew Research Center.
Understandably, ACP participants are worried about what a future without the subsidies will bring.
A recent survey of those in the program by consulting group BSG found that that majority worry about losing their jobs, their access to health-care services and the ability of their kids to keep up in school if they're dropped from the rolls. According to the survey:
• 65% fear losing a job or their household's main source of income.
• 75% are scared of losing access to health-care services such as online appointments or prescription medicine refills.
• 81% of parents on ACP are concerned their children will fall behind in school.
While some dropped from ACP may be able to use mobile phones to access services, that still comes with the cost of higher data fees. Beyond that, not all websites are optimized to work on phone screens, said Christine Parker, a senior GIS analyst with the nonprofit Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks Initiative.
"When folks are reliant just on their phones, studies show they're more likely to turn to social media for their news and information," Parker said. "When that happens, people may not be able to access the most reliable and accurate information."
Some 95% of ACP participants told BSG they would struggle with other costs such as groceries or rent if they didn't have low-cost broadband access.
Parker said she's concerned many will simply try to do without.
The median price for internet access in the U.S. is $75 per month, according to a November 2022 analysis from Consumer Reports. While some cable and telecom companies offer discount plans, they frequently require consumers to "bundle" them with other services like pricey pay-TV packages or landline phone service.
"For a lot of people, they'll find that there's just not a cheap enough plan to keep accessing broadband," Parker said.
Dim rescue prospects
A bipartisan group of lawmakers hope to resurrect the program by attaching a $7 billion measure to a larger spending package, and FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in a recent op-ed in The Hill pleaded with members of Congress to approve it quickly.
"Closing the digital divide is about opening opportunities for all, including the millions of Americans who lack broadband because they can't otherwise afford it," wrote Starks, a Trump administration appointee. "At this pivotal moment, we can't turn back."
A bipartisan group of 26 governors — Texas' Greg Abbott wasn't among them — has also asked Congress to renew the program, and 174 mayors, including San Antonio's Ron Nirenberg, sent a letter urging lawmakers to continue its funding.
But with a partial government shutdown looming as of the Current's Friday press date, experts said the outlook for continuing the ACP without a major disruption looks grim.
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat whose district includes parts of both San Antonio and Austin, said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and hardliners in his party are hell-bent on slashing social programs. For all its benefits, the ACP will be a hard sell in the current environment.
"They want to cut the budget because they see anything that's coming from the federal government as bad, but they never wanted to list the things they want to cut," Casar said. "Now that they are actually forced to talk about what they want to cut, it's broadband for working class people, food for working class people, workforce programs for working class people — and the last thing they want to cut is tax breaks for rich people."
The irony of Republican budget hawks standing in the way of ACP's renewal is that the program enjoys wide adoption in both red and blue districts. Some research even suggests it has a higher enrollment rate in GOP-controlled states.
It's also not lost on Recon Analytics' Entner that the program helps low-income people gain self sufficiency by empowering them to earn more. Broadband provides access to the kinds of work and educational opportunities that help people improve their lives and their livelihoods.
"You have people trying to better themselves by using broadband connections to rise out of poverty, and now that's going away," he said. "It's a program that has a lot of benefits for Americans, regardless of party or state, or whether they live in rural or urban areas. It's sad that it's become collateral damage."
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