WASHINGTON. (WCAX) – A program to save households between $30 to $75 off their monthly internet bill is coming to an end.
The Affordable Connectivity Program helps more than 23 million households across the country, half of which are military families. In Vermont, the program has helped connect an estimated 9% of households, roughly 20,000 Vermonters, to high-speed broadband internet access.
The White House calculates that our state has received almost $14 million from the program, or $748K each month.
The White House has been asking congressional Republicans to support an extension of the program since October, but so far, their requests have gone unanswered.
“I have too many terrible memories of the pandemic and families who had to get in a car to access the internet. I’ve spoken to too many rural health providers for whom telemedicine is a lifeline, and if you don’t have internet, you don’t have that lifeline… This is really important,” said Tom Perez, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President.
Senator Peter Welch also expressed his disappointment as the lead sponsor of the bipartisan Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act.
In a statement, he said, “Broadband access is one of the few things we can still find bipartisan agreement on in Washington—yet the Affordable Connectivity Program could very well be the next victim of Congressional dysfunction…The program has bipartisan support. There is frankly no reason to accept the failure to act on it.”