Senate advances $7B bill renewing popular FCC internet discount program
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday advanced the PLAN for Broadband Act, which directs the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to develop and implement a national strategy to close the digital divide by expanding access to broadband internet.
The bill includes $7 billion in additional funding for the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which provided discounts on internet service and devices to low-income households before it ran out of funding this summer.
The legislation now goes to the full Senate for a vote.
“Since June, hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost internet service because Congress failed to provide additional funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program,” Drew Garner of the Benton Institute for Broadband, said in a statement this week. “We know that millions more are likely to lose or downgrade service, resulting in billions of dollars in lost consumer financial benefits and service delivery efficiencies for health care providers.
The new act is based on a 2022 Government Accountability Office report that found that federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping and recommended that the president establish a national broadband strategy.
“Vermont has been a leader in coordinating statewide broadband deployment, and the PLAN for Broadband Act will bring some of those same strategies that have worked for Vermonters to the federal level to help ensure that every American can access the high-speed broadband they need to thrive,” Sen. Peter Welch, one of the bill’s authors, said when the legislation was introduced in 2022.
Correction: Aug. 2, 2024: An earlier version of this story stated that the bill would go to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation for consideration. However, it has passed on to the full Senate for a vote.
