U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announcing proposed law to extend Affordable Connectivity Program
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has introduced legislation that would extend a program that helps low-income households afford high-speed internet.
Gillibrand said the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act would provide $7 billion in funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program.
Over 1.7 million New York households rely on the program, but it is set to run out of funding by April.
Gillibrand said without additional funding, these families will either be forced to pay full price for internet or lose access to broadband services entirely.
Established in the Infrastructure Law, the ACP lowers the out-of-pocket cost of broadband service and devices for working families. The program provides a monthly discount of up to $30 per month off the cost of Internet service and equipment as well as a one-time discount of up to $100 off a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet.
We are in Florida and we need the budget passed it’s critical. Thank you for your support
I have been in the ACP program for almost a year now. I am a disabled 66-year-old citizen and I cannot work except to be able to work on the computer online so I can satisfy my Social Security Administration obligation to get my last quarter of work before I go on regular Social Security. But in order to do that I need a Wi-Fi connection or a internet connection and a computer to take courses to be able to work online depending on one of the three things I want to pursue in order to do that. And since I’m on the low end of the totem pole as far as benefits money is concerned I will need to work from home to be able to have some sort of semblance of a normal life without subsisting on the below poverty income benefits I get from SSI. If you take the ACP program away from people like me there is no way in hell I will ever be able to afford to be connected or to get a reasonable computer which would then allow me to live and work and to raise myself up above the poverty level. To which right now with my SSI benefits I get around 8 or $9,000 less than the US poverty level. And I am a voter! And anybody who votes against this especially Republicans then they will lose my vote. The ACP program is not a boondoggle or a waste of money or buying off people for votes. Because every type of American who is low income or at poverty line or below it that uses it now has become adapted to it and to lose it would be a real crime. We get billions away to other countries every year that don’t even like us so to extend the AC program for another three four or five years is not going to put us in any more debt than we already are. I hope the congressman and Senators understand that this is not so much a free program but a freedom program for people like me who otherwise could not be connected to the world. Thank you much. Richard
What Richard DePace said!! I agree!