Staying Fit
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Subsidies ending • Aid needed • Extension awaits action • Continue your service • Older adults left out • Training • Rural expansion • Ways to learn
As time runs out for the nearly 23.3 million households in a nationwide program to lower the cost of high-speed internet access, some don’t know how they will foot the bill themselves.
Without congressional action, the $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is expected to run out of money after April. If any funds remain, internet customers may receive a reduced benefit for May, but companies will be allowed to decide whether they’ll give a lower credit on their bills.
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“It was a godsend for me because I had to cancel my internet service after I broke my leg,” says Thelma Hall, 62, of San Antonio. She broke her shinbone and knee in an April 2022 accident, lost her job and became isolated. “I had no income, but ACP came along just in time.”
The ACP and the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program (EBB) that preceded it grew from a little more than 1.5 million low-income households in May 2021 to helping more than 1 of every 6 U.S. households in February 2024. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was forced to shut down new enrollments Feb. 7 because no money has been set aside to continue the program.
Surveys show support, need for the aid
Nearly 4 in 5 older adults say they want Congress to continue to appropriate money for the program, according to an AARP Research survey conducted Jan. 18 to 23 among 1,035 U.S. adults 50 and older. About the same number support the program in general.
An October survey from the Washington-based Benenson Strategy Group, in partnership with internet provider Comcast, showed that almost two-thirds of ACP participants of all ages feared losing their jobs or their household’s primary source of income if their eligibility ends.
The ACP provides $30-a-month payments to broadband companies for households that earn up to 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines. Internet service on tribal lands is subsidized at $75 per household because of the high cost of serving remote areas. In 2024, a person who lives alone qualified for ACP with a gross income of $30,120 or less in the continental United States.
“I think a lot of people fell through the cracks before the ACP program,” Evelyn Lewey, 56, told the Portland (Maine) Press Herald. She is a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe in Pleasant Point, Maine, who works to connect people in her community to the internet. “I’m afraid now they’re going to lose it, and we’re going to have so many setbacks.”
Bill to extend internet discount program awaits action
Congress still has time to pass the bipartisan Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act of 2024, which would funnel $7 billion to the ACP so it could continue with little disruption. But the House and Senate bills, introduced Jan. 10, have been referred to appropriations committees in each chamber while Congress remains in the midst of budget negotiations with deadlines March 1 and March 8 to keep the government open.
“If they took [ACP] away, it would be like taking food out of my mouth,” says Shirleen Alexander, 72, of Charlotte, North Carolina, who lives on a fixed income. The subsidy offsets some of the stress she feels about medical bills. “I need the service, and some of my senior citizen friends need it as well.”
What seems like a small expense to some people allows Frances Russell a little more money for car fare to medical appointments. Russell, who is in her mid-70s and lives in a low-income apartment in New York City, says she also can travel outside her neighborhood to buy healthier, less expensive food.
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