This month, 23 million households in the U.S. will have to make a difficult decision: pay more for their monthly internet bill or cut their budget somewhere else to pay for it or go without internet access.

This is because the federal subsidy that one in six households has relied on to connect to the internet each month ran out of funds at the end of May. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has lapsed but isn’t dead yet. Its future lies in the hands of Congress.

Since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced in January of this year that the program would end, industry groups, public interest groups and community groups have mobilized to urge Congress to fund the program. At NaLA, we have coordinated closely with these groups on advocacy efforts, including through our Save ACP Campaign, which has sent over 10,000 messages to members of Congress.

And Congress has heard us. Even though the program has lapsed, there is still strong bipartisan support for funding it.

NaLA has hosted monthly fly-ins at the Capitol where our members met with policymakers and staffers from both sides of the aisle to advocate for ACP. We consistently hear from Congressional staff that the ACP is one of the top issues they are hearing about from their constituents.

Here is the good news: there are multiple paths in Congress to resurrect this program. A bipartisan bill from Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) would appropriate $6 billion to fund the ACP and modernize eligibility and verification for the program. In less than a month, the bill has garnered 16 co-sponsors, seven of whom are Republican. There is now also a companion to this bill in the House in the form of a proposed amendment (#1165) to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) from Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) and Mike Carey (R-OH).

There is also the ACP Extension Act, introduced in January in both the Senate and House, which would appropriate $7 billion for the program. Both have garnered bipartisan co-sponsors; the House bill alone has 230. What’s more, there is another House bill being considered that has eleven Republican co-sponsors with $6 billion for the program. And finally, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) has introduced a bill that would provide $7 billion for the ACP through proceeds from spectrum auctions and has scheduled it for a markup hearing on June 12, 2024.

NaLA continues to have optimism for the program’s future, which has rallied bipartisan support from policymakers and community members alike. We support a path to provide short-term funds for and incremental reforms to this essential program while working toward a long-term future as part of the federal Universal Service Fund. These bicameral, bipartisan bills indicate that support for the ACP remains strong. We aren’t out of options. Although the ACP is currently suspended, there continues to be movement toward the goal of re-funding it and re-connecting those who rely on it to stay connected.

It is up to all of us to help keep every American connected. Keep calling and emailing your member of Congress on our website. We are still in this and we are in it together.