The Senate Commerce Committee late Monday scrapped plans for a markup Tuesday morning of Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell’s Spectrum and National Security Act of 2024, which would have included provisions to allocate spectrum auction proceeds to the Affordable Connectivity Program and rip and replace program.

This marks the fourth time the markup has been rescheduled.

The following statement can be attributed to David B. Dorwart, Chairman of the National Lifeline Association:

NaLA commends members of the Senate Commerce Committee for their efforts to arrive at a bi-partisan consensus on the Spectrum and National Security Act of 2024, a bill that among other things would have allocated interim funding for the ACP as well as for the rip and replace program – two domestic priorities in urgent need of funding.

In the absence of funding for ACP, the costs of broadband have gone up for 23 million households, and the costs of healthcare have gone up for all, as medical care that could have been done over broadband will now be handled in an emergency room. Summer homework assignments will once again be worked on by too many from fast food chain parking lots. Public safety will be jeopardized with an increase in the number of people unable to maintain consistent access to the Internet. Meanwhile, the shortfall in rip and replace funding means that mobile services in rural parts of the country may soon be unavailable. Veterans, taxpayers, children and many in rural America are worse off – often far worse off – because of the delay in closing the ACP and rip and replace funding gaps.

The urgent need to close these funding gaps cannot be overstated. Fortunately, bi-partisan consensus on re-funding the ACP and rip and replace program can be found in S.4317 – a bill narrowly focused on these two urgent domestic priorities with funding coming from the non-controversial re-auctioning of previously auctioned and returned spectrum by the FCC. The same bipartisan consensus can be found in H.Amdt.1165 to H.R.2670 and H.R.8709 which contain the same bi-partisan compromise package of ACP reforms included in S.4317.

NaLA respectfully calls on the leadership of both parties to agree to move forward on S.4317 and a companion bill in the House with the intention to pass legislation in the coming weeks – not months. Doing so will keep Americans connected and remedy the enormous costs we incur when people are not connected. It also will introduce a balanced package of reforms to the ACP, while enabling stakeholders to reengage through the “USF Working Group” process on additional reforms, including a permanent source of ACP funding and others that may better fit into a more comprehensive package that can be completed later in this Congress.