The Affordable Connectivity Program Rosen Helped Create Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Provides Financial Assistance For High-Speed Internet Access To More Than 240,000 Nevada Families And Is Set To Run Out Of Funds Soon
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, led a group of 31 colleagues in urging Congressional leaders to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides financial assistance to access high-speed internet for 247,231 households in Nevada and more than 21 million working families across the nation. Senator Rosen helped create this program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to lower high-speed internet costs for Nevada families. This program is so popular that its funds are set to run out in a few months, well ahead of the anticipated date included in the law.
“We write to urge you to extend funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides over 21 million working families with financial assistance for broadband access, to help bridge the digital divide so they can continue to afford the broadband services they need for work, school, health care, and more,” wrote the Senators. “Should ACP funding not be extended, millions of Americans could be at risk of losing access to broadband.”
“Failing to extend funding would be irresponsible,” they continued. “We urge you to extend funding for the ACP in a government appropriations package and include a long-term solution that ensures efficient spending of taxpayer dollars.”
“Nevada’s broadband vision is that every Nevadan has access to a high speed internet connection that is affordable, reliable and scalable. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a vital part of the State’s affordability strategy and the success of the High Speed Nevada Initiative as a whole,” said Brian Mitchell, Director of the Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology. “I’m grateful for Senator Rosen’s leadership on ACP. Especially as OSIT begins to deploy thousands of miles of new infrastructure to unserved areas of Nevada, we hope that both newly connected Nevadans as well as the hundreds of thousands that rely on the ACP today are able to stay connected via this important program.
This letter is signed by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Jon Tester (D-MT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The full letter can be found HERE.
Senator Rosen has been leading efforts to expand high-speed internet access across Nevada. In June, she announced that Nevada would receive over $43.5 million to increase high-speed internet access as a result of her Middle Mile Broadband Deployment Act. Earlier this year, Senator Rosen successfully pressed the Federal Communications Commission to fix their deeply flawed broadband maps, resulting in more than $416 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program coming to Nevada to connect families to high-speed internet.
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