600K Louisiana homes could lose low-cost internet access soon if Congress doesn’t fund program

Da'Shawn Johnson
·2 min read
14

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Affordable Connectivity Program was created in 2020 during the pandemic. It allows low-income families, veteran households and senior households to access affordable internet service, as low as $30 a month.

Louisiana has high engagement with 62% of eligible households in the state participating, but those families may soon be disconnected if Congress doesn’t approve more funding.

Adeyinka Ogunlegan, the vice president of government affairs for EducationSuperHighway, is pushing for Congress to provide additional funding for another year. Her organization works to close the broadband affordability gap.

“We’ve been calling for Congress to allocate additional funding to the program to keep it going because it is so critical to so many households,” said Ogunlegan.

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Without the program, many homes will lose service, which is a daily necessity for those who may work from home or attend school online.

“Being able to connect with a health care provider using the Internet via telemedicine. It’s critical to their lives right now,” said Ogunlegan.

The program was funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act, providing over $14 billion, but now money is running out.

“Everyone has been reaching out, and we’ve been encouraging more people to reach out to their member of Congress and to ask them to support this by allocating more funding,” said Ogunlegan.

“Those like myself who work from home, they can’t do that without sustainable Internet service,” said Ogunlegan.

Many in the Republican and Democrat parties are pushing for more funding for the program, calling on U.S. senators like Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy and asking for an additional $7 billion to extend to next year.

If new funding to extend the program does not get passed, the program will end in April.

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