The Senate has passed legislation to repeal an FCC regulation that utilized federal funds to support Wi-Fi hotspots accessible beyond the premises of schools and libraries.
The program, first implemented by former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, applied funds from the $2.6 billion federal E-Rate program to a program that enabled schools and libraries to provide free Wi-Fi hotspots to children and others with poor or no internet access at home.
As
Policyband
notes prior to a successful Senate procedural vote yesterday to take up the measure, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said the rule “violates the Communications Act, which clearly limits the use of the funds in question to classrooms and libraries.”
In a
statement last year
Rosenworcel did not agree with the notion that the legislation fails to endorse hotspot lending. Highlighting challenges posed by distance education exacerbated during the COVID-19 crisis, she argued in her writings that despite “E-Rate’s remarkable achievement in linking educational institutions and public libraries,” it required updates to enable these entities to distribute Wi-Fi hotspots for ensuring broadband connectivity across both rural areas and cities. Rosenworcel emphasized that this adjustment could be implemented without increasing the current E-Rate funding allocation.
The FCC under Chairman Brendan Carr, who opposed the hotspot lending program, has aggressively pulled back from consumer protection programs and turned into the Trump administration’s
de facto censorship arm
Republican members of Congress have attempted to eliminate subsidies aimed at boosting Internet accessibility across the U.S., like the
FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program
, under the guise of spending reduction. Referencing a study from March,
TechDirt
wrote that the “$7–$8 billion annual taxpayer cost of the program generated between $28.9 and $29.5 billion in savings thanks to expanded access to affordable internet and remote telehealth services.”
In a
statement
released after the vote, FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who was
nominated by former President Joe Biden
, said the vote will exacerbate economic disparities. “Those with sufficient internet access are increasingly separated from those without, and this decision risks widening that gap even further,” Gomez said.
