More than one-third of Perry County households may have to pay more for internet access by the end of April as a federal program that supports affordable broadband for low-income families is about to run out of money.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, more than 4,300 of Perry County’s 11,300 households currently receive $30 per month from the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
If the plan fails, Perry County will become one of the hardest-hit counties in Kentucky, according to a Daily Yonder analysis. About 39% of the county’s households participate in the connectivity program. 25% of households across the state participate in ACP.
The ACP is part of the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and is designed to help families improve broadband access as schools, jobs, health care and other services increasingly move online.
The FCC announced it would run out of funding for the program by the end of April, as the legislation only included one-time appropriations. The agency stopped accepting new applications for the program in February.
Ana M. Gomez, a recently appointed member of the Federal Communications Commission, said 23 million U.S. households would lose benefits if the program lapsed.
“Millions of families will be forced to make difficult decisions about whether to pay for the connections they need for work, school or health care, or to make ends meet,” Gomez said in a video statement.
A bill approving an additional $7 billion for the ACP has been introduced in the House and Senate. A bipartisan group of 28 representatives and three senators, including no Kentucky lawmakers, sponsored the legislation.
To qualify for ACP, a family must have an income below 200% of the federal poverty level or be enrolled in another program such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Medicaid.
The current federal poverty level is $31,200 for a family of four, so a family of four making less than $62,400 a year is eligible for the program until the FCC stops accepting new applications.
There are an estimated 7,483 eligible households in Perry County, approximately 58% of whom have signed up to the ACP.
Sarah Melotte and Will Wright contributed reporting to this article. DailyYonder.com is a Whitesburg-based online news platform providing national rural news, analysis and commentary.