A federal program that helps thousands of lower-income residents in Knox County affordably connect to the internet is about to expire, and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen is seeking feedback on what to do about it.
Sorensen (D-East Moline) met with local and area leaders at Carl Sandburg College Friday, and says the Affordable Connectivity Program — born out of the COVID-19 pandemic — needs to be renewed, somehow.
The East Moline Democrat says proof is in a letter he received from a Galesburg resident.
“Cindy’s in Galesburg, and she ‘receives $943 a month in Social Security benefits,'” Sorensen said. “‘After I pay rent, utilities, food, etc., I barely have the discounted rate of $40 left to pay for internet. And that price is after the discount I get through the Affordable Connectivity Program.'”
Sorensen says Cindy’s point was without the ACP, she’d not be able to talk with anyone, in her words, outside her four walls.
Former Knox County Board Member David Amor, who now is the county’s Broadband Coordinator, says the state may not be able to help as much as thought, and that could end up leaving a lot of people disconnected.
“The state was standing up its own program. It was getting ready to start, and will be starting, its own grant programs for digital equity,” said Amor. “But, with the ACP part taken out, that’s a real double-whammy-kind-of thing.”
Amor and others believe that some sort of short-term fix may be in order, while improvements to make the program better are worked out.
Sorensen, by the way, says help to further expand broadband access in rural areas of the country is being included in the next proposed Farm Bill.
