Speaker Johnson Should Heed the Theological Case for Broadband

What would Jesus do about extending the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)? That may be the most important telecommunications policy question answered in 2024. Measured by a direct effect on the largest number of Americans, the ACP, which subsidizes broadband for nearly 23 million households, is the most important telecommunications policy whose fate is being debated as its funding soon runs out. There are strong economic and political cases for supporting the legislation. But none of those arguments may matter. The political reality is this. ACP extension legislation already has 216 co-sponsors, including 21 Republicans. If the House were to vote on that legislation, it would pass. The question is, will Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, allow a vote? He has not offered his view on the specifics but has implied that the economic and political data are largely irrelevant to him, as the source of his views on any issue can all be found in the Bible. So what does the Bible say about broadband? Not much, but it does repeatedly instruct us to assist with basic necessities so that all can live among us in dignity, health and prosperity. These are the moral sentiments Congress cited in creating the ACP. Again, I can make the economic and political arguments for the ACP. If, however, the person with the sole power to enable or kill an ACP extension insists that the decision be made on biblical principles rather than economics, the answer remains the same; the speaker should allow a vote on the ACP extension bill.

[Blair Levin, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institute Metropolitan Policy Project, led the team that wrote the 2010 National Broadband Plan.]