Color Of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, representing millions of members nationwide. If your Administration does not take action to replenish funds for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), millions of families, including Black families, will lose access to affordable, high-speed internet along with all of its benefits. Broadband remains unaffordable for millions, including the 1 out of 5 Black people who do have home internet. Regardless of rising wages, employment rates, or other economic indicators which suggest that this is an improved economy, taking away a critical benefit that many communities, particularly Black communities, have come to rely on will only exacerbate crises in their lives. Color Of Change applauds the Administration for prioritizing economic advancement in the Black community. However, more work is needed. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which enhances access to education, telehealth, employment, and more, is crucial for Black families. The prospect of losing this benefit represents an unnecessary setback. ACP is one of the most tangible ways that Black communities have felt the wins of this Administration. As your Administration gears up for the upcoming election, I encourage you to remember the communities, particularly Black communities, who rallied and voted for you.

Mobile operators will feel a financial twinge if the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is shut down this spring, but the cut won't cause extreme bleeding when it comes to subscribers, revenues and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Those are the findings in a New Street Research study that follows similar analysis of the potential impact on the wireline sector if ACP is discontinued. Mobile ACP recipients are heavily weighted towards the nation's fragmented group of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), a situation that might put pressure on large mobile network operators, particularly T-Mobile and Verizon, depending on how their MVNO customers react if and when the program is shut down. New Street's Jonathan Chaplin predicted that the biggest impact in that area will be on T-Mobile (6.42 million subs, or 87 percent of that total), and AT&T (929,000 subs, or 13 percent), with no impact on Verizon and Dish in that category.

Reps Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Buddy Carter (R-GA) led 65 House Republicans in introducing a Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) new "digital discrimination" rule. On November 15, 2023, the FCC finalized a new rule to “prevent digital discrimination of access to broadband services.” The rule hands the Biden Administration’s bureaucratic state effective control of all internet services and infrastructure in the US—giving the FCC unchecked unconstitutional authority to implement regulations restricting every aspect of the telecommunications industry.

Sens Edward Markey (D-MA) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep Grace Meng (D-NY), led 64 of their colleagues in a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel supporting the Commission’s proposal to expand the E-Rate program to allow schools and libraries to loan out Wi-Fi hotspots to students and educators. In their letter, the lawmakers specifically call for the expansion and modernization of the E-Rate hotspot program to help reduce educational disparities and ensure that low-income students are no longer left behind. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that low-income students who lack internet access at home face significant disadvantages in school, compared to upper- and middle-class students. A study in Michigan found that students without internet access at home received lower grades than their classmates. E-Rate expansion will help maintain the progress made through the Emergency Connectivity Fund, a $7 billion program that Sens Markey and Van Hollen and Rep Meng created as part of the American Rescue Plan to provide devices and connectivity for students and educators at home. 

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) awarded nearly $223 million to expand broadband internet access to Floridians, including small and rural communities. This funding includes $135 million in state funding through the Broadband Opportunity Program and $86 million in federal funds through the Multipurpose Community Facilities Program. Awards through the Broadband Opportunity Program will support 54 projects in 33 Florida counties for broadband internet expansion that will provide internet to over 27,000 unserved residential, educational, agricultural, business and community locations. Awards through the Multipurpose Facility Program will support 29 community infrastructure projects including health clinics, schools and workforce development programs providing internet to Floridians across 18 counties. 

Google will no longer be keeping a backup of the entire Internet. Google Search's "cached" links have long been an alternative way to load a website that was down or had changed, but now the company is killing them off. Google "Search Liaison" Danny Sullivan confirmed the feature removal in an X post, saying the feature "was meant for helping people access pages when way back, you often couldn't depend on a page loading. These days, things have greatly improved. So, it was decided to retire it." The feature has been appearing and disappearing for some people since December, and currently, we don't see any cache links in Google Search. For now, you can still build your own cache links even without the button, just by going to "https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:" plus a website URL, or by typing "cache:" plus a URL into Google Search. All of Google's support pages about cached sites have been taken down.