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When President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan infrastructure package a few years ago, the law included something called the Affordable Connectivity Program. It’s not the most well known federal policy, but for many American households, it’s a very big deal.
As a recent Associated Press report summarized, the ACP “offers qualifying families discounts on their internet bills — $30 a month for most families and up to $75 a month for families on tribal lands.” The program, which helps 22 million households pay their internet bills, cost $14.2 billion. Those funds expire today.
The Biden White House and its allies have spent months urging Congress to keep the subsidies in place. That’s apparently not going to happen, and a recent Politico report helped explain why:
[The Affordable Connectivity Program] is now trapped in a partisan war between Democrats who want to renew it, and Republicans worried it will let President Joe Biden take too much of a victory lap during a campaign year.
In other words, GOP lawmakers could do the right thing for these households — many of which are in red states and conservative communities. But if they keep the popular and effective Affordable Connectivity Program going, the beneficiaries might be pleased, and might even give Biden credit for the good news.
And so, the future of the ACP appears bleak, at least for now.
Unfortunately, it’s not the only priority running into this problem. Congressional Republicans also cut funding for the 21st Century Cures Act — part of the Democratic president’s cancer moonshot. Explaining why, a Politico report added this week, “The new budget is tight across the board, reflecting Republicans’ control of the House, deficit concerns and, not least, their desire to deny Biden a win months before the election.”
And what about the bipartisan tax deal, which extended Trump-era tax breaks for businesses and expanded the child tax credit? It easily passed the House a couple of months ago, but it needs 60 votes in the Senate, and so far, GOP members are balking. Bloomberg News reported a few weeks ago that Senate Republicans “don’t want to hand President Joe Biden an election-year victory on the legislation.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa was quite candid on this point, telling NBC News he wasn’t inclined to support a compromise measure that “makes the president look good” ahead of this year’s elections.
A few weeks earlier, House Republicans also derailed a bipartisan compromise on border and immigration reforms. Asked why, Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas said, “Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating.”
In other words, on a wide variety of domestic priories — from the border to the economy, cancer research to internet access — Republicans are putting election goals over national needs.
If the GOP is very lucky, voters won’t hear about this.