Senator Ted Cruz was scolded by The Houston Chronicle, the largest newspaper in Texas, for getting in the way of Texans being provided low-cost internet service options in an editorial published on Sunday.
The $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill championed by President Joe Biden and passed by Congress in 2021, provides a discount of up to $30 a month on internet service for low-income households and a discount of up to $75 a month for families on tribal lands.
Due to lack of funding from Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had to stop accepting new applications and enrollments for the program in February and the FCC has notified current benefit recipients that April will be the last month that the program is fully funded.
A bill that extends the ACP through the end of 2024 with an additional $7 billion in funding is currently held up in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Houston Chronicle's editorial board in an opinion article titled, "Texans desperately need expiring federal internet subsidy," called out Cruz, a Texas Republican, as one of "those standing in the way" of additional funding for ACP.
Cruz's office told Newsweek via email on Sunday morning: "Houston Chronicle regularly attacks Sen. Cruz, so it's not really noteworthy. A positive editorial about his work in fact is."
The spokesperson included a link to a Houston Chronicle editorial from January that favorably discussed Cruz's initiative to build and expand four international bridges in South Texas. In January, Cruz announced the passage of legislation to streamline the permitting process for the bridge project.
Newsweek reached out to the FCC via email for comment.
Cruz was one of four Republican senators who wrote a letter to FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last December claiming that "the vast majority of tax dollars have gone to households that already had broadband [internet] prior to the subsidy."
In the letter, they blamed the Biden administration's "reckless spending spree" for the $34 trillion in U.S. debt. They also asked for additional information and data from the FCC regarding the ACP.
The FCC released a survey in February that showed that over two-thirds (68 percent) of ACP households said they had inconsistent or zero connectivity prior to the subsidy. Meanwhile, nearly half (47 percent) of all respondents and 53 percent of rural respondents said they had either zero connectivity or relied solely on mobile service prior to the program.
"Thanks to today's survey data, leaders making the decisions about ACP's future know one thing for certain: if we want to close our nation's digital divide, the Affordable Connectivity Program is not nice-to-have, it's need-to-have," Rosenworcel said at the time of the survey's release.
The Chronicle said that "Cruz seems to fundamentally misunderstand the
needs of his own constituents."
The newspaper's editorial board added: "While major cities with multiple internet service providers offer low-cost options for broadband, areas with one provider often don't. The Texas Tribune reported that one East Texas provider's cheapest monthly option was $62. Perhaps while he's campaigning for reelection, Cruz could swing by an East Texas broadband desert and ask families living below the poverty line how much they pay for monthly internet, or whether they have internet at all. It might be enlightening."
Speaking on Cruz's work with the ACP, another spokesperson from his office told Newsweek on Monday: "Sen. Cruz is the only member of this Congress who has put out a comprehensive proposal to make internet connectivity subsidies more efficient for the taxpayer and target funds towards people who actually need them. Conducting basic oversight of a multibillion-dollar program that independent watchdogs have concluded is rife with fraud is not 'standing in the way'—it's just good stewardship.
"As of now, Democrat leadership hasn't taken a single step towards extending the ACP. In fact, they haven't held a single hearing or markup, nor have they proposed including ACP funding in the bipartisan funding bills recently negotiated.
"An honest analysis of the FCC's data—not the propaganda published by the Democrat-controlled FCC—shows that the ACP has lined the pockets of large corporations and inflated internet subscription prices without meaningfully improving connectivity for low-income Americans.
"Sen. Cruz is closely examining the ACP and considering what reforms need to be made before we spend another $7 billion of taxpayer funds."
Cruz, who has been in the Senate since 2013, is running for reelection against Democratic opponent Representative Colin Allred. According to a Cygnal poll conducted from April 4 to 6, Cruz is leading Allred by 9 points (45 to 36 percent). The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters in Texas with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.94 percent.
Update 4/14/24, 11:44 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Cruz's office.
Update 4/17/24, 9:18 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Cruz's office.
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