unless Congress acts by the spring one in 10 New Jersey households getting affordable internet through a federal program will be cut off that's the charge from congressman Frank Pallone who serves as the ranking Democrat of the Energy and Commerce Committee he called on the head of the FCC to join him today at a press conference urging Congress to reup money for the connectivity program they call a Lifeline senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports.

If you don't have internet service today uh then what do what does that mean well it's hard to get a job right it's hard to get an education it's hard to do everything even shop right I mean everything uh is so dependent on the internet and yet 23 million households in the US 338,000 of them here in New Jersey may lose internet access soon that's because a bill that helps subsidize the cost of internet for seniors and families who can't afford it is set to expire essentially what that does is provide it depends but at a minimum a $30 per month um you know help to pay uh for your internet when this program first got up and running I know the White House worked with a lot of providers some of them serving rural areas some serving urban areas to really encourage them to make available high-speed Broadband at a $30 price point and to have a quality service available right at the discount rate for the affordable connectivity program meaning that millions of families were able to access their internet for free says FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel the affordable connectivity program was first passed during COVID when the digital divide came into focus and I'm sure you saw it here in New Jersey too you know kids who would sit with borrowed laptops in front of fast food restaurants and libraries just to use the free Wi-Fi signal to go to class seniors who couldn't keep up with those tele medicine appointments cuz they just didn't have the bandwidth and people who weren't getting the information they needed on a day day-to-day basis to really participate in Modern Life the bill was expanded as part of the bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021 but the program has now run out of funds if we can get the $7 billion for the rest of this fiscal year uh then the program would continue uh at least until October and then gives us an opportunity to continue it Beyond several Community organizations spoke in support of extending the funding pleading with Congress to come together on the issue once more and not force families back into the days of darkness there was a consensus in this country when there's very few consensus on many other things that we didn't want to go backwards that we didn't want to see those images of kids in parking lots trying to get internet access on their little tablets the question around internet access and having a reliable quality fast internet access is one of the great civil rights challenges of our time without access to Affordable high-speed internet communities will suffer and lose out in opportunities to learn to find jobs and stay healthy Chris Widelow from AARP shared the perspective of one of his members she shared with us that if they took ACP away it would be like taking food out of my mouth it's our duty as NAACP members to support internet connection for everybody because it's it's no longer like they say it's no longer a luxury this is what we need to function the FCC stopped accepting new applications on February 7th a move that will help them continue funding existing households at least through the end of April but if Congress doesn't pass the new affordable connectivity program extension bill funding will run out completely by then if we are unable to get additional funding from Congress those households will no longer get $30 a month in support and so every household will have to make some hard choices uh do they cut gas groceries do they cut the internet service congressman palone is working to get this bill passed by attaching it to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill if that fails he'll try an emergency appropriation he says anything to keep this bill from expiring in Red Bank I'm Joanna Gagis, NJ Spotlight news