March 21 (UPI) — Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Louisiana Monday to promote efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration to provide high-speed broadband Internet to rural and low-income American communities.
Harris left Washington, D.C., on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Lafayette at around noon. She will first tour a community library in Sunset, a small town about 65 miles west of Baton Rouge, and meet with residents to discuss the importance of high-speed Internet.
The White House said Harris will speak about the administration’s “historic funding” of high-speed Internet services in remarks scheduled for 1:05 p.m. EDT.
Harris, Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and senior adviser Mitch Landrieu touted the achievements of the Affordable Connectivity Program at a White House event last month. The vice president said that more than 10 million U.S. homes have enrolled so far in the program to make broadband Internet access affordable for low-income Americans.
The $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program was created as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which Biden signed into law last November.
The program provides monthly broadband Internet discounts of up to $30 for households that are at or below 200% of federal poverty guidelines. It also provides low-income homes a one-time $100 discount to buy a computer or tablet and says households on tribal lands can receive monthly discounts up to $75.
“In the 21st century, high-speed Internet is a necessity — not a luxury, a necessity,” Harris said at the time. “Our world has moved online, and that is why from day one [Biden] and I have fought to make it easier for everyone to access and afford high-speed Internet.”
President Joe Biden signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on November 15, 2021. The $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program was created as part of the bill. File Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI
“We can’t be a country where a mother has to take her kid to a McDonald’s parking lot to do their homework on the internet,” Biden said then. “This is the United States of America, for God’s sake.”
Harris is scheduled to leave Louisiana and return to Washington later Monday afternoon.
The vice president’s trip to Louisiana was originally supposed to happen last month, but was postponed after Russia invaded Ukraine. She was then supposed to visit last Friday, but again delayed the trip. The White House didn’t give a reason for the second delay, but it could be related to her husband, Doug Emhoff, testing positive for COVID-19 last week.
