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Law360 (April 29, 2020, 8:34 PM EDT ) The same day that more than 200 groups called on Congress to fold funding for broadband expansion into any future coronavirus stimulus packages, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reiterated Wednesday the Democrats' willingness to make it happen.
It's not the first time the speaker has thrown her weight behind proposals to beef up broadband infrastructure using pandemic stimulus funds, but after some backpedaling this month, Pelosi said that it is still in the cards.
"One of the things we'd like to see as we go forward is we will have funding for broadband — always on, high speed, all over America," Pelosi said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC. "That digital divide is now becoming a digital chasm and we have to really address that."
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives included $86 billion for broadband infrastructure in their original proposal for a fourth round of coronavirus stimulus funding unveiled at the beginning of April, but Pelosi backed away from that plan just days later.
The speaker said she was abandoning the plan to use hundreds of billions of dollars in overall infrastructure funding to stimulate the economy in the hopes of getting the coronavirus bill passed more swiftly, telling reporters that broadband expansion "may have to be for a bill beyond this."
But now it appears to be back on the table.
The speaker's statement comes as hundreds of schools, libraries, public interest and rural advocacy organizations call on Congress to put funds toward affordable broadband in future stimulus packages.
In an open letter Wednesday, the groups said the problems born from the digital divide have only been exacerbated during the pandemic, with millions across the country confined to their homes and relying on the internet for school, work and even access to government services.
"During a time when communication tools have never been more critical, and unemployment has never been so high, Congress must enact policies to ensure that everyone has broadband internet. Broadband is crucial for keeping residents home, safe, and as connected with everyday life as possible during these trying times," the groups said in their letter.
With education trending toward online-only instruction "for the foreseeable future," access to the internet is more important than ever for students across the country, the groups said.
Millions of school-age children live in homes without internet access, leaving them unable or struggling to complete all their assignments in what has become known as the homework gap. Such students had often turned to libraries or even fast-food restaurants with open internet connections, but in the rising public health crisis, those doors have swiftly closed to them just as nearly all of their learning moves to an online format.
--Additional reporting by Kelcee Griffis and Andrew Kragie. Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
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