Senate Advances Effort to Reverse New FCC Funding for Wi-Fi Hotspots
A similar measure has been introduced in the House.
Jake Neenan
WASHINGTON, May 6, 2025 – In July 2024 under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the Federal Communications Commission expanded a broadband subsidy program to cover Wi-Fi hotspots for schools and libraries. A Congressional effort to repeal the expansion cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate Tuesday.
Senators voted 53-47 along party lines to advance a Congressional Review Act resolution that would reverse the FCC’s order. A Senate aide said a final vote on the resolution is expected on Thursday. The House would have to approve its own measure before President Donald Trump could sign it into law. Rep. Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, has introduced the Wi-Fi hotspots CRA in the House.
The CRA allows Congress to repeal agency rules for the previous administration with a simple majority vote in each chamber, ruling out a filibuster in the Senate. A successful CRA repeal prevents an agency from adopting the same rule in the future.
The order at issue expanded the FCC’s E-Rate program, which spends more than $2.6 billion per year on internet discounts for schools and libraries, to cover Wi-Fi hotspots that students or library patrons could check out for off-campus connectivity.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was a vocal critic of the hotspot order and led the Senate CRA resolution. He argued the Communications Act allows funding only for connectivity within the physical bounds of a classroom or library. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the time, dissented from the order on the same grounds, as did Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington.
Of the $3.2 billion in E-Rate funding requested in 2025 – not all of which will be approved – more than $34 million was for costs related to Wi-Fi hotspots, according to FCC data.
Supporters of the hotspot expansion were quick to express disappointment.
“After hearing so many powerful stories from educators and librarians about how hotspots provide a lifeline to their communities, this vote is a disappointing step backward,” Joseph Wender, executive director of the Schools, Healthcare, and Libraries Broadband Coalition, said in a statement. “Stripping schools and libraries of the ability to use E-rate funding for hotspot lending will widen the digital divide and hurt the very people these programs are meant to serve.”
SHLB joined more than 30 groups in urging the Senate not to move forward with the resolution in March.
