FCC chair teams up with Ted Cruz to block Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolkids
Ted Cruz’s anti-hotspot bill stalled, but FCC is ending Wi-Fi program on its own.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on May 8, 2025.
Credit:
Getty Images | Alex Wong
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr is teaming up with Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to block funding for Wi-Fi hotspots for schoolchildren.
Cruz convinced the Senate to kill the FCC’s hotspot program in May. While Cruz’s proposal didn’t make it through the House of Representatives, Carr is now taking action to stop the program’s implementation.
“Today, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr asked his commission colleagues to vote on two items that would reverse the agency’s unlawful, Biden-era decisions to expand COVID spending programs,” Carr’s announcement said. “Those FCC decisions spent scarce taxpayer dollars on funding unsupervised screen time for kids without accounting for the significant attendant risks.”
Carr coordinated with Cruz ahead of the announcement. The press release included a statement from Cruz, in which the senator alleged that “the Biden FCC hotspot program endangered kids, duplicated existing federal funding, and violated the law.”
Cruz’s Senate proposal was a resolution of disapproval, which would have forbidden the FCC from adopting a similar rule in the future. By contrast, Carr’s action to end the program wouldn’t prevent a future FCC chair from reviving it. Cruz still wants the House to vote on the resolution to ensure that the Wi-Fi hotspot program can never be revived.
“Kudos to Chairman Carr for moving to undo the Biden hotspot program and protect children, but now it’s time for Congress to step up and codify this change,” Cruz said in the FCC press release. “In May, the Senate passed my Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution overturning the illegal Biden hotspot rule. I urge the House to act on the resolution and prevent this or similar harmful rules in the future.”
FCC Democrat laments “cruelty and indifference”
The FCC has a 2–1 Republican majority led by Carr. The chairman’s office said he asked commissioners to vote on “a declaratory ruling that would overturn the FCC’s 2023 decision to fund unsupervised Wi-Fi use on school buses,” and an order to “reverse the FCC’s 2024 decision to fund Wi-Fi hotspots that kids or library patrons could use outside of schools and libraries.”
If Carr’s proposal is approved, Universal Service Fund administrators “will be directed to deny pending funding year 2025 requests for E-Rate funding for the off-premises use of Wi-Fi hotspots and Wi-Fi on school buses as these services will be determined to be ineligible,” the FCC announcement said.
Anna Gomez, the FCC’s only Democrat, won’t be voting for Carr’s plan. “Millions of students and seniors depend on hotspots and school bus Wi-Fi for homework and telehealth services,” Gomez said in a statement provided to Ars. “Now the FCC is moving to strip that connectivity away while doing nothing to make broadband more affordable. Their latest proposal will only widen the gap between those with access to modern-day tools and those left behind. We must all fight back against this level of cruelty and indifference by this administration.”
Before Cruz’s proposal was voted on by the Senate, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called it “a cruel and shortsighted decision that will widen the digital divide and rob kids of the tools they need to succeed.”
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said that Wi-Fi on school buses is “particularly helpful for students in rural areas that face long, daily commutes.”
“Chairman Carr’s moves today are very unfortunate as they further signal that the Commission is no longer prioritizing closing the digital divide,” Schwartzman said. “In the 21st Century, education doesn’t stop when a student leaves school and today’s actions could lead to many students having a tougher time completing homework assignments because their families lack Internet access.”
Biden FCC expanded school and library program
Under then-Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC expanded its E-Rate program in 2024 to let schools and libraries use Universal Service funding to lend out Wi-Fi hotspots and services that could be used off-premises. The FCC previously distributed Wi-Fi hotspots and other Internet access technology under pandemic-related spending authorized by Congress in 2021, but that program ended. The new hotspot lending program was supposed to begin this year.
Carr argues that when the Congressionally approved program ended, the FCC lost its authority to fund Wi-Fi hotspots for use outside of schools and libraries. “I dissented from both decisions at the time, and I am now pleased to circulate these two items, which will end the FCC’s illegal funding [of] unsupervised screen time for young kids,” he said.
Under Rosenworcel, the FCC said the Communications Act gives it “broad and flexible authority to establish rules governing the equipment and services that will be supported for eligible schools and libraries, as well as to design the specific mechanisms of support.”
The E-Rate program can continue providing telecom services to schools and libraries despite the hotspot component being axed. E-Rate disbursed about $1.75 billion in 2024, but could spend more based on demand because it has a funding cap of about $5 billion per year. E-Rate and other Universal Service programs are paid for through fees imposed on phone companies, which typically pass the cost on to consumers.
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.
