 Test, test, yes. Thank you, I want to thank everybody for coming and we're talking about a continuation of Vermont's commitment to build out and maintain access to high-speed internet across our state. And it's really pretty astonishing what Vermont has done with its community union districts and what I find so thrilling about what Vermont has done is it's all locally based. We've created a model where the community has a huge investment in the success of building out and making accessible and affordable broadband for folks that live in the community. So we had this big challenge at the beginning where essentially the business model for the big telecommunication companies was basically to stick it to us and forget about us and pay no attention and not focus on getting broadband out in areas where the business model for them wasn't super profitable. But as you all know and everyone here has eloquently spoken about many times, broadband is a necessity now. It's just like electricity was in the 30s. The United States made an amazing decision then when electricity required wiring all over the country. And that decision was everybody was going to have access to electricity. If they were on the last barn and the longest dirt road in the most remote town, they were entitled to electricity. That was a social decision, not an economic one. Of course it had economic repercussions. But it was a decision that was fundamentally based on the fact that we're all together. We all need access to the tools that are essential for modern life and electricity was what it was then. Broadband is what it is now. And what for mine is done, and that's what the leadership of Vermonters is, make that social commitment to all of the folks in our state, however remote it is that they live in whether they're rich or poor. So the two things that are so important with broadband is one, the deployment. The number two is the affordability. And there's a lot of folks who might be right along the build out, but they don't have the cash. And it's a big expense. And the affordability connectivity program that is about to expire has been incredibly important to us here in Vermont. And around the nation, 22 million people have benefited by this who otherwise would not have access to broadband. That program is expiring. And we're here today to announce that I and some of my colleagues, including Republicans from remote rural states, are reintroducing an extension of that affordable connectivity program so that we can continue to provide that financial assistance to folks who otherwise would not be able to have the broadband that they need, that their kids need for opportunity, that they need to do work, they need to do homework. So I'm pretty optimistic about this because the broadband necessity is something that applies. It doesn't matter whether you're in a red state or a blue state. If you are a citizen, if you are a parent, if you have a job, if you're a teacher, you need broadband. You have to have it. So I don't get in an argument with some of my colleagues who I disagreed with on other things politically when we're talking about, hey, what do the folks we represent need in broadband is really way, way up there. So I'm delighted that we're going to be, that we've introduced this legislation and we'll be working hard. I spoke to Senator Murray who's the chair of the appropriations committee and she's very receptive. So I want to end by just thanking all the people who are here who've played such a major role. And I was talking to Christine just as we began and one of the things I so admire about everybody on the local boards, the community union districts and Christine, you and the work you've done, this is the work about implementation. It's day in, day out, dealing with the various problems that come up that are all variable depending on the geographic situation, depending on the personalities that are involved. You have to every single day figure out how to move ahead and it requires a sustained commitment and a willingness to do the hard work. And our community union districts have committed themselves and shown by their performance that they're totally committed to doing the work. They do the work and they get the job done. So it's really important that this tool of additional financial assistance for low income Vermonters and low income Americans be available to our community union district because I know your goal is to make certain that everybody in that district has access to reliable high speed internet. So thank you. And now I'll turn it over to the great Christine Hallquist who's been doing such a tremendous job. Thank you. And thank you for providing us an opportunity to speak about such an important program. And thank you, Senator Welch, for your continued leadership in helping rural Vermonters bridge the digital divide. The ACP is critical for rural Vermonters. Losing that would leave them in digital darkness. Information, medical services, agricultural success, financial transactions, social interactions, to name a few, require good, reliable broadband connections. We have created hope and trust for the struggling Vermonters who are participating in this program. We can't take it away now. The financial imbalance for struggling Vermonters is impacted even more by the cost of connecting those rural Vermonters. Those that are not served today are not served because it is too expensive and the existing providers would lose money. Those areas that we're trying to serve today are five times more expensive than the areas that are served today. And those Vermonters that are those rural Vermonters living there have a significantly higher number of low income families in those areas. We have to charge more for those people who can least afford it. The VCBB has been holding listening sessions across the state. There's a story that I heard that breaks my heart. It's the story about a single mom with two children who is suffering from domestic violence. One of the children is LGBTQ and has mental health struggles, therefore she has to work at home. She makes $986 a month. The cost of interconnection is $85 a month. And it's a low quality connection and losing that $30 ACP would be devastating. And with the increase of violent weather due to climate change, it places an even greater burden on rural Vermonters. Power goes out for a long time in rural Vermonters just as it's out today. More companies depend on reliable telecommunications in order to restore power. And rural Vermonters need to stay informed and connected. Telecommunications is more important today than electricity. Let's keep rural Vermonters out of the digital darkness and provide continued funding and support for the ACP. Next I'd like to introduce Paige Hartzell from the Northeast Kingdom Community Action who is the Vermont leader for the ACP. Thank you, Christine. And Senator Welch, thank you for inviting Northeast Kingdom Community Action to participate in the announcement of this important bipartisan legislation you're cosponsoring. We need connection today more than ever before. The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act is a pivotal next step in continuing the work that NECA and the Vermont Community Action Partnership Agency's CBOEO, Capstone, Sevka and Brock have been doing with the Vermont Affordable Connectivity Program. This additional $7 billion will continue to make connectivity accessible and will keep those already enrolled in the program from experiencing interrupted service. The demand for affordable reliable service far exceeded expectations when NECA on behalf of the CAP agencies received this $500,000 grant to roll out the program for Vermont this past July. Through our outreach efforts, including in-person one-on-one enrollments, people responding to flyers through word of mouth, we have cultivated relationships and reached over 25,000 households, representing more than 60,000 community members and a savings for them of almost three-quarters of a million dollars on internet service a month. This is money Vermonters can use for other things like food on the table, rent, snow tires, and every enrollment represents an individual or household who now has more affordable internet service. We cannot stop now. The connections that the Vermont Affordable Connectivity Program have facilitated, however, cannot be quantified. NECA and V-CAP agencies rely on our strong relationships with community partners for enrollment events in food shelves, senior and community centers, schools, Head Start programs and others. Sitting down with community members at these events across the state, one thing is clear. The ACP has been a critical link in our work towards fully realized digital equity in Vermont. People repeatedly tell us how important ACP has been in keeping their family members, friends, communities connected. We all know that, but legislators need to hear the stories of the important impact this program has had on lives, and I thank Senator Welch and others who have listened and responded with concrete action. One community member we know who recently came home from incarceration shared with me that they hit one roadblock after another upon their release. Through the onsite support they received to upload necessary documents to their ACP application, they were able to get approved for a free phone and internet service. You don't understand what a difference this makes, they said to me. Continuing, they explained, to be able to receive phone calls for jobs, it's a game changer. That is what ACP is, to tens of thousands of Vermonters and millions of others across the country, and as a result of that, to our shared humanity and national well-being. In rural states like Vermont, ACP enables people to zoom in for town meetings so they can participate in the shaping of their communities. It enables homebound community members to video call family and friends and maintain human connection. ACP enables people to access telehealth services. It has enabled our unhoused community members to remain connected to family and services. It has enabled people to take classes and participate in online learning. It broadens possibilities for people to work at home or start their own businesses. ACP brings a facet of meaning, a new facet of meaning for our community members in recovery, who live by the saying, the opposite of addiction is connection. By letting them attend meetings and receive support virtually so much more, ACP has done so much more, we must make internet access affordable for every household in Vermont and across the nation. The Affordable Connectivity Extension Act will move us closer to that goal. Thank you. Again, as I said, we rely very much on our relationships with community partners, and so I would like to introduce Christa Shute, who is an incredible community partner for NECA and the executive director of NAK Community Broadband. Thanks very much. Senator Welch has done a phenomenal job in creating a bicameral and bipartisan support for this crucial act. NECA has done an incredible job in making sure that Vermonters are aware of and connected to the advantages that the act provides, not only in the Northeast Kingdom, but by leading across the state all the community action agencies in those reach-out efforts. So again, I extend my thanks likewise. This act is a crucial step in continuing to close the digital divide, and it is important in extending service to underserved and rural communities. It recognizes that we need to not leave people behind, that we need to create bridges that bring them to the future and that connect them to our societies and to our services. I want to be clear, the act that's in front of us, it is in itself a bridge. It will extend service long enough for us to find a longer-term solution that will be necessary to ensure equitable access to service that's really crucial to the very essence of life in America, as many of us have discussed today. For the NECA broadband district, the importance of high-speed broadband and the affordable connectivity program is palpable. Our district has 30% of the unserved roadways, 40% of the unserved premises, but only 10% of the state's population. We're also financially challenged with three of the four lowest median income counties in the state, and more than 27% of our households eligible for the affordable connectivity program discussed here today. We, as an NECA broadband district, have extended that program to increase the support to ACP members and started implementing that supplemental program. We've also prioritized bringing high-speed internet to the most unserved, and by most unserved, I mean with speeds of less than four megabytes per second down and one megabyte per second up. We've built over 200 miles of served roadway, passing little over 2,000 premises in the process. We recently spoke with one of our ACP participants, and they identified the ease of participating in the program, and more importantly, the difference it made for her grandson and for herself. She's now able to more effectively use her business website by being able to upload pictures in seconds rather than uploading them while she goes and does the laundry, cooks dinner, and eats dinner. I'm not kidding. That is how long it can take to do an upload of a high-resolution photograph on an old legacy copper line. Her son can now participate in homework and gaming, and she can watch a television show or zoom with a friend at the same time. The Affordable Connectivity Program has improved her ability to do business, to socialize, to enjoy her family, and to access programs across the state, the nation, and the world. It took time for the federal government to figure out how to make this program easier to access. But they've mostly accomplished that goal, and the conversation with this individual was a testament to the ease in which people can now access the funding that helps them access the internet. With over 25,000 Vermonters enrolled in the program to bridge this digital divide, to create a more connective, inclusive, and prosperous future for everyone, this act will provide that bridge support to transform those communities and empower those individuals through increased access to affordable and reliable broadband services. As a communications union district, bringing service to the unserved, and without the benefit of urban areas to create profit margins, the Affordable Connectivity Program is critical to ensuring that all of our residents, not just those who can afford it, have access to the public infrastructure we are building today. Enabling those with lower incomes to access higher speed internet levels the playing field. It provides the options for people to take control of their circumstances. Allowing the funding to lapse will disrupt the ability of financially challenged residents to participate. So I urge anyone hearing this to reach out to your congressional leaders in Vermont and beyond to help provide support for this program. The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act of 2024 needs our support. Thank you very much. And I would like to introduce to you Virginia of the CBOEO Associate Office of Racial Equity and Community Inclusion. Good morning. Sorry. Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank Senator West for this opportunity. So I am Virginia Diambu. I'm the director of the Office of Racial Equity and Community Inclusion with the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. And I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize how important, how crucial, how instrumental the ACP program has been for the people that we serve. We were able to work with close to 600 people and we include in that number the outreach and enrollment. And CBOEO serves low-income individuals. And in that range of low-income individuals, we count our new Americans. We count our refugees. We count our Black, Indigenous, and people of color. And we also count our people who experience homelessness. So we cannot imagine how instrumental it is for those individuals to have access to internet. It's, you know, access to communication breaks isolation, allows communication, and allows integration, more integration for those people, which is important. Well-being is important. As I heard by one of the intervenants here, mental health is in some ways linked to the lack of communication. So it is really important to be able to communicate, to be able to connect to each other. We are a community, and as a community, we have to be connected. So ACP has been really great. And we, I would like to share a little bit of the way that we outreach our client. We have a program that is really unique to our agency, which is called the Community Ambassador Program. So the Community Ambassador Program employs members of the New American community who are trusted members of the community who speak multiple languages. Those people, among many tasks that they cover, they run what we call our house parties. And in the setting of those house parties, we relay the message about enrollment in the ACP program. I'm going to talk a little bit about how we proceed in those house parties. So our Community Ambassador speaks multiple languages. We have six languages that we cover so far. So let's say that one community member from the community language will invite four peers from the same community and language group. And in the setting of someone's house, they decide on the topic that they want to learn. It could be how to buy a house, how to build a credit. We have to keep in mind that for many of the people who come to this country, the building of the credit is something that is unknown. So those are topics that we incorporate in our curriculum that our Community Ambassadors and our Office of Racial Equity Manager develop. So it is in that setting that we also incorporate information that we give about how to apply for ACP and how to enroll in ACP. So just to say that we are really thrilled that this program is being extended because this is really important. Again, I would like to underline that communication is key and it's allowed the community to grow, to be unified, and to thrive. Thank you so much. You know, I got to tell you, it's pretty amazing to listen to people who are doing all this work on the ground and getting it done. And it's one in 11 Vermont families that benefit from this program. It makes a difference in whether they get access to the internet. And that page, what you said, addiction versus connection, we're all so struggling to find ways to be connected. People are lonely. There's a lot going on in society that pulls us apart. So anything we can do to help connection, we've got to do. And this program is one that works. It's really modest in the amount of money that's required to make this huge difference for families that are fully part of the community of where you want them to be. And when I listen to the hard work that's being done day in and day out and we're getting it done, it's a real thrill. Because the way things should work is the federal government should be helping folks back home do the work there and be successful. And that's what's happening with this program. So we've got to keep it going. But the fact that you've done such good work for so long is the best argument that I can make with my colleagues about let's keep a good thing rolling. So I'll stop there. Any questions for any of us? Pat Bradley. Senator, you said that the program is about to expire. I'm curious when the expiration is. And if you think the bill that you're reintroducing will be able to be passed so that there's no gap? I think it expires in April, isn't it? Yeah, it expires in April. So time is marching on. In whether it can or not, in the world we're in down in DC, I can't make any hardcore predictions. But what I said in the beginning is the reason that I have some optimism. One of my co-sponsors is JD Vance from Ohio. He and I are not particularly aligned on a lot of things. But folks in Ohio have the same challenges that we have here in Vermont. Another co-sponsor is Kevin Kramer from South Dakota, who was a colleague of mine in the house and now we're colleagues in the Senate. He's a Republican who cares deeply about the people that he represents and they need this program. And then in the Senate Appropriations Committee, Patty Murray, the chair, and then Susan Collins from Maine, the vice chair, are both very supportive of rural programs and they work together really well. What happens in the house? Who knows, you know? Will they have a speaker? Will they be speaking to one another? Who knows? We gotta keep it moving and I'm gonna do what I can do with the help of the folks right here. Senator, how do you believe this program addresses the needs of those already different families and if this does expire in April, how do you believe those families will be impacted? Well, you know, you heard. I mean, actually, folks right here are better able to answer that. But that story of the person, well, number one, you're making 900 bucks a month and you get an $85 a month bill and you get 30 bucks off on it. That's real money, okay? It's real, real money. And by the way, it's really hard to be poor. That's not an easy job. You have to find ways to do things that don't cost you money. It usually takes an immense amount of effort. And then if you have this $30 bill added onto your budget, which will happen, you've gotta make some really tough decisions. And a lot of folks will be in a position where is that discretionary. So it's real. I mean, this is 30 bucks, but it's for people who make like 12 grand a year. You have to be under 200% of poverty. So it makes a real, real difference for folks. And by the way, that makes a difference for all of us because the more folks have opportunity and they need the tools like a good grade school education, a good high school education, access to the internet, then folks who are really in tough circumstances have the tools they need to build their lives, to become all that they can be. So we've gotta maintain this program so that those folks who don't have much money can afford it. Well, thank you. Really appreciate you all coming. Thank you guys.