Trump killed the Digital Equity Act, but US was forced to bring part of it back

The Trump administration confirmed in a joint status report yesterday that it will reinstate the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, but without the provision that uses race and ethnicity as criteria for awarding funds. The status report did not mention restoring the $1.44 billion program for states, which was not part of the lawsuit filed by the NDIA. “The Digital Equity Act is the first major federal investment to acknowledge that true connectivity requires more than just laying fiber-optic cables,” the NDIA said. “It takes digital navigators, affordable devices, and localized digital skills training to ensure that historically underserved communities can fully participate in our modern economy. The Competitive Grant Program is designed to directly fund these community-level solutions.” The NDIA is, of course, not happy about the judge’s decision that grants cannot be targeted to racial and ethnic minorities. “Regrettably, however, the court’s ruling also severed the inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities as a specific covered population in the program on the grounds that it is unconstitutional,” the NDIA said. “NDIA maintains unequivocally that the Digital Equity Act is constitutional in its entirety, and that the administration’s aggressive actions to dismantle it are unjust.” Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled last month that “the Digital Equity Act straightforwardly categorizes members of certain races as ‘covered’ by the Act and targets grant money to programs that benefit those groups. That is an explicit racial classification, which can only be upheld if it withstands strict scrutiny. Here, it does not: the offending provision is neither justified by a compelling governmental interest nor narrowly tailored to meet a permissible goal. Accordingly, it is unconstitutional.” The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is now preparing a new Notice of Funding Opportunity for the competitive grant program and intends to start accepting applications in December, the joint status report said. The NDIA could object to the government’s proposed timeline, but is still evaluating it and asked the court for another two weeks to determine whether the sides can reach an “agreement on the path forward and proposed schedule.” The Digital Equity Act directed the US to establish a Competitive Grant Program to “spur greater adoption of broadband among covered populations.” The law defined eight types of covered populations, including “individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.” The racial and ethnic minority category will be eliminated from the program as a result of the judge’s ruling, but the other categories remain. This includes people in low-income households, people who are 60 or older, incarcerated people except those in federal correctional facilities, veterans, people with disabilities, people with language barriers, and people living in rural areas. NDIA Executive Director Angela Siefer said it is too early to determine whether her group will apply for a grant when the government starts taking applications. She said the NDIA will need to examine the Notice of Funding Opportunity to be issued by the Trump administration. Siefer said the NDIA proposal that won a grant from the Biden administration “was carefully crafted” and would have served 30,000 people in rural, urban and tribal communities. “NDIA’s vision is for everyone to have the opportunity to use technology to live, learn, work, and thrive. This is not controversial,” she said. Siefer also said the government should bring back the state grants even though they weren’t part of the NDIA lawsuit. Plans developed by US states during the Biden administration “are ready to be implemented,” Siefer told Ars. The Digital Equity Act was approved by Congress at the same time as the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which gives money to states to provide subsidies for Internet providers that deploy broadband in unserved and underserved areas. The Trump administration didn’t scrap BEAD, but it delayed the grants and overhauled the program. The Trump administration cut spending on broadband deployment to about $21 billion, told states not to require low prices or compliance with net neutrality rules, and helped Starlink obtain more funding than it originally was going to get. The administration hasn’t revealed what it will do with the other $21 billion yet.