Yesterday, President Trump announced on social media that he intends to end $2.75 billion in “Digital Equity Act” grant funding – a blatantly unconstitutional move that would expand the digital divide by jeopardizing the millions of Americans who will rely on this program to connect and communicate.
The bipartisan “Digital Equity Act” passed as part of an infrastructure bill signed into law by then-President Biden to “ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy” by funding programs and activities, including “digital navigators,” to help people learn how to access and use the internet. Public Knowledge denounces this attack on rural America, veterans, seniors, the disabled, low-income people, and communities of color who benefit from this program.
The following can be attributed to Alisa Valentin, Broadband Policy Director at Public Knowledge:
“The ‘Digital Equity Act,’ a program designed to close the broadband adoption gap that excludes communities from full participation in the digital ecosystem, has been declared unconstitutional by a president who recently reminded the American public how unfamiliar he is with the very constitution he cites.
“President Trump’s claim that the ‘Digital Equity Act’ is ‘racist’ reflects his pattern of inverting the meaning of such terms, labeling efforts to address racial inequity as discriminatory themselves, making clear his administration’s intent to block or claw back initiatives aimed at correcting historical injustices that impact Black communities and other communities of color. The irony is that the weaponization of the word ‘equity’ will halt progress in closing the digital divide and will also severely impact his voter base of white Americans who live in rural areas in red states, including veterans and the elderly.
“To worsen matters, the administration is also delaying yet another part of the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, the ‘Broadband Equity Access and Deployment’ (BEAD) program, in a way that could hand Elon Musk’s Starlink up to $20 billion dollars despite the company’s reduced reliability, higher costs to consumers, and general lack of readiness. For President Trump and his wealthy cabinet, closing the digital divide doesn’t seem to be worth it – unless they can cash in.”
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