Today, the House Oversight Committee marked up the “Computers for Veterans and Students (COVS) Act,” a bill introduced by Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) to direct hundreds of thousands of out-of-service computers from the federal government to nonprofit refurbishers for repair and distribution to veterans, students, and low-income consumers. Participating refurbishers would also provide digital literacy training. Public Knowledge urges Congress to pass this bipartisan bill to help close the nation’s device divide.
The following can be attributed to Jenna Leventoff, Senior Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge:
“One of the main reasons why people cannot connect to the internet is because they can’t afford a device. And even if they could afford a device, the current chip shortage has made it more difficult – and more expensive – to obtain one.
“At the same time, the government has a surplus of out-of-service devices. The COVS Act can use these out-of-service government devices to solve both problems by offering them to nonprofit refurbishers who can then get them to customers in need. We urge Congress to support this commonsense legislation working to help close the device divide.”
You may view our latest blog post, “The Device Divide is Hurting Americans. Here’s How We Solve It,” for more information on the device divide.
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