The Digital Equity Act tried to close the digital divide. Trump calls it racist and acts to end it
By Barbara Ortutay and Claire Rush
PORTLAND, Oregon: One program distributes laptops in rural Iowa. Another helped people get back online after Hurricane Helene washed away computers and phones in western North Carolina. Programs in Oregon and rural Alabama teach older people, including some who have never touched a computer, how to navigate in an increasingly digital world.
It all came crashing down this month when President
Donald Trump
- on his own digital platform, Truth Social - announced his intention to end the
Digital Equity Act
, a federal grant program meant to help bridge the digital divide. He branded it as "RACIST and ILLEGAL" and said it amounts to "woke handouts based on race." He said it was an "ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR giveaway," though the program was actually funded with $2.75 billion.
The name seemed innocuous enough when the program was approved by Congress in 2021 as part of a $65 billion investment meant to bring internet access to every home and business in the United States. The broadband program itself was a key component of the $1 trillion infrastructure law pushed through by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The
Digital Equity
Act was intended to fill gaps and cover unmet needs that surfaced during the massive broadband rollout. It gave states and tribes flexibility to deliver high-speed internet access to families that could not afford it, computers to kids who did not have them, telehealth access to older adults in rural areas, and training and job skills to veterans.
Whether Trump has the legal authority to end the program remains unknown. But for now the Republican administration can simply stop spending the money.
"I just felt my heart break for what we were finally, finally in this country, going to address, the digital divide," said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit that was awarded - but has not received - a $25.7 million grant to work with groups across the country to help provide access to technology. "The digital divide is not just physical access to the internet, it is being able to use that to do what you need to do."
The word 'equity' While the name of the program likely got it targeted - the Trump administration has been aggressively scrubbing the government of programs that promote diversity, equity or inclusion - the Digital Equity Act was supposed to be broader in scope.
Though Trump called it racist, the words "race" or "racial" appear just twice in the law's text: once, alongside "color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability," in a passage stating that no groups should be excluded from funding, and later, in a list of covered populations, along with older adults, veterans, people with disabilities, English learners, people with low literacy levels and rural Americans.
"Digital Equity passed with overwhelming bipartisan support," said Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the act's chief proponent, in a statement. "And that's because my Republican colleagues have heard the same stories as I have - like kids in rural communities forced to drive to McDonalds parking lots for Wi-Fi to do their homework.
"It is insane - absolutely nuts - that Trump is blocking resources to help make sure kids in rural school districts can get hot spots or laptops, all because he doesn't like the word equity!"
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the program, declined to comment. It's not entirely clear how much of the $2.75 billion has been awarded, though last March the NTIA announced the allocation of $811 million to states, territories and tribes.
'More confident' On a recent morning in Portland, Oregon, Brandon Dorn was among those taking a keyboard basics class offered by
Free Geek
, a nonprofit that provides free courses to help people learn to use computers. The class was offered at a low-income housing building to make it accessible for residents.
Dorn and the others were given laptops and shown the different functions of keys: control, shift and caps lock, how to copy and paste. They played a typing game that taught finger and key placement on a color-coded keyboard.
Dorn, 63, said the classes helped because "in this day and age, everything has to go through the computer." He said it helped him feel more confident and less dependent on his children or grandchildren to do things such as making appointments online.
"Folks my age, we didn't get this luxury beca
us
e we were too busy working, raising the family," he said. "So this is a great way to help us help ourselves."
Juan Muro, Free Geek's executive director, said participants get the tools and skills they need to access things like online banking, job applications, online education programs and telehealth. He said Trump's move to end funding has put nonprofits such as Free Geek in a precarious position, forcing them to make up the difference through their own fundraising and "beg for money to just provide individuals with essential stuff."
Sara Nichols works for the Land of Sky Regional Council, a multicounty planning and development organization in western North Carolina. On the Friday before Trump's inauguration in January, the organization received notice that it was approved for a grant. But like other groups The Associated Press contacted, it has not seen any money.
Land of Sky had spent a lot of resources helping people recover from last year's storms. The award notice, Nichols said, came as "incredible news."
"But between this and the state losing, getting their letters terminated, we feel just like stuck. What are we going to do? How are we going to move forward? How are we going to let our communities continue to fall behind?"
Filling unmet needs More than one-fifth of Americans do not have broadband internet access at home, according to the Pew Research Center. In rural communities, the number jumps to 27 percent.
Beyond giving people access to technology and fast internet, many programs funded by the Digital Equity Act sought to provide "digital navigators" - human helpers to guide people new to the online world.
"In the United States we do not have a consistent source of funding to help individuals get online, understand how to be safe online and how to use that technology to accomplish all the things that are required now as part of life that are online," said Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
This includes everything from providing families with internet hot spots so they can get online at home to helping seniors avoid online scams.
"Health, workforce, education, jobs, everything, right?" Siefer said. "This law was going to be the start for the U.S. to figure out this issue. It's a new issue in the big scheme of things, because now technology is no longer a nice-to-have. You have to have the internet and you have to know how to use the technology just to survive, let alone to thrive today."
Siefer said the word "equity" in the name probably prompted Trump to target the program for elimination.
"But it means that he didn't actually look at what this program does," she said. "Because who doesn't want grandma to be safe online? Who doesn't want a veteran to be able to talk to their doctor rather than get in a car and drive two hours? Who doesn't want students to be able to do their homework?"
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Congress leader suggests ‘ceasefire with Maoists', BJP alleges ‘vote bank' politics
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the Congress of endorsing a call for a ceasefire with the banned CPI (Maoist) and said it has "exposed" the opposition party's 'double standards' on the issue of taking on the Naxal menace. The controversy erupted after a recent remark by Telangana Congress president B Mahesh Kumar Goud, who said that he would bring an appeal of a peace talk committee for a ceasefire with the CPI (Maoists) to the notice of chief minister A Revanth Reddy and also discuss the issue in the party's high-level committee. Also Read | 'Thunder vs blunder': BJP's dig at Rahul Gandhi's 'surrender' remark on PM Modi According to media reports, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief, while addressing a conference organised by the peace talks committee in Hyderabad on Sunday, also accused the Centre of aiming to eliminate Maoists to hand over mineral wealth in Chhattisgarh and other states to corporates. The BJP seized on the statement, with national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla accusing the Congress of supporting Maoist insurgents for 'vote bank politics.' Poonawalla also asked why the grand old party "always stands with enemies of India – from Naxals to Pakistan-based terrorists'. Also Read | BJP on Congress leader's 'Rahul Gandhi would've taken PoK back' remarks: 'Hilarious' 'When the Congress was in power (at the Centre) it used to call Naxalism the biggest internal security threat and today it has become the biggest issue of human rights for the party," Poonawalla said. "After Naxal commanders like Basavarju were killed, the Congress is now shedding tears. Telangana Congress president says there should be a ceasefire with the Naxalites,' he added. Terming the reported remarks of Goud as 'shameful', another BJP national spokesperson, Pradeep Bhandari, asked in a post on X, 'Why does Congress always stand with enemies of India – Naxals to Pak-based terrorists?' Also Read | BJP hails Salman Khurshid's Article 370 remarks, asks 'will Congress turn on him like Tharoor' He said the number of Maoist-hit districts coming down to just 18 in early 2025 from 126 in 2014 is a testament to the resolve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to make India 'Naxal-free by 2026'. "Instead of standing with India, he questions the government's anti-Maoist operations and echoes the narrative of urban Naxals,' Bhandari alleged. The Congress has yet to respond officially to the BJP's charges. (with PTI inputs)
News18
30 minutes ago
- News18
Republican push for proof of citizenship to vote proves tough sell in states
Austin, Jun 3 (AP) President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have made it a priority this year to require people to prove citizenship before they can register to vote. Turning that aspiration into reality has proved difficult. Trump's executive order directing a documentary, proof-of-citizenship requirement for federal elections has been blocked by a judge, while federal legislation to accomplish it doesn't appear to have the votes to pass in the Senate. At the same time, state-level efforts have found little success, even in places where Republicans control the legislature and governor's office. The most recent state effort to falter is in Texas, where a Senate bill failed to gain full legislative approval before lawmakers adjourned on Monday. The Texas bill was one of the nation's most sweeping proof-of-citizenship proposals because it would have applied not only to new registrants but also to the state's roughly 18.6 million registered voters. 'The bill authors failed spectacularly to explain how this bill would be implemented and how it would be able to be implemented without inconveniencing a ton of voters," said Anthony Gutierrez, director of the voting rights group Common Cause Texas. Voting by noncitizens is already illegal and punishable as a felony, potentially leading to deportation, but Trump and his allies have pressed for a proof-of-citizenship mandate by arguing it would improve public confidence in elections. Before his win last year, Trump falsely claimed noncitizens might vote in large enough numbers to sway the outcome. Although noncitizen voting does occur, research and reviews of state cases has shown it to be rare and more often a mistake. Voting rights groups say the various proposals seeking to require proof-of-citizenship are overly burdensome and threaten to disenfranchise millions of Americans. Many do not have easy access to their birth certificates, have not gotten a US passport or have a name that no longer matches the one on their birth certificate — such as women who changed their last name when they married. The number of states considering bills related to proof of citizenship for voting tripled from 2023 to this year, said Liz Avore, senior policy adviser with the Voting Rights Lab, an advocacy group that tracks election legislation in the states. That hasn't resulted in many new laws, at least so far. Republicans in Wyoming passed their own proof-of-citizenship legislation, but similar measures have stalled or failed in multiple GOP-led states, including Florida, Missouri, Texas and Utah. A proposal remains active in Ohio, although Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has said he doesn't want to sign any more bills that make it harder to vote. In Texas, the legislation swiftly passed the state Senate after it was introduced in March but never made it to a floor vote in the House. It was unclear why legislation that was such a priority for Senate Republicans – every one of them co-authored the bill — ended up faltering. 'I just think people realized, as flawed as this playbook has been in other states, Texas didn't need to make this mistake," said Rep. John Bucy, a Democrat who serves as vice chair of the House elections committee. Bucy pointed to specific concerns about married women who changed their last name. This surfaced in local elections earlier this year in New Hampshire, which passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement last year. Other states that previously sought to add such a requirement have faced lawsuits and complications when trying to implement it. In Arizona, a state audit found that problems with the way data was handled had affected the tracking and verification of residents' citizenship status. It came after officials had identified some 200,000 voters who were thought to have provided proof of their citizenship but had not. A proof-of-citizenship requirement was in effect for three years in Kansas before it was overturned by federal courts. The state's own expert estimated that almost all of the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote while it was in effect were U.S. citizens who otherwise had been eligible. In Missouri, legislation seeking to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement cleared a Senate committee but never came to a vote in the Republican-led chamber. Republican state Sen. Ben Brown had promoted the legislation as a follow-up to a constitutional amendment stating that only U.S. citizens can vote, which Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved last November. He said there were several factors that led to the bill not advancing this year. Due to the session's limited schedule, he chose to prioritize another elections bill banning foreign contributions in state ballot measure campaigns. 'Our legislative session ending mid-May means a lot of things die at the finish line because you simply run out of time," Brown said, noting he also took time to research concerns raised by local election officials and plans to reintroduce the proof-of-citizenship bill next year. The Republican-controlled Legislature in Utah also prioritized other election changes, adding voter ID requirements and requiring people to opt in to receive their ballots in the mail. Before Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill into law, Utah was the only Republican-controlled state that allowed all elections to be conducted by mail without a need to opt in. Under the Florida bill that has failed to advance, voter registration applications wouldn't be considered valid until state officials had verified citizenship, either by confirming a previous voting history, checking the applicant's status in state and federal databases, or verifying documents they provided. top videos View all The bill would have required voters to prove their citizenship even when updating their registration to change their address or party affiliation. Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, said it was meant to follow through on Trump's executive order: 'This bill fully answers the president's call," she said. (AP) GSP First Published: June 03, 2025, 19:45 IST
Mint
33 minutes ago
- Mint
Golden Dome Missile Shield Project: Trump seeks Japan's help in developing $175 billion defense plan — Report
US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba discussed potential collaboration on missile defense technology during a recent phone call, with a focus on the development of Trump's proposed Golden Dome missile shield, the Nikkei reported. According to the report, Japan is expected to partner with the United States on systems aimed at detecting and intercepting missile threats. The Golden Dome project, a $175 billion initiative announced by Trump earlier this year, is designed to establish a vast satellite-based defense shield capable of countering threats from countries like China and Russia. The Nikkei, citing unnamed sources, said Tokyo's involvement could also be strategically leveraged in ongoing trade talks, possibly helping Japan secure relief from US tariffs. While the specifics of Japan's role have not been officially confirmed, Trump's administration is slated for completion by the end of Trump's second term in 2029. Trump on May 20 announced the design selection for the Golden Dome missile defense shield, a sweeping $175 billion initiative aimed at countering missile threats from adversaries such as China and Russia. Trump also named US Space Force General Michael Guetlein as the lead program manager for the project. 'This is about protecting our homeland,' Trump said during a White House press conference. First ordered in January, the Golden Dome project envisions a vast constellation of surveillance and interceptor satellites — potentially numbering in the hundreds — designed to detect, track, and destroy enemy missiles shortly after launch. The system is inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, but Trump said the Golden Dome would be 'far more extensive,' covering threats across multiple continents and domains. The president said he expects the Golden Dome to be fully operational by the end of his term in January 2029. The announcement marks the Pentagon's formal launch of procurement and testing efforts to assemble the necessary systems, sensors, and weapons infrastructure. Key defense contractors named at the press conference include L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, and RTX Corp (formerly Raytheon Technologies), who are expected to provide core components from existing production lines.
