Ending the Digital Equity Act Would Harm and Isolate Millions of Americans, Says OTI

In response to President Donald Trump announcing the intent to immediately end the Digital Equity Act (DEA) grant funding, the Open Technology Institute (OTI), a New America program fostering equitable access to digital technology and its benefits, issued the following statement from Prem Trivedi, policy director of OTI.

When people can’t get online or when they lack the tools and skills to adequately navigate the internet, they are blocked from fully participating in modern society. Ending the Digital Equity Act’s grant funding ends the opportunity to reach those people and close the digital divide. If the Trump administration ends the DEA, millions of Americans will suffer, and the United States will slip further behind other countries in its ability to compete in today’s deeply digital world.

Ending this $2.75 billion portion of the 2021 Infrastructure Law will deprive veterans, rural residents, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and many other Americans of the investment and support they need to access vital services and economic opportunities that are increasingly only accessible through high-speed broadband connections.

While the lion’s share of the Infrastructure Law’s broadband investments is dedicated to deploying broadband infrastructure where it’s lacking, the Digital Equity Act specifically supports millions of Americans who don’t or can’t use the internet in their daily lives—even if the infrastructure is there. This stems from various reasons, including inadequate digital skills, lack of devices, accessibility issues, or distrust of the internet. Because the program’s reach is so broad, the majority of Americans are eligible for support.

In addition, “ending” DEA would undercut the success of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD), the $42 billion broadband buildout program that the federal government continues to support. DEA was created to complement BEAD by guaranteeing demand for the newly created networks and addressing barriers to adoption that keep communities offline even when broadband service is available. Without DEA, BEAD will leave undone the hardest work of closing the digital divide and condemn many Americans to life on the wrong side of the divide.

President Trump has ignored the many benefits of the Digital Equity Act and instead falsely asserted that this law is “unconstitutional.” Bipartisan majorities in Congress overwhelmingly passed this law, designed to help end the digital divide, as part of the $65 billion investment in broadband in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. The President cannot unilaterally “end” a federal statute; amending or repealing it is a power that belongs to Congress.

Our country needs the Digital Equity Act to achieve the benefits of making America a fully digitally-connected nation. These benefits include increased government efficiency, economic benefits, workforce development, improved health outcomes, and enhanced national competitiveness.