Trump deems Digital Equity Act illegal on basis of racially designated grants; new applications will be required

“Rural residents live sicker and die younger on average than people in the rest of the country when they live in counties lacking high-speed internet access and healthcare,” reports Sarah Jane Tribble for KFF Health News. “While 81% of white adults surveyed said they subscribed to broadband at home, only 71% of Black adults and 68% of Hispanic adults said the same.”

Congress allocated $2.75 billion for the Digital Equity Act under the Biden administration in 2021. The money was for skill development under the broader “Internet for All” infrastructure initiative. “The Digital Equity Act lists exactly whom the money should benefit, including low-income households, older people, some incarcerated people, rural Americans, veterans, and members of racial or ethnic minority groups,” Tribble reports.

A few months into Trump’s second term, he called the DEA program “illegal.” This came in the wake of two executive orders dismantling DEI and the 2023 Supreme Court decision invalidating affirmative action.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates sided with the administration in an opinion, stating “that it was unconstitutional for the government to use race or ethnicity as the basis to award money under a program created to expand internet skills and access.”

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration halted DEA grant programs after the decision, heavily impacting the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. The NDIA serves rural and marginalized communities, providing programs where community workers teach internet and technology skills.

With Bates’ decision, federal attorneys said the government would reinstate NDIA competitive grants without racial classifications. A new grant application is expected for release in December, and the NDIA must reapply for the grants they once had.

After four years and many obstacles, 'Internet for All' is unlikely to reach every American

BEAD may not be able to live up to its 'Internet for All' promise.
 (Photo by Jay Heike, Unsplash)

After years of planning and delays, most states have accessed at least a portion of their federal grant funding from the $42.45 billion rural broadband expansion program. Some states are likely to break ground later this year, while others continue work to lock in approvals and installation contracts.

"States have six months to finalize contracts with participating internet service providers and complete required environmental and historic reviews, before construction can begin," reports Jericho Casper of The Daily Yonder.

It has been more than four years since the Biden administration announced the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Since then, it has gone through multiple phases and two presidential administrations. The Trump administration mandated that states trim their requests, meaning only half of the program's funding has been sent or awarded to states.

With roughly half the money spent, many state planners are wondering: What happens to the $22 billion in unspent funds? Casper explains, "The U.S. Commerce Department put the funding aside for "so-called 'non-deployment' uses,'" but what those are has remained unclear.

Lawmakers asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to explain what states can expect the funds to cover, but "he offered few specifics, saying only that guidance would come within two months," Casper reports. Lutnick did say that "states would be able to pursue 'new and exciting things' with the money."

Meanwhile, delays and uncertainty are likely to hurt programs already underway. Casper writes, "State broadband offices in Colorado and New Mexico report that some providers who initially expressed interest may ultimately default on preliminary awards."

Providers have seen their costs multiply over time and may be rethinking their bids. Casper adds, "Fiber suppliers say prices have jumped as much as 40% in recent weeks. . . . For some providers, particularly those serving remote areas, the administrative burden may outweigh the benefits."

The program's complexity and legislative heavy lifting continue to slow its progress. "Industry experts have described BEAD as the 'most complicated broadband grant program ever,'" Casper reports.

And while lawmakers have tried to speed the process, legal battles with local governments and industry providers over broadband permits continue. Casper adds, "The program once billed as 'Internet for All' is expected to reach fewer households and businesses under the revamped plan, and experts say closing the remaining gaps will require sustained investment."

Tribal lands need broadband to improve health care access, but progress is slow

Shoshone-Bannock tribal lands are vast with a rocky terrain, which poses a challenge in building fiber-optic cable lines for high-speed internet to homes. (Photo by Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News)

The lands of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Idaho span seemingly endless miles. But the beauty of this vast tribal expanse comes with a cost: Profound broadband gaps that limit health care for Native Americans throughout the region. "Tribal members are historically underserved and, on average, live with the highest rates of chronic illnesses and die 6.5 years earlier than the average U.S. resident," reports Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News.

Accessing medical treatment without broadband connectivity presents a range of challenges. Tribal members have to drive to medical appointments because telehealth isn't an option. "Tribal field nurses update charts in paper notebooks at patients’ homes, then drive back to the clinic to pull up records, send orders, or check prescriptions," Tribble writes. Getting care and medicine all takes longer.

All the while, millions in federal dollars have been set aside to address tribal broadband infrastructure. "Three years ago, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes were awarded more than $22 million during the first round of the federal Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program," Tribble explains. "But tribes that were awarded millions in a second round of funding saw their payments held up under the Trump administration."

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project
(Map by Lydia Zuraw and Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News)

For some tribal members, waiting for fiber isn't an option. Instead, they pay for Starlink, which uses low-earth-orbit satellites and costs between $80 and $120 a month. "For 53-year-old Carol Cervantes Osborne, who lives with constant pain from severe rheumatoid arthritis, having internet is a necessity," Tribble explains. "She signed up for Starlink so that she can connect with doctors remotely through telehealth appointments." 

Despite the wait for broadband and the current lack of care access on their lands, tribal leaders say Starlink is too expensive for most of their members.

This year, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes started work on their high-speed internet installation, but progress will be slow. "To build fiber-optic cables underground, the tribes must navigate lava rock and work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get permits," Tribble explains. "Eventually, the old radio station will be central to operations, with fiber-optic cable lines that web out over about 800 square miles to reach the reservation’s five district lodges."

The Digital Equity Act had its funding axed; programming aimed at rural digital access and literacy is gone

Telehealth appointments can offer rural residents more
frequent visits with their doctor. (Adobe Stock photo)

States used federal funding from the Digital Equity Act grants to help rural residents access technology and learn to use it. But this spring, President Donald Trump declared the program "woke" and canceled its $2.75 billion in funding, reports Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News. The funding cut caused local and state rural digital literacy offerings to close.

The Digital Equity Act cites exactly who the funding is intended to help, including "low-income households, older residents, some incarcerated people, rural Americans, veterans, and members of racial or ethnic minority groups," Tribble explains. "Politicians, researchers, librarians, and advocates said defunding the program . . . jeopardizes efforts to help rural and underserved residents participate in the modern economy and lead healthier lives."

Part of the program had deployed teachers, known as "digital navigators," to help connect rural people with computers, cell phones and tablets, along with the skills to use them. Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, "recalled how 'they helped grandpas in Iowa check prescriptions online or laid-off factory workers fill out job applications,'" Tribble writes.

Improving rural health is a key reason advocates have continued to push for digital equality in more remote places. Tribble explains, "Nearly 3 million people in America live in areas with shortages of medical professionals and where modern telehealth services are often inaccessible because of poor internet connections."

When internet access and technology know-how are paired, rural residents can benefit from telehealth appointments, prescription ordering, and easier access to health-related information and monitoring.

Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, told Tribble, "The digital divide is not over." Tribble reports, "The nonprofit filed a lawsuit Oct. 7 seeking to force [the Trump administration] to distribute the money."

Despite delays and a new round of changes, many state broadband leaders feel they are 'on the right path'

Some states had to rework plans to expand internet
access with federal money. (Compare Fibre graphic)

States have been busy preparing and submitting proposals that outline how they plan to spend their portion of $42 billion in federal dollars earmarked for expanding internet access. The plans aim to build out high-speed internet infrastructure in remote and underserved areas.

The federal official in charge of the program, Arielle Roth, said "she is 'pleasantly surprised' at the progress states are making on their revised final plans for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty.

After Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced last-minute changes to the BEAD program in June, states had to rush to "revamp their plans to make them comply," Teale explains. According to the article, 43 states and territories have submitted their final plans for review and compliance guidance.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has "come under fire for adding an additional bidding round to what they have determined would be the most expensive locations to connect," Teale reports. "The agency rejected those claims in a recent fact sheet."

The overall shifts in the program mean that some states won't need all the money they've been allotted. Teale explains, "Meghan Sandfoss, Kentucky’s executive director of broadband development, said the state will only use around a third of its $1.1 billion allocation to serve its 87,000 eligible locations." It's not clear where the "leftover" funding will go.

States still have a long list of work to be completed; however, "several state broadband leaders said they are on the right path," Teale adds.

Minnesota’s Executive Director of Broadband Development, Bree Maki, told Route Fifty, "I think the harder part for us is the stuff that we can't control: the pole attachments, railroad crossings, those kinds of issues that aren't as cut and dry."

States are already seeing their digital equity grants get canceled, and the divide hurts rural communities more

The program designed to erase the digital divide has
disappeared from the NTIA website. (Adobe photo)

Not long ago, rural hubs were burgeoning with plans and dollars directed at leveling the digital divide, but things have changed quickly. "Within days of President Donald Trump announcing on social media that he was ending the federal digital equity grant program, it looks to be consigned to history," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. The program's information has disappeared from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s website.

States are already seeing their funding cut. Aaron Wheeler, director of Washington state’s broadband office, said last week that "he had received a letter cancelling its $15.9 million grant award," Teale writes. During a press conference with Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, Wheeler said, “[Losing the funds] undermines our digital equity plan’s goals and perpetuates existing disparities that fall most heavily on our state's rural communities."

Maine had $35 million in grants canceled. The funds were intended "to help the state build digital skills and online safety, especially for rural and low-income residents, veterans and small businesses," Teale reports. "The state said 130,000 people would have been served by the three grants."

The State Educational Technology Directors Association said "at least 20 [states] have seen planning and capacity grant funding pulled by NTIA in light of the president’s order," Teale adds. Murray, "the architect of the Digital Equity Act, said during last week’s press conference that she wants her colleagues to step up, or else legal action could ensue."

Two million rural Americans live in 'dead zones' that lack health care providers and reliable internet service

'Dead zone' counties have three things in common: They lack access to high-speed and reliable internet, primary care providers, and behavioral health specialists. (KFF Health News graphic)

In U.S. communities that lack both medical care providers and dependable internet service, residents tend to "live sicker and die younger than others in America," report Sarah Jane Tribble and Holly K. Hacker for KFF Health News. KFF Health News calls regions that lack both services “dead zones.” Roughly 2.7 million Americans live in dead zones, and the vast majority of those zones are rural.

"In 2023, 83% of residents in non-metropolitan, or rural, counties had access to broadband, compared to over 90% of metropolitan residents," reports Sarah Melotte of The Daily Yonder. Out of the 2.7 million Americans who live in dead zones, "two million, or 70% of them, are from rural counties. That means the rate at which rural residents live in these shortage areas is five times higher than the urban rate."

In some cases, communities leverage broadband service and telehealth care to fill in for a lack of providers; but the absence of both options leaves millions disadvantaged. "Compared with those in other regions, patients across the rural South, Appalachia, and remote West are most often unable to make a video call to their doctor or log into their patient portals," KFF reports. "Both are essential ways to participate in the U.S. medical system."

Without reliable high-speed internet, it's hard to attract and keep medical providers in more remote parts of the country. At the same time, poor connectivity means telehealth care isn't an option. "Connectivity dead zones persist in American life despite at least $115 billion lawmakers have thrown toward fixing the inequities," Tribble and Hacker explain. "Federal broadband efforts are fragmented and overlapping, with more than 133 funding programs administered by 15 agencies, according to a 2023 federal report."

The contrast between "the digital haves and have-nots" is stark. "The KFF Health News analysis found that counties with the highest rates of internet access and health care providers correlated with higher life expectancy, less chronic disease, and key lifestyle factors such as higher incomes and education levels," KFF reports. In many rural counties, the lack of reliable high-speed internet access leads to the opposite, where residents tend to live unhealthier, poorer and shorter lives."

Researchers explore bringing medical care to rural Vermonters by adding telehealth hubs to libraries

Almost two-thirds of Vermonters live in rural places.
(Adobe Stock photo)

A lack of rural health care providers often leaves residents with few ways to see medical providers without long-distance traveling. While telehealth services are an option in some smaller communities, a lack of reliable internet can get in the way. A new grant in Vermont aims to answer both challenges by exploring "the feasibility of offering telehealth services at the state’s 185 libraries," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. Library telehealth hubs would allow medical care in some of the state's most remote areas.

The research project, known as VITAL-VT, aims to remove obstacles Vermonters face when trying to access health care. Teale explains, "The majority are in rural communities located sometimes hours away from providers. . . . Accessing telehealth is also a challenge due to slow connectivity and gaps in understanding of how to use technology."

Along with a grant from the University of Vermont, the Vermont Community Broadband Board, which coordinates the state's broadband reach, is also supporting VITAL-VT. Robert Fish, VCBB’s deputy director, told Teale, “Everybody is pretty spread out. . . Most of the major health care providers [are in] larger towns, which makes getting access to good health care very difficult for rural Vermonters. . . . Telehealth reduces the need to do that, it's also access to experts around the world you can connect with. It also saves money for the provider, the outcomes can be better, it's better for the environment, there's less transportation, and it also allows more people to participate in care.”

FAIR Health, a nonprofit that looks to make health insurance and health care costs more transparent, "found that telehealth utilization and insurance claims have increased nationally and in every region of the U.S. except the West," Teale reports. "The Northeast region saw a 3.1% jump in telehealth claims." VITAL-VT hopes to pave new ways for telehealth services to reach and care for its residents even in the most rural parts of the state.

Federal plan to provide internet access to more rural areas might include satellite service, which has fans and critics

A new bill would allow satellite internet in rural
areas. (Adobe Stock photo)

Despite bipartisan congressional support for all Americans to have access to speedy internet, discussions on how to get the job done have fallen along party lines, with many Republicans bemoaning the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program as too slow and overly attached to using fiber technology. "New legislation looks to address those complaints," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. "The legislation would amend the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and loosen several requirements."

Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, "introduced the Streamlining Program Efficiency and Expanding Deployment for BEAD Act, known as the SPEED for BEAD Act," Teale explains. The bill "would clarify that any technology, including satellite internet, can be used to help close the digital divide, and would eliminate what Hudson called 'burdensome' regulations."

While several trade groups "expressed their support for the bill. . . . not [everyone is] convinced that changing BEAD at this stage is the right course of action," Teale reports. "With every state and territory having had their deployment plans approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and several states ready to distribute grant funding and deploy infrastructure, some warned that a change now could delay the program further."

Others insist that spending federal dollars on satellite internet will enrich satellite owners while providing only sub-standard internet access. When Evan Feinman, who had directed BEAD for the past three years, quit, he sent "a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk’s satellite internet company with money for rural broadband," reports John Hendel of Politico.

Feinman’s "lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform BEAD," Hendel writes. Feinman warned, "'Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington.'"