On May 9, 2025, President Trump announced that he would immediately be ending the programs created by the Digital Equity Act (DEA). The President declared in a posting on his Truth Social platform that the DEA was unconstitutional and that he would be ending the Digital Equity Programs created by the DEA immediately, branding the DEA as illegal, woke, and racist. The DEA was enacted under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and provides $2.75 billion for grants through three separate programs administered by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The three programs are the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, and the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. The DEA is intended to be administered at the state level with the goal of insuring broadband availability for targeted populations including low-income households, aging populations, veterans, disabled individuals, individuals with a language barrier, racial and ethnic minorities, and rural inhabitants.
It is unclear currently how President Trump intends to implement the cancellation of the DEA programs. One approach would be for the President to recommend to Congress a recission of any unspent digital equity funding. Given the fact that the DEA was approved by Congress with significant bi-partisan support as well as the many different classes of potential beneficiaries of the DEA, it is very possible that a complete cancellation of the DEA will be difficult to achieve. Should the President seek to end the DEA via an Executive Order it is likely that that approach will lead to legal actions questioning his authority to do so. Perhaps a compromised approach will evolve.
Another program created by the IIJA and administered by NTIA, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, has been the subject of review and potential changes. As discussed previously on this site (see ICORE Blogs dated 3/13/25 and 4/30/25), a Bill introduced in Congress would change the name of the program to the Broadband Expansion, Access, and Deployment program and included a significant number of changes to the program’s grant application process. In addition, last month NTIA announced that it is undertaking a comprehensive review of the program to remove unnecessary rules, to introduce a more technology neutral approach, and to cut unnecessary red tape. As a result, a 90-day extension of the BEAD program’s Final Proposal deadline was announced by NTIA. Given the scope of NTIA’s review, a further delay beyond 90 days would not be surprising.
On May 16, 2025, in response to NTIA’s announced delays and review of the BEAD program, a group of 12 members of the U.S. Senate sent a letter to President Trump expressing their concerns that NTIA’s actions will further delay the provision of high-speed broadband services to the communities they serve. The letter further points out that 42 states have begun or completed their BEAD application process and three states have had their applications fully approved and are awaiting the release of funding. In addition, the letter cautions that attempts by NTIA to revise the state application process at this late stage will cause further delays leaving the rural and tribal communities they serve unconnected to vital broadband services. Finally, they submit that it is critical that NTIA act quickly to release funding to states that have received final approval of their BEAD program plans and to act expeditiously to approve the remaining eligible applications.
As discussed above, a great deal of uncertainty remains relative to the DEA and BEAD programs. We will continue to monitor the situation regarding these important programs and will provide updates as more information becomes available.
