Trump called the Digital Justice Act "racist." Now the Internet money for rural Americans is gone.

Sarah Jane Tribble, KFF Health News

Megan Waiters can tell the stories of dozens of people she’s helped get online in West Alabama. A 7-year-old girl couldn’t do her online schoolwork without a tablet, and a 91-year-old taught her how to check healthcare portals on a smartphone.

“They have health care needs, but they don’t have the digital skills,” said Waiters, a digital navigator for a nonprofit in Alabama. Her work has included giving away computers and tablets while also teaching classes on how to use the Internet for work and personal needs, such as banking and health. “It’s like alien space.”

These stories are now bittersweet.

Waiters is part of a network of digital navigators across the country whose work to bring others into the digital world was fueled, at least in part, by a $2.75 billion federal program that abruptly canceled funding this spring. The pause came after President Donald Trump Posted on Truth Social platform that the Digital Justice Act was unconstitutional and pledged “no more handouts based on race!”

Action Lists exactly who Funds should benefit, including low-income families, older residents, some prisoners, rural Americans, veterans, and members of racial or ethnic minority groups. Politicians, researchers, librarians and advocates said defunding the program, along with other changes to federal broadband initiatives, jeopardizes efforts to help rural and underserved residents participate in the modern economy and live healthier lives.

“You can see lives changing,” said Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, recalling how they helped grandparents in Iowa check prescriptions online or laid-off factory workers fill out job applications.

The Digital Justice Act is part of the comprehensive Infrastructure Act of 2021, which included $65 billion to build high-speed internet infrastructure and connect millions without internet access.

This year, Congress once again called for a modern approach to helping Americans, committing state leaders to prioritize new and emerging technologies through the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program.

A KFF Health News Analysis It found that nearly 3 million people in America live in areas with a shortage of medical professionals and where modern telehealth services are often inaccessible due to poor Internet connections. The analysis found that in about 200 mostly rural counties where dead zones still exist, Residents are experiencing illness and dying early On average than people in the rest of the country. Access to high-speed Internet is among a host of social factors, such as food and safe housing, that help people live healthier lives.

“The Internet provides this extra layer of flexibility,” said Kristina Filipovic, who leads research at the Institute for Business in the Global Context initiative at Tufts University. Research group Found in 2022 High-speed internet access is associated with fewer deaths from coronavirus, especially in metro areas.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal lawmakers launched a support program paid under the Infrastructure Act. The aid, called the Affordable Connection Program, aims to connect more people to their jobs, schools and doctors. In 2024, Congress did not renew nearly all funding for the support program 23 million low-income families.

This year, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick Renewal and delay The Building Infrastructure Act Initiative — known as the Broadband Rights, Access and Deployment Program, or BEAD — after announcing plans to Reducing regulatory burdens. More than 40 states and territories have submitted final proposals to expand high-speed internet to underserved areas under the administration’s new guidelines, according to a new report. Ministry of Commerce control panel.

In May, funding for the Digital Justice Act was terminated within days of Trump’s Social Truth post. While many states received money in 2022 to plan their programs, the next round of funding, allocated to states and agencies to implement the plans, has largely been awarded but not distributed.

Instead, federal regulators — including the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the federal agency overseeing implementation of the Digital Justice Act — Notified recipients That the grants will be terminated. The letter said the grants were created and administered with “unconstitutional racial preferences.”

In Phoenix, officials learned in January that the city was scheduled to receive $11.8 million to increase internet access and digital literacy instruction, but they received an email on May 20 stating that all grants had been terminated, “except for grants to local entities.” “It’s a shame,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat. She said the money would have helped 37,000 residents access the Internet.

Georgia Democratic leaders in July I sent a message to Lutnick and then-acting NTIA Administrator Adam Cassady to urge the return of the funds, stating that the federal reduction ignores congressional intent and violates the public trust.

said the law’s creator, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.). During an online press conference In May, Republican governors supported the 2024 Act and its funding when each state touted the completion of its required digital equity plans and requested resources.

“I can’t believe no Republican governors are going to join us in responding to this,” Murray said, adding that “the other way is through the courts.”

All 50 states have developed digital equity plans after months of focus groups, surveys and public comment periods. “Intentional community engagement” by federal and state leaders to provide broadband to unserved communities was “the greatest demonstration of participatory democracy our country has ever seen,” Angela Thee Bennett, director of digital equity at NTIA, said during an August 2024 interview with KFF Health News.

Beth Bennett could not be reached for comment on this article. NTIA spokesman Steven Yusko said the agency “would not be able to honor” an interview request with Thee Bennett and did not respond to questions for this article.

Carolyn Stratton, research director at the Benton Broadband and Society Institute, said the law’s funding allowed states to hire office staff; Identify existing high-speed Internet programs, including those operating within other state agencies; And develop plans to fill the gaps.

“This got people looking,” Stratton said, to see if agencies in the state were already working on health improvement plans and to ask whether broadband work could contribute and “effectively help move the needle.”

Government grant applications included goals To enhance access to health care. in mississippi, The plan is made up said Stratton of the state university and another agency’s health improvement plan.

While states were required to create programs that would help specific populations covered, some states modified the language or added subcategories to include other populations. Colorado Plan It included immigrants and “individuals experiencing homelessness.”

“In every state, there is a loss,” said Angela Seaver, executive director of the National Alliance for Digital Inclusion. The non-profit organization to which it was awarded Nearly $26 million To work with organizations across the country but received no money, they filed a lawsuit on October 7 seeking to force Trump and the administration to distribute the money.

“The digital divide is not over yet,” Seaver said.

The nonprofit’s grant is planned to support digital navigators in 11 states and territories, including waiters. The employer, the nonprofit Community Service Program of West Alabama, is expected to receive a $1.4 million grant.

For the past two years, waiters have spent hours driving rural roads in Alabama to reach residents. It distributed 648 devices — laptops, tablets, and SIM cards — and helped hundreds of clients with 117 two-hour digital skills classes at libraries, senior centers, and workplace development programs in and around Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

People of “all races, all ages, all financial backgrounds” who “don’t fit into our model minority category” have been helped through her work, Waiters said. She said Trump and his administration should know “what it actually looks like for the people I serve.”

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