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For groups working to bridge the digital divide, the Trump administration's decision not to release Digital Equity Act grant funds has meant disruption or cancellation of programs that try to help people get and stay online. The $2.75 billion program was meant to teach people how to do everything from using a health care portal to finding a job, but President Trump labeled the program racist and ended it. Nonprofits soon learned the grants that they had won would not be coming. The Texas Standard's Shelly Brisbin has more.
JOSEPH ARIELA: So this page is what we call the home page. This is where you can sort of navigate to anything you need to do on GroupMe. The main thing we can see is that over here, we have all the group chats we're a part of.
SHELLY BRISBIN, BYLINE: Joseph Ariela is leading 20 seniors at the Asian American Resource Center in Austin, Texas, through a class on messaging. Arcelia Adams has a question.
ARCELIA ADAMS: What if you want to delete some of these messages?
BRISBIN: Adams, who's 76, is new to the online world. She says she wants to protect herself and avoid making mistakes with her smartphone. This intermediate internet class is just the sort of training the Digital Equity Act was designed to offer to seniors, veterans and others with limited online skills. Even in central Texas, where high tech is big business, service agencies had counted on the Digital Equity Act to reach more people.
JAIME CASTLEBERRY: A lot of the resources in Austin are not available outside of Austin areas, so we had to limit what we had planned on providing.
BRISBIN: Jaime Castleberry is director of grants at Goodwill Central Texas, which provides job training in 15 counties. The agency planned to spend $650,000 to expand digital training into rural areas.
SARA NICHOLS: We saw gaps in how people are able to access the internet. So these community partners are really connected to how the people they serve in the populations struggle to get online and stay online.
BRISBIN: Sara Nichols is with the Land of Sky Regional Council, a coalition of governments in western North Carolina. The agency won a $7.7 million Digital Equity Act grant to expand training to underserved people in the region. Last fall, Hurricane Helene devastated the region, and residents needed internet access more than ever.
NICHOLS: So we spent a lot of the money that we had putting those resources out back in the fall. Then we were really excited when we found out we were going to get this grant because it would help us continue to get our folks back online.
BRISBIN: But the money never came. The Digital Equity Act promised $1.4 billion for state programs and 1.25 billion for nonprofits and collaborating groups. The act's mention of racial minorities got the White House's attention, even though none of the approved grants focused on specific racial groups, nor did they exclude others. And the law's name.
DREW GARNER: So basically, the administration, they were going through any program, any law that had anything to do with equity and attacking it.
BRISBIN: Drew Garner is director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, an advocacy group working to expand internet access. The White House did not respond to a request for a comment on its decision not to fund approved grants.
The National Digital Inclusion Alliance filed suit against the Trump administration in October, challenging termination of its $25.7 million grant, and a coalition of 20-plus states sued the administration in June over funds they had been promised. These lawsuits are ongoing.
For NPR News, I'm Shelly Brisbin in Austin.
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