Living in a Post-Digital Act World

It's been a little more than a year since the current federal administration canceled the Digital Equity Act. It caused a ripple effect in communities. And it just keeps going — affecting people nationwide. Here’s what we’ve been seeing and hearing across the digital equity sector.

A Bipartisan Effort Undone by a Single Word

The Digital Equity Act was passed as a bipartisan vote. It included a set of covered populations:

• Persons who are 60 years of age or older
• Veterans
• Persons with disabilities
• Members of a racial or ethnic minority group
• Incarcerated individuals
• Rural residents
• Individuals with a language barrier, including those who are English learners or have low literacy levels
• Individuals living in households with incomes not exceeding 150 percent of the poverty level

The Act established two programs: the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program and the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program.

The current federal administration latched onto the race component when it was doing its anti-affirmative action and anti-DEI purge. Even though, if you're a person of color, you might also be rural, or elderly, or also a veteran. Many people the legislation was intended to serve weren't in just one category.

The death knell for the DEA was that it referenced ‘race’. This was the component of the legislation that the administration objected to.

There was some additional justification given later around the program not being set up competitively enough. But, in our opinion, that was a Hail Mary reason to address pushback — not the one given initially.

Whether or not the cancellation was legal is under debate. The DEA was passed by Congress, and the administration with a pen declared it illegal. That's not how this works. The law is still on the books. The funds were rescinded, which effectively stops it. Lawsuits are underway to restore those funds. 

The Fallout

The effects of the cancellation ripple out beyond digital equity organizations.

Organizations

Some were awarded funds or told they were likely to get them. They focused on the grant and didn't pursue other opportunities. They didn't build out other programs. Then all of a sudden they're having to shrink — both their programs and their staff.

There have been a lot of layoffs. A lot.

Programs have completely disappeared. Some organizations may close.  And this is happening at the same time that AI is creating a bigger digital equity gap and the government is moving more of its services and resources online.

The People They Serve

When programs disappear, the individuals served by those programs lose access to the services they depended on. Some are no longer navigating their social support networks. Others aren’t building the digital skills they need for employment. 

Digital navigators — the people who sit with someone one-on-one and help them get online, troubleshoot problems, and build confidence — are becoming increasingly scarce. The people who need those services don't have anyone they can reach out to.

Communities

The effects go beyond the individual level. When people can't access workforce development programs, that impacts local economies. When they can't participate in the digital systems that civic life increasingly requires, entire communities feel it. And then you ask: what does that mean nationally?

The reality is that the direct impact on organizations, the people who work there, the people served by them, and the effects on local economies and workforce development scale nationally. That ripple effect becomes a wave crashing down across the country.

Saying One Thing While Doing Another

There’s an old aphorism, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” It’s an idea about economics — an improved economy will benefit all participants.

The current administration claims it wants the US to be a world leader in technology and AI development. But by cancelling the DEA, they’ve cut off a huge segment of the population from gaining basic digital skills. The tide isn’t rising for the whole country.

On a very basic level, it's workforce investment. And they've pulled the investment.

Shock. Scramble. Pushback. Plan.

Disruptions like this have cycles.

Everybody in the digital equity sector went through a shock cycle. Then they went through a scramble cycle — immediate needs had to be met. Then it felt like they started to get really angry and push back where they could, while also laying out longer-term plans to ensure stability.

We’ve lost a lot of good people from the space. But the people who are still here are adapting.

The State-Level Picture

Several states have tried to create their own low-cost broadband programs.

But the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) — told states that if they create a low-cost program, they won't get their Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding. That’s broadband infrastructure money. Most of those states stopped their work to replace the DEA. 

For example, California was going to get the largest BEAD payment — due to their size. But they didn't think it was worth risking their BEAD funding to create a replacement for the DEA. So they halted the progress of the California Affordable Home Internet Act, — a bill introduced in January 2025 by Assembly Member Tasha Boerner (D-Encinitas), to require internet service providers (ISPs) to offer $15-per-month broadband plans to low-income households participating in public assistance programs.

Today, there doesn't seem to be a state groundswell of figuring it out on their own.

New Mexico is a standout. They were the first to replace the federal broadband subsidy with Low-Income Telecommunications Assistance Program (LITAP) — a  $10M state-run program due to take effect on July 1, 2026. Designed to help tens of thousands of low-income families afford high-speed internet, the program also includes the creation of state digital inclusion programs like the New MexiCorps Digital Navigator initiative. LITAP demonstrates what can be done by a state that’s not willing to sit back and just float.

How 35 Mile Foundation has Responded

Our partners have been hit. We've seen quite a few downsize programs and staff. We've seen a higher demand for replacing certain types of funding. They're trying to figure out how to bring more money into the organization to continue the digital equity work they’ve been doing.

Meanwhile, we've increased our giving to the digital equity space because we recognize there's a need that has to be met. But we can't meet all of it. So, we’re being strategic about investing where we can have impact — because we recognize that some of these groups need to be shored up. They're doing critical work in their communities. They absolutely need to be able to do more and funding helps them expand their reach.

We've been involved in sign-on advocacy — petitions to government that multiple organizations sign on to. We're involved with the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, and working with NDIA, among other alliances.

We offer a low price point for organizations to secure internet access. The less money they're spending with us, the more money they can put into their other programs.

Digital equity organizations are approaching us for a lot of things other than funding. Sometimes, they're just reaching out for one-on-one moral support. During these times, people just need an ear to talk about the things they're dealing with and how they're trying to figure it out.

Moving Forward

It's only been a year since the rug was pulled out from underneath the DEA. In some ways, we still don't know what the full shakeout is going to be. We expect that we’re going to lose more organizations and programs. The legal challenges will matter — if funds can be restored, the trajectory changes. If they can't, the sector will have to build something new.

But restored funding, or new funding is not a light switch. You don't stop the funding and then turn the lights back on in a few years and pick up where you left off. 

Organizations that shut down won’t suddenly pop back up. The support infrastructure that was helping people keep up — the digital navigators, the training programs, the organizations behind them — is thinner now than it was a year ago. Technology and AI and everything that depends on the internet aren’t slowing down. Meanwhile, the lack of access to and non-adoption of AI and technology by those who already struggle to be online is increasing. 

But at the NDIA conference in February, there was an activist vibe. The people who are left in this space are stubborn and tenacious. It's like somebody is attacking their life's work. And when somebody attacks their life's work, people tend to get a little bit more animated about it.

Some funding groups are starting to think about new ways to support digital equity work and help frontline organizations become resilient — so they're not subject to political whims. This moment is becoming a catalyst for evolution in the space. We don't fully know what it looks like yet. But the conversations have started.

Some of the people doing this work have been working to narrow the digital divide for 30 years or more.

They are determined to weather the storm.