Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Puerto Rico’s Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Delaware’s Digital Equity plan. The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The program aims to ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy.

The Digital Equity Act, part of the Internet for All initiative and a key piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, provides $2.75 billion to establish three grant programs that promote digital equity and inclusion. The program aims to ensure that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy. Using $941,542 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Louisiana created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state.

Strong partnerships and innovative community solutions are key for organizations looking to advance adult education opportunities using upcoming Digital Equity Act funds.

In 2024, the Digital Equity Act moves past the planning phase and into the grant-making phase to deliver programs and policies to communities on the ground. In 2021, the federal government made the biggest ever investment in digital equity with $2.75 billion in the Digital Equity Act.

The US Department of Agriculture just announced a new round of ReConnect grants. These are grants that can only be used to serve the most rural places in the country, and one of the qualifications is the distance between the grant market and the nearest towns. The homes served by the grants must not have any broadband available at speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps. A grantee must serve every home in a grant area. It’s not going to be easy to find a grant area that is rural and that has no homes where internet service providers claim the capability to deliver speeds of at least 25/3 Mbps.

In the final days of 2020, Congress approved a COVID-relief package that included $3.2 billion for the Federal Communications Commission to establish the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program to help households that were struggling to afford broadband. The program was up-and-running by spring, and the public’s response was overwhelming. It immediately became clear that demand for this program was going to outlast the pandemic, and Congress responded with a longer-term solution to the broadband affordability challenge.

In December 2023, the Federal Communications Commission conducted a survey of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) recipients to enhance its understanding of the program's impact and how the end of the program may impact access to broadband services. Survey respondents were also given the opportunity to submit written responses to questions about how losing ACP support would impact them.

In a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations, Representatives Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-7), Don Beyer (D-VA-08), Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11), Jen Kiggans (R-VA-02), Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-04), Bobby Scott (D-VA-03), and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10) called for the appropriators to prioritize extending Affordable Connectivity Program funding and expressed the critical need the program meets by connecting hundreds of thousands of Virginia households with affordable, high-speed internet.

In less than two months, if Congress does not act, tens of millions of people could find themselves unable to stay connected to high-speed internet.