Trump calificó de “racista” la Ley de Equidad Digital. Ahora, el dinero para que la gente del campo tenga internet ha desaparecido

Megan Waiters can recite the story of the doctors who helped bring west Alabama to the Internet. A 7-year-old who can’t get his hair online without a tablet, and the 91-year-old who started checking health portals on a cell phone.

A Naranja message and a signal of “Attention!” » At the cost of a marcane road, the place where a fiber optic cable is located is sunk.

“You still need medical attention, but you also need the necessary digital skills,” said Waiters, who works as a digital navigator for a non-revenue organization in Alabama. Your job is to regale computers and tablets, both to give lessons on how to use the Internet for work and personal necessities, like bench and health. “It’s like an extraño space.”

These stories now have agricultural work.

Wakers is part of a nationwide network of digital browsers working to reach out to other countries in the digital world by funding itself, in part, through a $2.750 million federal program that abruptly canceled its funding this year.

The suspension occurred after President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the Digital Equity Act was unconstitutional and promised “more aid to the public conscience based on race!” “.

The law specifically details everyone who should benefit from the money, including low-income households, mayoral residents, certain people in prison, rural states, veterans and members of racial or ethnic minorities.

Politicians, investigators, librarians and advocates say funding for the program, along with other changes in federal band initiatives, will spur efforts to help rural and disadvantaged residents participate in the modern economy and life. a more healthy life.

“You can see your lives changing,” said Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, recording how to help adults in Iowa look up medical recipes online or factory workers ask them for employee information.

The Ley de Equidad Digital is part of the sweeping Infrastructure Act of 2021, which includes $65,000 million to build high-speed internet infrastructure and connect millions of people without internet access.

That year, Congress launched a larger modern initiative to help states, requiring state leaders to prioritize new and emerging technologies through their $50,000 million Rural Health Transformation Program.

A KFF Health News analysis found that three million people nationwide live in areas where medical professionals are located and modern remote monitoring services are inaccessible due to poor internet connections.

The analysis found that in one of 200 mostly rural neighborhoods where areas persisted without coverage, residents lived with the mayor’s farm and more than people in the rest of the country. Access to high-speed Internet lies between a series of social factors, such as nutrition and safe living, which helps people live healthier lives.

“The Internet provides an additional capacity for resilience,” said Christina Filipovic, who leads the survey from an initiative of the Institute for Business in the Global Context at Tufts University. In 2022, the investigative group found that access to high-speed internet correlated with lower mortality from covid-19, particularly in metropolitan areas.

During the covid pandemic, federal lawmakers launched a grant program funded by the infrastructure law. This help, called Programa de Connectividad Asequible, helps connect more people with your workers, schools and doctors. In 2024, Congress did not renew the financing of the subsidy program, which had registered a total of 23 million euros in revenue.

That year, United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick renovated and took over the initiative to build the Infrastructure Act—conocida as the Band Ancha Equity, Access, and Implementation (BEAD) Program—by announcing plans to reduce freight regulations. More than 40 states and territories have submitted final proposals to expand high-speed Internet in unconnected areas under the administration’s new guidelines, according to a Commerce Department panel.

In May, funding for the Digital Equity Act was defunded days after Trump published Social Truth. While many states have received funding to plan their programs in 2022, the next round of funding, intended for states and agencies implementing the aircraft, has largely been organized but not distributed.

In exchange, federal regulators, including the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTI), the federal agency that oversees implementation of the Digital Equidad Law, notified recipients that the grants would be canceled.

It is created and administered with “unconstitutional racial preferences,” according to the charter.

In Phoenix, Arizona, authorities seized money the city received $11.8 million to increase internet access and for digital learning, but received an email on May 20 stating that all grants, “except for destinations to entities.” Nativas,” he canceled.

“It’s a pena,” said Phoenix alcalde, Democrat Kate Gallego. The money, he claims, helped 37,000 residents gain Internet access.

In July, Georgia Democratic leaders sent a charter to Lutnick, and at that time, NTIA Internal Administrator Adam Cassady called for the funds to be returned, signaling that the federal government was unaware of Congress’s intent and vulnerable to public trust.

The law’s creator, Sen. Patty Murray (D-W.C.), said during an online news conference in May that 2024 Republican governors announced the law and its funding when they were in the process of promoting the finalization of their digital balance plans. required and requested recursos.

“We can’t believe there aren’t any Republican governors who are one of us to play against this,” Murray said, and added that “the other way is through the courts.”

All 50 states are developing digital equine plans through months of focus groups, surveys and public comment periods. NTIA Digital Equidad Director Angela Thi Bennett, in an August 2024 interview with KFF Health News, confirmed that the “deliberate community participation” of federal and state leaders to provide support to disaffected communities was “the mayor’s demonstration of participatory democracy that our country is always there.”

It is not possible to contact Thi Bennett to comment on this article. NTIA commenter Stephen Yusko said the agency “could not respond” to a request for an interview with Thi Bennett and did not respond to questions for this article.

Caroline Stratton, investigative director of the Benton Institute for Band Ancha and Society, confirmed that the law’s funding allowed states to staff their offices; identify existing high-speed Internet programs, including those operating in other state agencies; and create planes to overcome the deficiencies.

“That’s what motivated people to investigate,” Stratton explained, to see if state agencies are working toward better health plans and to ensure that band work can also contribute and “actively help improve the situation.”

State grant requests include objectives to promote access to medical attention. In Mississippi, the plan is an initiative to improve the health of the university and another agency, Stratton said.

While states must create programs that help with specific situations, some modify the language or add subcategories to include other situations. Colorado’s plan includes immigrants and people without homes.

“In every state, it’s a loss,” said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Alliance for Digital Inclusion. The No Money Fines Organization, which received $26 million to collaborate with organizations across the country but did not receive any funds, filed a request Oct. 7 to force Trump and the government to distribute the money.

“La brecha digital no ha terminado,” Siefer said.

The organization’s grant was planned to help digital browsers in 11 states and territories, including servers. Your employer, the West Alabama Community Service Programs Revenue Fines Organization, is hoping to receive a $1.4 million grant.

Over the past few years, servers have spent hours recording Alabama’s rural roads to reach residents. It distributed 648 devices (laptops, tablets and SIM cards) and helped customers in 117 two-hour digital skills classes at libraries, senior centers and job development programs in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and its others.

People of “all reasons, levels and economic levels” who do not “fit into our typical minority category” receive free help with their work, the servers said. It says Trump and his administration need to know “how things are really going for the people he serves.”