Digital Beat

Commerce Targets December 2026 to Reopen Digital Equity Competitive Grants

Cities, counties, nonprofits, libraries, community colleges, and workforce organizations waiting to learn whether the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program is coming back now have a glimmer of hope, albeit a soft one. In a joint status report filed in a federal court on August 3, 2026, the Department of Commerce said it "presently targets a December 2026 opening date for the Competitive Grant Program application." The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Commerce agency that runs the program, is "currently preparing a new Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)," the document that announces a federal grant competition, sets the rules, and opens the application window.

Three things in that sentence matter to anyone who applied in 2024 or plans to apply next time. The date is a target, not a court-ordered deadline. The NOFO will be new, not a revival of the 2024 process. And nothing in the filing addresses what happens to the more than 700 applications NTIA already has in hand.

The Case, Briefly

The Digital Equity Act of 2021, enacted November 15, 2021, as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, appropriated $2.75 billion across three grant programs aimed at broadband adoption and digital skills:

The State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, which helped states devise digital equity plans;
The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, which provides funding for states to implement their digital equity plans; and
The Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, which provides funding for individual applicants—mostly cities and nonprofit entities to carry out digital inclusion activities aligned with states' digital equity plans.

Congress established the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program to award grants directly to eligible entities, including local governments, nonprofits, community anchor institutions, school districts, and workforce development organizations. NTIA has consistently described the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program as a $1.25 billion program; the statute authorizes $250,000,000 for each of the first five fiscal years in which funds are made available.¹

The Digital Equity Act directs NTIA, "to the extent practicable," to consider whether an application would increase internet access and adoption among "covered populations":

Individuals who live in covered (low-income) households;
Aging individuals;
Incarcerated individuals (other than those in federal facilities);
Veterans;
Individuals with disabilities;
Individuals with a language barrier, including English learners and people with low literacy;
Individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group (§ 1721(8)(G)); and
Individuals who primarily reside in a rural area.

Applications for the first round closed September 23, 2024, and NTIA reported receiving more than 700 applications seeking over $6.5 billion. NTIA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began issuing awards in January 2025. On May 9, 2025, following President Trump's announcement that he was ending the Digital Equity Act's initiatives, the Department of Commerce terminated the Competitive Grant Program and the grants made under it.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), a nonprofit that had been notified of a roughly $25.7 million award, sued. On July 15, 2026, Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that including individuals who are members of a racial or ethnic minority group in the covered populations is an unconstitutional racial classification, but that it is severable—meaning that the provision alone can be set aside while the rest of the statute continues to operate. The court ordered the parties to file a joint status report proposing a schedule for further proceedings. That report was filed on August 3.

What the Filing Says

In the joint filing, the U.S. Department of Justice and NDIA's attorneys state:

1. The U.S. Department of Commerce will reinstate the program without the race criterion. "As envisioned in this Court's memorandum opinion, the Department of Commerce (DOC) will reinstate the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, 47 U.S.C. § 1724, in a manner that does not implement § 1721(8)(G), but that otherwise incorporates the existing statutory requirements." Two words are doing a lot of work there. "As envisioned" frames reinstatement as fulfilling what the court anticipated, not as complying with what the court ordered—and the July 15 opinion did not order the program restored. And DOC will not "implement" the racial classification, a description of an administrative choice rather than of a court-imposed constraint. This language is the government's first formal, on-the-record commitment to a specific program design since the July ruling. For now, that commitment appears in a status report rather than in a court order.

2. A new NOFO is being drafted, and Commerce attributes the timeline to process, not litigation. The Department of Commerce attributes the December target to "various layers of Executive Branch review, as well as notice periods under the Paperwork Reduction Act." The Paperwork Reduction Act generally requires an agency to publish a 60-day notice in the Federal Register seeking comment on a proposed information collection, then a second 30-day notice when it submits the package to the Office of Management and Budget.

3. Commerce is hedging the date for the NOFO. "Although DOC fully intends to meet this deadline, unforeseen variables could occur, as with any grantmaking process," the filing states.

4. The government has proposed pausing the lawsuit; NDIA hasn't agreed. The government presented these representations to NDIA on Monday, July 27, and has "proposed a stay of proceedings"—a court-ordered pause that would leave the case alive but dormant. NDIA "is still evaluating Defendants' proposed timeline for the revised NOFO and proposed stay" and asked to confer with its attorneys before taking a position. The parties propose filing another joint status report on August 17, 2026, reporting whether they have reached agreement or whether the court will need briefing on "such issues (or related issues, such as mootness or a stay of proceedings)." The government "take[s] no position" on NDIA's request for the additional time.

What Isn't Covered in This Filing and Case

There are a number of issues this case and this filing do not address.

A dollar figure. The filing never says how much money the new NOFO will make available.
The 2024 applicants. More than 700 applications, and awards already announced and then terminated. The filing is silent on whether any of that work carries over.
The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program. The Solicitor General's March 4, 2026, letter to Congress asserted that both the Capacity and Competitive programs unconstitutionally require consideration of race. Only the Competitive program is addressed here. State broadband offices still have no answer on the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program.
The DEI reimbursement policy. The court dismissed NDIA's challenge to the April 9, 2025, policy barring reimbursement for diversity, equity, and inclusion–related conference and training costs as premature. The filing does not say whether that policy will apply to the reopened program.
A litigation schedule. The court asked for one. The parties asked for two more weeks instead.

What to Watch

In the days and weeks ahead, stakeholders might want to keep the following in mind.

August 17, 2026. The next joint status report, which should reveal whether NDIA accepts a stay, and whether the parties will brief mootness.

The Federal Register. The Department of Commerce attributes part of its timeline to Paperwork Reduction Act notice periods. A notice from NTIA seeking comment on the application package would be public confirmation that the NOFO is moving. The law also allows for emergency processing and reliance on existing clearances, so the absence of a notice would not by itself mean the December target has slipped, but its appearance would be the first independent evidence that it hasn't.

The four-year clock. Grants under this program must be expended within four years of award, with a fifth year available only for measurement and evaluation. An application window opening in December 2026 means awards land, at the earliest, well into 2027²—more than five years after the Digital Equity Act became law.

The government says the program is coming back. Nothing in this filing requires it to. The program's size, its schedule, and who gets to compete are being written by the agency that shut it down.

Notes

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society filed an amicus brief in support of NDIA.

The statute authorizes $250,000,000 for the Competitive Grant Program in each of the first five fiscal years in which funds are made available —the source of the $1.25 billion figure NTIA has consistently used. Actual appropriations lagged that authorization: NTIA's July 2024 funding notice stated that Congress had appropriated $750,000,000 through fiscal year 2024.
By way of example, the NTIA FY24 issued the previous NOFO on July 24, 2024, and awards began in January 2025.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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