Wednesday, May 21, 2025
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Today's Agenda | Net Inclusion, FCC Oversight, AI Regulation
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At least 20 states have reportedly lost digital equity grant funding
Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Blackouts
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Within days of President Donald Trump announcing on social media that he was ending the federal digital equity grant program, it looks to be consigned to history. All information about the program, which provides funds to help states close the digital divide by building residents’ digital literacy, improving the online accessibility of social services and letting rural communities measure their needs, has disappeared from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s website. Meanwhile, states are starting to see their funding cut off. The State Educational Technology Directors Association said at least 20 have seen planning and capacity grant funding pulled by NTIA in light of the president’s order. The future of states’ digital equity efforts looks murky at best. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the architect of the Digital Equity Act, wants her colleagues to step up, or else legal action could ensue. “All this will take is for Republicans to join us and speak up for their states,” she said. “All 50 states put together a plan and asked for the resources, and I cannot believe there aren't Republican governors out there that are going to join with us to fight back on this. That's one way to do this, and the other way is through the courts, and I'm sure that that will happen as well.”

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announced that there is sufficient funding available to fully meet the Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC) estimated demand for category one and category two requests for E-Rate-supported services for funding year 2025. On March 27, 2025, USAC submitted a demand estimate for the E-Rate program for funding year 2025. USAC estimates the total demand for funding year 2025 will be $3.225 billion, which includes estimated demand for category one services of $1.806 billion, and of $1.418 billion for category two services. The Bureau announced that the E-Rate program inflation-based cap for funding year 2025 is $5.059 billion. Additionally, as of March 31, 2025, USAC projects that $500 million in unused funds from prior funding years is available for use in E-Rate funding year 2024.5

Years of Republican and Democratic administrations have tried to fix the nation’s broadband woes, through flawed attempts. Bad mapping, weak standards, and flimsy oversight have left nearly 3 million rural Americans in dead zones, with eroded health care services and where telehealth doesn’t reach. Blair Levin, a former executive director of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan, called one rural program rollout during the first Trump administration “a disaster.” It was launched before it was ready, he said, using unreliable federal maps and a reverse-auction process to select internet carriers. Locations went to the lowest bidder, but the agency failed to ensure winners had the knowledge and resources to build networks, said Levin. The fund initially announced awards of $9.2 billion to build infrastructure in 49 states. By 2025, $3.3 billion of those awards were in default and, as a result, the program won’t connect 1.9 million homes and businesses, according to a recent study. A $42 billion Biden-era initiative still may not help households shortchanged by earlier federal broadband grants. The new wave of funding, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, or BEAD, has an anti-waste provision and won’t provide service in places where previous grants were awarded, even if companies haven’t delivered on their commitments.

It has been a particularly busy time at the Federal Communications Commission since Inauguration Day, when President Trump designated me as Chairman of the agency. We have hit the ground running, and I’d like to highlight some of the Commission’s critical work under my leadership thus far:
- To start, we have already taken steps to unleash new high-speed infrastructure builds. We have done so by making it easier for providers to retire aging, copper-line networks and invest resources into fast, modern ones instead.
- The FCC has taken steps to restore America’s leadership in wireless and free up more spectrum up for consumer use. We launched a new proceeding that looks at freeing up a large swath of prime, mid-band spectrum in the C-Band and started a proceeding to explore new and creative ways that we could allow more intensive use of spectrum in the 37 GHz band. We also kicked off the process of auctioning AWS-3 licenses after Congress authorized the FCC to conduct the auction
- The FCC has focused on boosting America’s space economy. We streamlined the FCC approval process for earth station siting requests to reduce burdens on satellite companies and ensure the agency can move faster as more of these requests come in.
- The FCC launched [sic] a massive deregulatory effort titled, “In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete.” Right now, the FCC is doing a top to bottom review of every rule, regulation, and guidance document for the purpose of eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens.
- The FCC has expanded its work to combat illegal robocalls and bolster our call blocking rules.
- The FCC is also taking steps to enhance our national security and public safety. I created a new Council on National Security within the FCC to leverage all of the agency’s authorities and relevant work streams to counter the threats posed by foreign adversaries.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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