Individuals with a Language Barrier

Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) said, “On the same day Senate Republicans voted to strip internet access from students and educators, President Trump is illegally attempting to end a program that connects millions of people to the online world. In New Mexico, we know the difference between slow internet, fast internet, and no internet and the challenges that come with it. Our students, seniors, veterans, and small businesses rely on internet access for education, health care, economic opportunity, and public safety. President Trump is leaving our communities in the dark.

On May 8, President Trump announced on Truth Social that he is ending the Digital Equity Act, calling it unconstitutional, illegal, and racist. In fact, the opposite is true.

President Donald Trump said he would end the Digital Equity Act, legislation that funds three programs that provide billions to extend internet access in underserved communities. Trump is casting the Digital Equity Act as unfairly providing grants on the basis of race. “I have spoken with my wonderful Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and we agree that the Biden/Harris so-called “Digital Equity Act” is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL," says the President.

All across the country, a group of connectivity experts teaches locals, old and young, about the benefits of getting online. These workers, called Digital Navigators, link people in the community with the resources and opportunities they don't know exist, like arranging online health appointments, applying for jobs, doing homework and making their businesses visible on the internet.

On March 27, 2025, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider the confirmation of Arielle Roth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. If confirmed as the Assistant Secretary and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Roth would oversee $48.2 billion in broadband infrastructure and adoption funding Congress allocated through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

WISPA – The Association for Broadband Without Boundaries submitted remarks to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete request for comments. WISPA offered several recommendations, including:

The Reason Foundation remarks to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete request for comments. The Foundation's comments focused on:

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association submitted remarks to the Federal Communications Commission in response to the In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete request for comments. NRECA's comments focused on several rules, including transparency and reporting requirements. "Broadband providers that receive high-cost support are currently required not only to file detailed deployment data in the Universal Service Administrative Company High Cost Universal Broadband portal, but also to file coverage data twice each year in the Broadband Data Collection program.

On the BEAD front, Illinois has completed the review of all qualifying Wave 1 applications and is moving into the deconfliction phase. “Deconfliction” is the process of de-scoping applications that overlap with higher scoring proposals. As Illinois enters the deconfliction phase, approximately 100 applications are tentatively eligible for preliminary award, and another 95 will have the opportunity to submit deconflicted proposals before the end of Wave 1. All preliminarily awarded projects will be notified by mid-May.

The Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO), under the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, developed the Texas Digital Opportunity Plan to complement broadband infrastructure programs already underway in the state, including the Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) program and the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Texas has not yet received its federal State Digital Equity Capacity funding and—on March 4, 2025—BDO paused all grants and contracts to implement the Texas Digital Opportunity Plan.