The Trump administration is freezing $2.7 billion in Biden-era “digital equity” grants as part of a new investigation into possible race-based discrimination by the federal government.
The investigation is focused on roughly 100 projects created under former president Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, The Free Press has learned. The 2021 law set aside funding for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an office within the Commerce Department, “to ensure that all communities can access and use affordable, reliable high-speed internet to meet their needs and improve their lives,” according to a government fact sheet.
But that “digital equity” carve out for broadband access prompted Republican-led claims that it was an unconstitutional diversity, equity, and inclusion push. That’s because people who are part of a “racial or ethnic minority group” were among the “covered populations” that the NTIA said the grants would benefit. Other target groups included veterans, people with disabilities, and low-income families.