In the heart of western Alabama, Megan Waiters can recall the faces and stories of dozens she’s helped connect to the internet—like the 7-year-old unable to complete schoolwork online and the 91-year-old learning to check health care portals on a smartphone. For millions of rural Americans, high-speed internet isn’t just a convenience; it’s a lifeline. Yet, for many, that lifeline is slipping away after a federal program designed to close the digital divide was abruptly defunded this spring, according to KFF Health News.
The Digital Equity Act, a $2.75 billion initiative embedded in the sweeping 2021 infrastructure law, aimed to bridge gaps in internet access for low-income households, older adults, rural residents, veterans, incarcerated people, and members of racial or ethnic minority groups. The program supported digital navigators like Waiters, who not only handed out devices but also taught digital skills across Alabama’s underserved communities.
But this spring, the funding vanished. The catalyst? President Donald Trump’s post on Truth Social declaring the Digital Equity Act unconstitutional and vowing “no more woke handouts based on race!” Within days, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) terminated grants for the program, except those designated for Native Entities. The NTIA’s letter cited “unconstitutional racial preferences” as the reason for the abrupt halt, as reported by KFF Health News.
The impact was immediate and far-reaching. In Phoenix, city officials learned in January that they were slated to receive $11.8 million to expand internet access and teach digital literacy. But on May 20, they received an email stating that all grants, except those to Native Entities, had been terminated. “It’s a shame,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, a Democrat, who lamented that the money would have helped 37,000 residents get online.
Georgia’s Democratic leaders reacted swiftly, sending a letter in July to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and then-acting NTIA administrator Adam Cassady, urging reinstatement of the funding. They argued that the federal cut ignored congressional intent and violated public trust. The act’s creator, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), expressed disbelief during a May online press conference, noting that even Republican governors had previously supported the law and its funding. “I cannot believe there aren’t Republican governors out there that are going to join with us to fight back on this,” Murray said, adding that the courts might be the only recourse.
All 50 states, following months of focus groups, surveys, and public comment periods, had developed digital equity plans. These plans were tailored to the unique needs of each state, sometimes expanding the covered populations. For example, Colorado’s plan included immigrants and individuals experiencing homelessness, while Mississippi’s plan incorporated the state university’s health improvement initiatives. Caroline Stratton of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society explained that the funding allowed states to staff offices, identify existing high-speed internet programs, and create plans to fill the gaps. “This sent folks out looking,” Stratton said, to see whether agencies in the state were already working on health improvement plans and to ask whether the broadband work could contribute and “actively help move the needle.”
The stakes are high. A KFF Health News analysis found that nearly 3 million Americans live in areas with shortages of medical professionals and poor internet connections, leading to worse health outcomes. In about 200 mostly rural counties where these “dead zones” persist, residents live sicker and die earlier on average than people elsewhere. During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to high-speed internet was linked to fewer deaths, particularly in metro areas, according to research from Tufts University’s Institute for Business in the Global Context.
Access to high-speed internet is now considered by many experts to be as essential as food and safe housing. “The internet provides this extra layer of resilience,” said Christina Filipovic, who led the Tufts research. Yet, for rural communities, that resilience is now in jeopardy. The Affordable Connectivity Program, a federal subsidy that helped about 23 million low-income households get online, was not renewed in 2024, further compounding the problem.
Waiters’ work as a digital navigator is a testament to the program’s impact. Over the past two years, she has distributed 648 devices—laptops, tablets, and SIM cards—and led 117 two-hour digital skills classes at libraries, senior centers, and workplace development programs around Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “They have health care needs, but they don’t have the digital skills,” she explained. “It’s like a foreign space.” Through her efforts, people “of all races, of all ages, of all financial backgrounds” who did not “fit into our typical minority category” were helped, she said. Waiters wants Trump and his administration to understand “what it actually looks like for the people I serve.”
Her employer, the nonprofit Community Service Programs of West Alabama, had expected a $1.4 million grant to continue this work. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), which was awarded nearly $26 million to support digital navigators in 11 states and territories, also saw their grant vanish. In response, the NDIA filed a lawsuit on October 7, 2025, seeking to force the administration to distribute the money. “The digital divide is not over,” said Angela Siefer, NDIA’s executive director.
The broader infrastructure law, which included $65 billion to build high-speed internet infrastructure, still stands. Congress also launched the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program, mandating that state leaders prioritize new and emerging technologies. Yet, progress has slowed. Commerce Secretary Lutnick revamped and delayed the infrastructure law’s construction initiative—known as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD)—after announcing plans to reduce regulatory burdens. More than 40 states and territories have submitted final proposals to extend high-speed internet to underserved areas under new guidelines, according to the Commerce Department.
For those on the ground, the need remains urgent. “You’ve got to educate people who live there, show them the need,” said Erna Bright, a retired telephone network switching technician from Gates County, North Carolina, at the 2025 NC Rural Summit. She described the challenges of navigating online systems for essential services, emphasizing that internet access is no longer a luxury but a necessity. “If you don’t believe they won’t need it in two weeks, wait till they have to go online… and do a three-step verification for Social Security. It took me two hours and 15 minutes to get mine… This is why we need to get BEAD and make sure everybody that wants Internet has it.”
Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, echoed the sentiment, recalling how digital equity programs allowed them to help grandpas in Iowa check prescriptions online or laid-off factory workers fill out job applications. “You could see lives change,” Helmick said.
Yet, with the program’s funding now gone, many fear the digital divide will only widen. For rural Americans, the dream of full digital participation—and the improved health and economic outcomes it can bring—remains just out of reach.
