The Digital Sharprine Act tried to close the digital gap. Trump calls it racist and acts to end it

Portland, ore. – A program distributes laptops in rural IOWA. Another helped people go online again after the hurricane Helene Computer and Telefone had washed away in Western North Carolina. Programs in Oregon and rural Alabama teach older people, including some who have never touched a computer, as you can navigate in an increasingly digital world.

Everything came together this month when President Donald Trump – on his own digital platform, Truth Social – announced his intention to end the Digital Equity Act, a Federal Grant program to close the digital gap. He described it as “racist and illegal” and said that it was “aroused handout based on the race”. He said it was an “illegal giveaway of $ 2.5 billion”, although the program was actually financed with $ 2.75 billion.

The name seemed harmless enough when the program was approved in 2021 as part of an investment of 65 billion US dollars from the congress in order to give internet access to every house and business in the USA. The broadband program itself was a key component of the 1 -brillion infrastructure law of 1 trillion US dollar, which was enforced by the administration of democratic president Joe Biden.

The digital stock law should fill gaps and cover non -covered needs that appeared during the massive broadband rollout. There were flexibility states and tribes to offer families that could not afford to offer high-speed internet access, computers that they did not have, access to older adults in rural areas as well as training and professional skills for veterans.

It is unknown whether Trump has the legal authority to end the program. But for the time being, the Republican administration can simply stop spending the money.

“I only felt how my heart was broke for what we were finally in this country, the digital gap,” said Angela Siefer, managing director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a non -profit organization – but not preserved – a grant of 25.7 million US dollars to work with groups across the country to ensure access to technology. “The digital gap is not only physical access to the Internet, but can also use it to do what you have to do.”

While the name of the program has probably been targeted – the Trump administration has the government of the programs that promote diversity, justice or inclusion – scrubbing aggressively – the digital stock law should be more extensive in the area of ​​area.

Though Trump Called It Racist, The Words “Race” Or “Racial” Appear Just Twice in the Law's text: Once, Alongside “Color, Religion, National Origin, Sex, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Age, Or Disability,” In a Passage Sting that no groups Should from Funding, and Later, and Later, In A List of Covered Populations, Along with Older Adults, Veterans, People With Disabilities, English Learners, People With Low Literacy Levels and Rural Americans.

“Digital equity was adopted with overwhelming cross -party support,” said Patty Murray, the main representative of the law of the law, in a statement. “And this is because my Republican colleagues heard the same stories as I have children in rural communities who are forced to drive McDonalds parking spaces to do Wi-Fi to do their homework.

“It's crazy – absolutely crazy – that Trump blocks resources to ensure that children receive hotspots or laptops in rural school districts because he doesn't like the word equity!”

The national telecommunications and information management, which manages the program, rejected a statement. It is not entirely clear how much of the 2.75 billion US dollars was awarded, although the NTIA announced the assignment of 811 million US dollars in states, territories and tribes last March.

On a recent morning in Portland, Oregon, Brandon Dorn was one of those who took part in a Keyboard Basics course offered by Freek, a non -profit organization that offers free courses with which people can learn to use computers. The class was offered in a low -income residential building to make it accessible to the residents.

Dorn and the others received laptops and showed the various functions of buttons: control, shift and cap lock, copy and insert. They played a betting game that taught fingers and key placement on a color -coded keyboard.

The 63 -year -old Dorn said the classes helped because “everything has to go through the computer today”. He said it helped him to be more confident and less dependent on his children or grandchildren to make things like online dates.

“People my age, we didn't get this luxury because we were too busy to educate the family,” he said. “So this is a great way to help us help ourselves.”

Juan Muro, Executive Director of Free Geek, said that the participants receive the tools and skills they need to access things such as online banking, applications, online education programs and telemedicine. He said Trump's step to the end of the financing had brought non -profit organizations such as Free Geek into a precarious position and forced them to compensate for the difference through their own fundraising campaign and “to ask for money, only provide individuals with essential things”.

Sara Nichols works for the Land of Sky Regional Council, an organization for planning and development organizations for multicounty planning in the west of North Carolina. On Friday before Trump's inauguration in January, the organization received the termination that it was approved for a scholarship. But like other groups that the Associated Press contacted, it didn't see any money.

Land of Sky had spent many resources to help people recover from the storms of the past year. The award announcement, said Nichols, was “incredible news”.

“But we lose their letters between this and the state, we feel like stuck. What will we do? How will we go forward? How will we continue to fall back?”

According to the Pew Research Center, more than one fifth of the Americans have no broadband internet access. In rural communities, the number increases to 27 percent.

Many programs that were financed by the digital equity act, in addition to granting access to technology and fast internet, they tried to provide “digital navigators” – human helpers to bring people into the online world.

“In the United States, we have no consistent source of financing to help individuals to go online, understand how you are safe online and how to use this technology to achieve all things that are now part of life that is online,” said Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.

This includes everything, from the provision of families with Internet hotspots so that they can get online at home to help seniors avoid online fraud.

“Health, workforce, education, jobs, everything, right?” Said Siefer. “This law would be the beginning of the United States to find out this problem. It is a new problem in the big scheme of things, because now technology is no longer a nice have. You have to have the internet and you need to know how the technology can only be used for survival, let alone thrive today.”

Siefer said the word “equity” in the name had probably prompted Trump to set the program for removal.

“But it means that he didn't really look at what this program is doing,” she said. “Because who doesn't want grandma to be safe online? Who doesn't want a veteran to speak to his doctor instead of climbing into a car and driving two hours? Who doesn't want the students to be able to do their homework?”

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Ortutay reported from San Francisco.