Trump Administration Cancels Digital Equity Grants

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2025 – The Commerce Department moved Friday evening to cancel grants under a $1.25 billion digital equity program, according to people familiar with the matter and an email reviewed by Broadband Breakfast.

The cancellation comes after President Donald Trump posted Thursday on his social media platform Truth Social that the Digital Equity Act was unconstitutional and that he was ending the programs it funded “immediately.”

Grant winners under the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program, a $1.25 billion subset of the $2.75 billion in funding from the law, received an email from the Commerce Department saying Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had determined the program itself was unconstitutional and “grants issued pursuant to it were created with, and administered using, impermissible and unconstitutional racial preferences.”

Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, which was one of the grant winners, confirmed NDIA received the cancellation notice.

“We are exploring all our options,” she said.

The Biden administration had awarded more than $600 million in competitive grant funding, but only four grantees, including NDIA, had signed contracts. The group was set to receive a total of $25.7 million toward efforts to help people access and navigate digital services in 11 states.

The 2021 law also funded a separate $1.44 billion program for state-run digital equity efforts, more than $500 million of which has been awarded. It wasn’t clear Friday night if states had also received cancellation notices.

“Neither President Donald Trump nor Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is empowered to declare a law unconstitutional. That is the sole purview of the courts. The Administration’s responsibility is to implement the law as written,” Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Director Revati Prasad said in a statement earlier Friday responding to Trump’s social media post.