Sorry, Affordable, Evenly Deployed Fiber Optic Broadband Is Illegal Now Under Our Shitty, Ignorant Government

The Trump administration has illegally declared the Digital Equity Act of 2021 “racist and unconstitutional,” and called for it to be dismantled. The grant program had been helping push affordable fiber optic broadband into communities long neglected regions by regional telecom monopolies, be they minority, low-income, rural, suburban, or urban.

It’s the latest effort by the administration to destroy whatever was left of U.S. consumer protection, and any and all efforts to address our sagging, uncompetitive broadband markets.

Trump, who, I’d guarantee, has no idea how the program worked or what it does, took to his personal propaganda platform to whine about the program:

The Digital Equity Act provides $2.75 billion for three beneficial grant programs aimed at bringing affordable broadband access to rural communities, disadvantaged urban communities, schools, and anchor institutions. Much of this money still hadn’t been doled out yet, but in many instances the money was funding affordable fiber to long-neglected communities.

These kinds of investments usually have significant downstream economic benefits thanks to expanded access to education, health care, and remote employment opportunities.

Republicans also recently killed the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provided $30 broadband discount for low-income users. Republicans also claimed they killed that program for cost savings, but a follow up study found the program generated three times the economic benefits ($29.5 billion) than the program cost. Just not to the sort of people Republicans like.

Consumer groups like Public Knowledge were quick to note that Trump lacks any authority to kill the Digital Equity Act (passed by Congress as part of the infrastructure bill, which is the dictionary definition of legal), and that its destruction will heavily harm many of his own constituents, including red state veterans.

Republican FCC boss Brendan Carr is also destroying FCC efforts to finally acknowledge longstanding racial discrimination in broadband deployment. Data clearly illustrates how many big ISPs have refused to upgrade or repair service in minority neighborhoods, and in many places actually charge low income and minority residents more money for slower service than in less diverse, more affluent neighborhoods.

The FCC under Biden had only just started doing something about these problems. Those efforts are dead now under Trumpism.

Republicans are also attempting to destroy the FCC’s Universal Service Fund (USF), which also helps bring affordable broadband to disadvantaged schools. And they’re destroying a program that helped disadvantaged school kids obtain Wi-Fi access via remote hotspots provided by schools. More broadly, they’re also destroying the FCC’s ability to hold telecom giants accountable for any bad behavior.

In the case of the Digital Equity Act of 2021, Republican Senator Ted Cruz falsely claimed it is “impermissible race-based discrimination under the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.”

That’s gibberish by racist imbeciles who aren’t bright enough to even understand what they’re destroying. In many of these examples, Republicans are claiming that efforts to prevent discrimination are in fact discriminatory, an argument that will struggle to gain traction in anything other than our most rightward-lurching court (which, unfortunately for those of us with empathy, is a growing part of our legal system).

The Digital Equity Act barely mentions race; simply including some vague language stating that deployments must be even and non-discriminatory. That was enough to set ignorant racists off. This program was hugely beneficial to red states, and veterans, and rural and urban dwellers alike. Its destruction, assuming it stands, is immeasurably ignorant and yet another broad policy embarrassment.

Republican policies are directly making your broadband access shittier and more expensive. But in most press coverage Republicans never have to take true or consistent ownership of said shitty policies. Republicans will be allowed to pretend this sort of destruction is about cost savings, but it’s usually either about bigotry, ignorance, or coddling terrible, unpopular telecom giants like AT&T and Comcast.

U.S. education and journalism (especially local) is so shitty, most of the electorate will then never tether their shitty and expensive broadband access to their own electoral choices. Wash, rinse, repeat.