Sudden Cuts Erode Public Trust, Digital Equity Advocates Say

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2025 – At a Digital Inclusion Week event, broadband advocates warned that sudden shifts in federal funding were shaking public confidence.

Jessica Strom, executive director of DigitaLIFT, pointed to the abrupt end of the Affordable Connectivity Program and the midstream cancellation of Digital Equity Act literacy grants as examples of how communities have been left in limbo.

“On a large scale, a lot of us have seen some of those trust breakdowns in recent years, when ACP ended suddenly, and families who came to rely on that support sometimes felt abandoned by the groups that helped them sign up,” Strom said.

“And then, when federal grant funding for digital literacy was canceled, organizations had to backtrack on promises to community members,” she said. “That often left people wondering if programs would be there for them in the long run.”

Wednesday’s event, sponsored by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, centered on how digital navigators can build trust in the communities they serve during uncertain times.

In addition to DEA funds being pulled, uncertainty around the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment programs ‘non-deployment’ funds – the leftover money meant for adoption programs, affordable devices, planning and mapping, and connecting anchor institutions and multi-tenant housing – has left advocates and state directors fearing another breach of trust.

Waiting on plans for non-deployment uses

“On June 6, in its policy notice, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration canceled, or basically rescinded their approval for all of the state's previous plans for non-deployment uses,” said Amy Huffman, policy director at NDIA. “They said they would provide guidance at a later date.”

“Well, it's October 1, and that guidance is still not here yet,” Huffman said. “We don't know when it will be here.”

Before NTIA froze the category, at least 13 states had laid out detailed plans for BEAD’s non-deployment dollars. 

Florida, Louisiana, Maine and West Virginia prioritized workforce training to meet construction demands, while North Carolina and Virginia focused on affordability, devices and regional digital equity planning. Arkansas targeted education, healthcare, small business and agriculture, and South Carolina planned to shore up rural middle-mile fiber.

At a Broadband Breakfast summit in June, digital skills advocates warned the loss of non-deployment funds would jeopardize states' ability to train up the workforce that they need in order to realize the goals of BEAD. 

So far, three Republican senators have publicly called for preserving BEAD’s non-deployment funds; along with some Democratic members of Congress.

Chris Mitchell, director of the community broadband networks initiative at ILSR emphasized that BEAD dollars are already “obligated” to states under the law. Huffman agreed, adding it would be “highly irregular” to rescind funds that Congress had already directed to state broadband offices.

Advocates should keep telling the story of broadband

Brandon Forester, national organizer for Internet rights at Media Justice, urged advocates to keep telling the story of what communities hoped to achieve with BEAD and the Digital Equity Act, even as political battles undermined those efforts.

“When election time comes around, remember the promises that were broken,” Forester said. “The big promise of BEAD and DEA.”

“Tell the story of these dreams that you had for your community and the work that you were going to do that then was taken away, and let folks know why that is,” he said.

“Rebuilding trust, especially when other programs have also systematically failed, is even harder,” Strom added.