Trump killed the Digital Equity Act, but US was forced to bring part of it back

A federal court has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a broadband grant program under the Digital Equity Act, with the government announcing in a court filing that it plans to begin accepting applications in December, per Ars Technica. The ruling restores $1.25 billion in grants that the administration had attempted to shut down entirely.

The administration did win a partial victory, however. The judge ruled that the government cannot allocate money based on the race or ethnicity of people who would benefit from grants. The program can still award broadband grants using other criteria — including income, age, and disability — but the race provision was found unconstitutional, according to Ars Technica.

The Digital Equity Act, enacted by Congress in 2021, provided $2.75 billion across three grant programs designed to close gaps in broadband access. The Biden administration began awarding $60 million in planning grants to states in 2022, and in 2024 it started taking applications to distribute the remainder of the $2.75 billion. In May 2025, the Trump administration announced it would end the grant programs, with Trump claiming the Digital Equity Act itself was racist and unconstitutional.

The court's ruling splits the difference between those two positions: the program must continue, but stripped of the racial and ethnic targeting criteria that the administration had objected to. The outcome means communities historically excluded from broadband access on the basis of race may receive less tailored assistance under the reinstated program than was originally intended when Congress passed the law.

With the December application window now set, the practical question is how quickly the administration will move to implement a program it has actively opposed, and whether the modified criteria will meaningfully reach the underserved populations the original legislation targeted.