Lujan, Matsui File Digital Equity Foundation Act

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., led filing Thursday of the Digital Equity Foundation Act to create a nonprofit foundation to disburse funding for digital equity, inclusion and literacy projects and support related activities. The measure mirrors parts of an earlier Airwaves for Equity proposal to endow a digital equity foundation using future FCC spectrum auction revenue (see 2202230058) but doesn’t mention a specific funding source. The foundation would “supplement, but not supplant,” existing NTIA and FCC connectivity funding programs, including ones Congress created via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Lujan’s office cited the success of other congressionally established nonprofits, saying they were a way of leveraging public-private partnerships. “Critically, this legislation also ensures” the decision-makers who created the nonprofit “will consist of experts that reflect the diverse communities that are in need of these investments, who will work closely with federal agencies to support and uplift digital equity-focused programs,” Lujan said. “This legislation will jumpstart us down the road to lasting digital equity and inclusion nationwide,” Matsui said. Without “sustained investments in digital adoption and inclusion efforts at the community level, the huge new investments in broadband infrastructure and affordability won’t close the digital divide,” said New America’s Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese: “A Digital Equity Foundation dedicated to this work and, if possible, funded by future spectrum auctions, will provide a sustainable way to address the broadband adoption side of the digital divide.” Lujan’s office cited support from 10 other public interest groups, including the American Library Association, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Public Knowledge and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition.