But I don't get broad-based tariffs across the board here.
And that's what President Trump was talking about on the campaign trail and what he announced that he was going to do yesterday or the night before yesterday about big tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China.
Those are our three biggest sources of imports.
And the fundamental reason is that it just raises the cost of living.
We all have to pay a lot more for the stuff that's being imported.
Everything from food, we import a lot of groceries to furniture to cars to clothing, a lot of stuff.
It's a tax increase, particularly hard on lower, middle-income households because they devote a larger share of their budget on those kind of items.
And I'm very skeptical that those kind of tariffs and the threat of tariffs, you know, there's a lot of talk that what President Alec Trump was talking about the night before yesterday was a negotiating ploy.
You know, I find that somewhat disconcerting as well, because at the end of the day, I don't think that works.
It's not going to achieve the goals that he's setting out to achieve.
And it creates a lot of drama and chaos and tumult around the globe.
And it makes it just very difficult to do business.
And I think it's bad for business the longer that goes on.
So we can talk about it some more, but Mimi, I think bottom line, that's not an economic point.
We are going to lead this here and take you live now to a discussion on fair and equal broadband access.
2020.
Live coverage here on C-SPAN.
Thanksgiving Eve, one day until the big day.
Such a wonderful holiday, such an American holiday.
I'm excited for Thanksgiving this year, and I hope everyone else is too.
We're very excited to welcome four wonderful panelists who will be able to speak to the topic of today's discussion, which of course is next steps on digital equity projects.
But before I introduce them, I just want to say a few words about broadband breakfast and about some upcoming events.
We're especially excited to welcome C-SPAN viewers for this Broadband Breakfast Live Online.
We do this event every Wednesday at 12 noon Eastern Time and live stream it on multiple platforms, including the Zoom that most of you are here on.
And I'm actually especially pleased to mention that I'm broadcasting or we're broadcasting from the very first location at which C-SPAN was broadcast at the National Press Club.
Brian Lamb was here, and it's kind of cool to be here where C-SPAN started.
So welcome, C-SPAN viewers and guests.
So once again, I'm Drew Clark with Broadband Breakfast, and we believe in better broadband better lives, which is our way of saying that we need higher capacity internet, but we also need to make sure everyone has access to the tools and the technologies and the resources to take full advantage of high capacity internet.
We are a news site and events community, and we bring people together as part of our mission to report every day on America's broadband build out and to be the community for better, broadband, better lives.
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And you get unlimited access to the news, content, reports, premium data and charts, as well as exclusive reports and also the videos of our events.
And speaking of events, we are very excited that we will be having one of our regular in-person events just a few weeks from now.
It is Broadband in the Trump administration.
It will be held at Clydes of Gallery Place on Thursday, December 12th, 2024, all-day event.
And we have panels on finishing the job on the BEAD program that stands for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, a return to spectrum authority, question mark, reforming the universal service program and renewing the affordable connectivity program, also a question mark there.
And with Chevron Deference Dead, will courts check the next administration?
Chevron deference can sound very wonky and administrative law-like, but it really was a pillar of the deference to administrative agencies like the Federal Communications Commissions and others.
And so the fact that it is now gone by by virtue of the Supreme Court's Loper-Bright decision really does change a lot of dynamics around communications law and policy.
We're excited for each of these topics.
We're also excited to welcome gold sponsor Nexnav, a leader in next generation positioning, navigation, and timing that is a sponsor for broadband in the Trump administration.
And speaking of which, I also want to give a shout out and a thanks to the sponsors of Broadband Breakfast that enable us to do this free programming every Wednesday at noon.
We are going on five years since the start of the pandemic that we've been doing this every Wednesday at 12 noon.
And our sponsors include Utopia Fiber, Comcast, OOCLA, WESCO, COOS Systems, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks Initiative, the California Emerging Technology Fund, GFiber or Google Fiber, Broadband Now, CostQuest, ACA Connects, and NCTA, the Internet and Television Association.
Thank you to each of our sponsors.
With that, I'm going to open our view up to all of our panelists.
They will only be on the screen for a short while before I turn it over to each of them to give up to five minute statements on this very timely topic.
And we're talking about digital equity, which I'm sure some of you will tackle in discussing it as a label and maybe the pluses and minuses of that label.
But again, our panelists here are knowledgeable about all aspects of digital inclusion and the way that broadband, it's the better lives part, if you will, of the better, broadband, better lives.
And so in our discussion of the next steps on digital equity projects, we're going to hear first from Scott Adams.
Welcome, Scott.
I should say welcome back.
It was great to have you in person at the Sacramento event, California Broadband Summit we had in June.
Scott Adams is the Deputy Director of Broadband and Digital Literacy at California's Department of Technologies.
He will be followed by Dylan Baker, who is the deputy state librarian at the Idaho Commission for Libraries and has served in a variety of roles in libraries and digital inclusion and digital equity.
Next up will be Lisa von Bargen.
She is the deputy director of broadband in the Alaska Broadband Office.
Thank you for getting up early in the morning, Lisa, to be with us here.
And Lisa has been in this position.
And prior to that, she was a senior project manager in the Alaska Broadband, the Commissioner's Office of the Department of Commerce, Opportunity, and Economic Development for the state of Alaska.
So she's come from another office in the state of Alaska, and I'm sure you'll talk more about it when we turn to you.
And then, last but not least, is really an individual who needs very little introduction in this space, Angela Zefer.
Angela is the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, and she has really pioneered the role of digital inclusion, digital equity, and as a leader in this movement for many, many years.
So, with that, let me go ahead and turn the microphone over to Scott Adams to take it away.
And then, as I said at the top, we're going to try to limit our viewers on screen to a fewer numbers so we can be as utile for all of our television viewers.
So, Scott, let's turn it over to you, okay?
Yeah, thank you, Drew, and good morning.
It's such a pleasure to be back here with Broadband Live and to be, I guess, sharing thoughts on this really important topic with you and the other distinguished panelists.
I want to make sure to, you know, wish all of the viewers there the happy holidays.
This is really my favorite time of the year, and hope folks are able to are getting prepared to spend some time with friends and family and eat some good food and just enjoy each other.
So, as Drew said, my name is Scott Adams.
I'm the deputy director of broadband and digital literacy at the California Department of Technology's similarly named Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy.
For those of you who don't know me, our department and our office share significant responsibilities for broadband in the state of California with the California Public Utilities Commission, who are really joint partners in implementing the state's broadband for all program.
I think Drew, you know, as you teed this up, and we learned during the pandemic and today's technology-driven society, having access to broadband and the internet is really the difference between being able to fully engage in modern life and being cut off.
As we all have experienced, it's critical for access to education, healthcare, essential services, et cetera.
So, again, it's my pleasure to be working in this space and to be sharing thoughts with you today.
A bit about the state's Broadband for All program.
It was really something that the state has been working on for a long time, but it acknowledges that access and availability, affordability, and adoption are critical components of digital equity, which you just mentioned.
And that the state's Broadband for All program really has three main goals for all residents, and that's that they have access to high-performance broadband at home schools, libraries, and businesses, that they have access to affordable services and devices, and access to skills and training to enable digital inclusion.
sort of about our department.
We chair the California Broadband Council, which coordinates the state's efforts in deploying the governor's executive order and the broadband action plan, but we've also overseen the development of the state's digital equity plan over the last year, really in partnership with the PUC and with input from over 50,000 stakeholders in California residents.
And so I think one thing that would be interesting to point out is that our office is responsible for not just implementing the governor's executive order on broadband in the broadband action plan,
but for developing a multi-billion dollar statewide middle mile broadband network that's open access to help deploy and promote access and availability throughout the state.
We work in partnership with the Public Utilities Commission that has an additional, you know, a historic suite of last mile programs that fund both deployment and adoption.
And they're administering the BEAD program.
So up to $4 billion that to incent and, you know, assist last mile entities to develop networks to connect people to homes.
And so where we are in this minute, we've invested billions in infrastructure to address access and availability and to a certain extent, affordability.
But with our digital equity plan and our just received allocation of state digital equity capacity grant funding, we're really focusing on those critical pieces to connect people to homes that are those non-infrastructure pieces,
like, you know, enabling local and regional entities to develop digital equity plans that conform to the states to do digital navigation and conduct digital literacy training, which are, you know, gating factors sometime to folks being connected and doing targeted device distribution programs for those most in need in workforce development programs.
So it's really we're grateful for the responsibilities that we've been tasked with to address this very important issue for the people of California and really looking forward to engaging further in this conversation today.
Thank you, Scott.
We're going to go ahead and shift our view over to Dylan.
Take it away.
Fantastic.
It's great to be here with you all today.
Thank you so much.
I love being here with my fellow panelists from Western states and from our panelists that are also representing the national stage.
Angela, it's great to be here with you too.
So I am Dylan Baker.
I'm at the Idaho Commission for Libraries.
We're the state library agency in Idaho, and we've been around since 1901.
And I'm really honored to be here with you today.
And a big shout out to our Idaho Office of Broadband.
We are small but mighty in the state of Idaho.
We don't have quite the population or size of state government.
So it takes a lot of partnerships and collaboration to work together.
So I was generously invited by our Idaho Office of Broadband to speak here to you all about the digital equity efforts in Idaho.
We are in a very unique situation here in Idaho where we as the state library agency have been tasked with the digital equity efforts for our state.
It's a really unique situation and really a rare and excellent opportunity.
As many of you hopefully know, libraries have been operating in the digital equity space since computers have been around, public computers, access.
It's something libraries have had for a long time and something I'm really passionate about.
I was hired, I've been in libraries my whole life, but I was hired here at the Idaho Commission for Libraries eight years ago as their first broadband consultant and have rosen up to be the deputy state librarian.
So the intersection of technology, people, broadband, connection, that is really near and dear to my heart.
So here in Idaho, I just give you a little overview of what we're working on with our digital access for all Idahoan plan, Idahoan's plan and its implementation.
We were honored to receive the third state digital equity capacity award last month and have already gotten down to implementation.
We have opened up some sub-grants of Idaho's allocation.
Over 80% of it is going to be sub-granted out to regional entities.
Idaho is a vast state, but not heavily populated.
It's very challenging to get to different areas of the state.
So we have a few statewide solutions, but we're really looking at a regional local community approach and it's going to take all libraries, community anchor institutions, workforce development, higher education.
So we're really developed a variety of sub-grant programs to help get our capacity money out to the communities that can serve those covered populations most effectively.
So we have some grants that are open right now.
We're going to move as quickly as possible to implement.
We know that folks are eager for getting support to their communities to access.
As we work closely with our Idaho Office of Broadband, they're handling the infrastructure deployment, the bead dollars, and we're handling the digital equity.
And as we like to explain to people, really the human side of things, it's once we get high-speed connectivity to everyone, we've got to make sure folks will have all the necessary advantages and abilities and skills and infrastructure to be able to access that great connectivity.
So looking forward to talking with you all more, and it's great to be here.
Thanks.
Let me just ask a quick question, Dylan.
And if you don't mind, if the others could just turn your video cameras off so we can play around with this while I just ask a quick question or two for Dylan.
So you actually mentioned, used a word that I think would be useful to define out a little bit more.
It's covered populations.
Could you just speak to that?
And what is the basis for a quote, entity or person or type of person being included as covered population in the digital equity sphere?
Yeah, that's a great question.
Thank you, Drew.
So we're, as all states are, looking at NTIA, the National Telecommunication Information Administration's guidance on what those covered populations to serve are.
They cover a wide range.
They are folks that may be low income, who could be aging, who have a language barrier, who might have a disability, or are rural or a couple other categories.
And in many states, that's a significant portion of the population.
Here in Idaho, we know over 76% of the population falls into at least one of those covered populations.
So those are the ones that with the digital equity dollars that were put forth, we're really trying to make sure are addressed along with everyone else.
We know everybody experiences digital equity access issues and could use some support from time to time.
So those covered populations are really where we're trying to focus, but we want to reach everyone as well.
Awesome.
Thank you very much for answering that question.
Let's go ahead and get you to turn your camera off and for Lisa to turn your camera on, and then we'll spotlight you to hear us more about what is, first of all, is the sun up in Alaska yet.
It's not, which is why it's so dark behind me.
The sun is not up and it'll probably be another hour or so before it gets fully daylight here.
So, anyway, over to you.
No, no, over to you.
Go ahead, please.
Well, thank you, Drew, and to everybody for this invitation to speak and to participate again with the distinguished panelists I have sitting here with me today.
The Alaska Broadband Office is very new, and we were created officially in August of 2022.
We were established specifically for the role of managing the BEAD and the digital equity program managed by the National Telecommunication and Information Administration.
And not unusual across broadband offices in the country, we are actually scheduled to sunset.
And I'll we will be extended on what our 2030 sunset date is currently.
That is where we are scheduled to terminate our existence.
We have, as was alluded to by Dylan, vast geographic expanses that we have to cover.
The state of Alaska is so lots of people don't realize this, that if you cut Alaska into, Texas would be the third largest state.
And in addition to being that huge, we have vast geographic expanses full of mountain ranges and tundra and lakes and rivers and all sorts of things that provide additional difficulty and I shouldn't say difficult, additional engineering opportunities for us to get our broadband infrastructure deployed across our state.
And it's a privilege for me and for the broadband office to be doing what we're doing in Alaska, especially for our indigenous populations.
Alaska has 229 federally recognized tribes, and many of those have their own villages or communities in which they practice traditional subsistence lifestyle.
And currently, because of the lack of internet access and not only internet access, but digital equity in those areas, people are having to choose.
And Alaska is suffering what's called rural flight.
People are leaving the villages and have been for decades.
And what infrastructure deployment and digital equity will mean in these areas is that people will no longer have to choose between living a traditional subsistence lifestyle and having the ability to fully participate from their home in the global economy and global society.
And that is, as I said earlier, an amazing privilege for us to be able to help provide these tools and this infrastructure for people to be able to make whatever life decisions they want, not only about career and society, but also education, access to education and health, and all those things that are always talked about in the digital equity sphere.
Alaska has also received our digital equity capacity grant award.
We are in the final phases of approving our in-state competitive grant program that we'll be running, similar to what Dylan.
About two-thirds of the money that we received in our equity capacity grant will be going toward this competitive grant program.
And we, just like Idaho, are going to be likely relying on a regional or a local approach because, as I said earlier, the geographic expanse between locations is so vast.
And we have very few things that are able to cover an entire state from the tip of southeast Alaska all the way to the northern part of the state as well and on out the Aleutian Chain.
It's just not practical.
And so we are looking, as I said, to that regional and local approach.
And so I look forward to answering questions and discussing other things with the panelists, but thank you so very much.
Thank you.
Stay on camera for a quick moment.
I'm going to just ask you another question too.
We really want to make sure we explain to the people who are not familiar with the arcania of bureaucratic programs.
Could you just speak to how does the digital equity related programs connect to the broadband equity access and deployment programs?
I know there's a question for our panel later on, but I just thought I would ask you, Lisa, so that you can speak to this and in terms of the funds that are going to build and the funds that are going to help those to make use of the things that have been built.
Sure.
And Drew, please, or any of the other panelists, jump in here if you think I'm going too far to the beginning here.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 created two brand new programs in the broadband sphere, broadband equity and access deployment, which was $42.5 billion for infrastructure, broadband infrastructure deployment across the United States and its territories.
And then the Digital Equity Act, which included three different programs for digital equity.
One, digital equity planning, which each state and territory received formula-based funding to develop a digital equity plan.
The second, the digital equity capacity grant program, which is funding also formula funding to states to be able to implement their digital equity plans.
And then the digital equity competitive grant program, which is being run specifically by specifically by NTIA and is open to a vast array of entities across the country.
And I'm certain is woefully oversubscribed based on need.
But it is the BEED program, broadband equity and access deployment program, includes the component of digital equity.
And we have to make sure that those two plans that we're doing, our deployment plan and our plan for digital equity and inclusion activities, are tied together.
And each state, as you've heard, and territory are doing those in a way that most reflects what their internal needs are.
It really boils down to making sure, as several people have said already this morning, that once broadband infrastructure is in place so that they have access to the internet, that they have the skills they need to use it, the technical knowledge, that they have the devices they need to be able to use the internet for their given individual purposes, and that they've got affordable internet.
And so that's really where digital equity and the infrastructure side of things tie together.
No, this is exactly what I appreciate you just doing, laying out that Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed in November 2021, included not just the BEEED $42.5 billion, but smaller programs like Digital Equity Plan and Digital Equity Capacity Grant, Digital Equity Competitive Grants.
And we'll obviously talk through this more.
Go ahead, Lisa.
I just, I apologize.
I wanted to mention, I said that there were only two.
There were four actually.
The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program was extended in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
And there was also the middle mile program for specific to middle mile broadband infrastructure deployment as well.
Thanks for clarifying.
Yeah, I was obviously speaking about those specifically on digital equity, but thank you for broadening our focus.
Let's get you to turn your video off and get Angela to turn yours on.
Thank you so much, Angela.
Let's spotlight you and give us your thoughts on this topic.
Oh, you're on mute, so you have to unmute yourself.
Yeah, got it.
Thank you.
I know, after all these years.
Thanks for having me.
This is very exciting.
I love that we're doing this with my digital equity friends spread across the country.
I'm Angela Siever.
I'm the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
I live in Columbus, Ohio.
This is an important time for the work that we do.
So this webinar is incredibly timely.
This is a moment for us to recognize the possibilities of digital equity.
And when I say digital equity, one of the first things NDIA did when we got started about 10 years ago was create a definition for digital equity.
And this is the same definition that was included in Congress's language.
And so it is the idea that all individuals and communities have full access to information communication technology to do whatever they need to do, right?
Full participation in our economy, our society, our democracy.
I think we should say outright, sometimes people don't like the word equity, but when we talk about digital equity, we're talking about really specific work.
It is specific work that these folks are doing and that others around the country are doing.
NDIA has over 1,900 affiliates.
These are folks on the ground doing this digital inclusion work.
They are helping their neighbors get connected to the internet.
They're helping folks learn digital skills, helping them know how to be safe, helping them learn how to find a job, helping them have the right device for their needs.
Digital equity means meeting people where they are to get to that access and that full use.
So if an older adult needs a laptop or a tablet, whatever their needs are, you don't give them the other one because that's what you think they need.
You give them what they actually need.
So when we talk about digital equity, that's what we're talking about.
This isn't a time for us to figure out the sustainability of this work.
So this work's been going on a long time.
When I got started, we called it community technology.
Nobody calls it community technology anymore, right?
Terms come and go, but the need of people to have access to technology is consistent.
And the possibility that we have right now with this federal investment is that we are able to develop these ecosystems and local communities who, okay, somebody's serving older adults and somebody else is serving youth and someone's serving older adults that don't speak English or right, whatever it is, that there's a variety of folks that are serving these populations.
And it might be that some entities within that ecosystem are refurbishing computers and others are getting computers from that entity that's refurbishing computers.
So that's the idea of an ecosystem where there's different organizations helping each other in this digital inclusion ecosystem do this work.
So the possibility we have right now is to figure out how to strengthen those and have it continue beyond this federal investment.
So we really have an amazing opportunity in front of us.
And the fact that all the states have a state digital equity plan, wow.
Like we've never had that level of planning, the engagement with folks in those communities about what they want and what they need.
It's an incredible time for us.
It's also a time where we have to make sure that we're pulling everyone in and that everyone understands the value of this work so that they don't misunderstand the work that we're doing, right?
We need to make sure all folks get that.
And I think there's been definitely been an increased awareness upon within internet service that they understand it in ways they didn't before.
They now talk about broadband adoption.
They now, many of them have grant programs of support broadband adoption because they see the value to their own work.
And I think that's something we definitely didn't have prior to the pandemic, we could say.
So thanks for having me.
And I'm excited to embark upon this conversation with you all.
All right.
Keep your camera on for a quick moment.
And so I want to start The controversial question with you, and then we'll let others weigh in, which is, you know, put aside B, put aside the infrastructure program and whether there will or won't be changes with the incoming Trump administration.
Let's just focus on the digital equity programs.
And I really appreciate how Lisa laid out those three programs: the planning, the capacity grants, and the competitive grants.
What are the chances that both from a political standpoint and from a legal standpoint that the Trump administration could change, reverse, I don't know, gut abolish?
I mean, what are the ways that the Trump administration could, if they wanted to, and I'm not saying they do, but if they wanted to change the digital equity programs that we've just talked about, right?
So Congress could certainly do it.
I think in particular, so there's that 2.75 billion for digital equity.
The competitive grants right now, the first round of those, there's to be three of rounds.
The first round, the NOFO is out.
Folks have submitted applications.
NTIA is reviewing those now.
They could, a new administration coming in, the Trump administration coming into NTIA could say we're not doing that.
That would be a huge problem because folks have already probably will have received notices that they've received those grants.
So that's a challenge, but they could do something crazy like that.
Not recommended.
And then Congress could take its own action.
Right?
Congress could say, we're going to call back the money.
I think there's two different places it could happen.
It could happen in Congress or it could happen at the NTIA level.
Well, and you know, I'm not trying to scare, I'm not trying to lay out the scarce, but just from a practical process standpoint, I mean, of these three programs, the planning grants have basically been done, right?
I mean, right.
The planning grants are completed.
Everybody has their digital equity plan, which is, again, as I said, amazing that that exists.
Yeah.
All the states are either have been awarded their capacity funds or are in process of having, well, they've been awarded their first tranche of the capacity funds.
And they're some of them, not all of them, but the others are in process.
And so far, we haven't heard any attacks on, and really, there's only been one attack.
So we should all keep that in mind.
Like this isn't like a big thing coming at us.
It is Senator Cruz, who's one big, and whatever.
You all get what I'm saying.
But the capacity grants, I'm not as worried about.
I think the fact that they are in all the states, they're spread around every state, the impact, right?
And that politically, that would be chaos.
I think there somebody has decided that the competitive grant proposals or the competitive grant program, that's $1.25 billion.
That is a lot of money that if it's not released into the community, it holds our country back, right?
We need to make sure all of our citizens have the digital skills to compete globally.
And we are already behind the curve on that.
We have folks who are not participating online, who do not know how to be safe online, who don't know how to look for a job online.
We cannot take more steps backwards.
All right.
So thank you, Angela.
This is awesome.
So I'm going to invite other members of our panel to raise your hands.
Let's see if I can kind of do this.
We're trying to do this so that we can facilitate viewing.
And I definitely want to hear from each of the other three states.
Oh, by the way, we're in five of our six time zones in the country right now.
You know, isn't that great?
East, Central, Mountain, West, and Alaska in time.
So let's actually start furthest west.
May I ask you to turn your camera on, Lisa?
I want to ask specifically about the digital equity capacity grant.
And again, like just talk, just briefly, briefly, because I want to hear from all three of you, what are your states doing on those?
If you want to kind of link it back to Bede again or a bit more, please do so.
But let's go west to East and hear from you first, Lisa.
Thank you, Drew.
So Alaska has split the programs that we are proposing to do under our digital equity capacity grant program into three different components.
We are going to do baseline studies that are called out in our digital equity plan that need to be done.
We're going to do a plan update with that information, but the vast majority of the money we're receiving, and it's a very small amount.
It's our first tranche is only $5.6 million.
But we're using about two-thirds of that money to run a competitive grant program within our state.
And we did not take a specific tract when we prioritized that.
We have left it as open as possible and said, if you can obviously tie what you're doing back to one of the key performance indicators that is outlined in our outlined in our plan, you're eligible to submit a grant application.
And we haven't set a floor really or a ceiling on what those applications can be.
We're really trying to leave it as open as possible and give people the opportunity to apply for grants for programs that will fit their regional or their community level or their constituency within their organization that serves one of the eight covered populations that Dylan talked about earlier as best as it needs to under our funding source.
So that's basically what we're doing with our first tranche of funding.
If the two subsequent tranches of funding remain in place, we will be using those to extend our competitive grant program within our state.
And we only anticipate the next two tranches that will be coming up being about $1.8 million apiece.
So again, not very much.
All right, great.
Let's hear from you, Scott.
Could you speak specifically to the capacity grant for the state?
And let's try to kind of do this just as we mute and unmute.
Let's video on and video off as we go in and out of discussion.
Thank you so much.
So Scott, over to you.
Yeah.
Thanks, Drew.
So, you know, I want to preface what we're doing with our capacity grant, kind of referencing what some of the other panelists have said is that given the size and scale and the level of need in the state, we've got, you know, our geography is 164, you know, 100,000 square miles.
We've got, you know, 33 million residents in our state that identify as one of the members of the covered population.
And, you know, we've got a fairly sizable capacity grant of 70.2 million, but there's a lot of needs.
So the way that we've looked at designing our capacity grant program, like the entire program, is how do we take what we learned during the planning process and what was suggested by our partners and stakeholders that there are a certain level of services that the state can leverage its buying power, like then develop centralized services, a digital literacy training platform, a workforce development platform, campaign materials.
So that's one bucket that, you know, our department, our office will lead.
The other is state-managed digital inclusion efforts.
So, you know, there are certain state departments through whether it's corrections or housing and community development that have programs or the ability to connect to large numbers of covered populations.
We're looking at funding some of those.
But I think is Lisa and others have said we've taken great care of what we learned through the planning process that it's at the regional and local level that the funding is needed and that most of the blocking and tackling and the heavy work is going to be done.
So we're developing a subgrant program that is really focused on, like Angela said, building local and regional ecosystems, further building them out, empowering them to develop digital equity plans that align with the state plans, but then really placing a priority on implementation and programmatic work.
So having kind of a uniform set of activities that were identified by our population during the planning process.
So conducting digital navigation specifically in community and culture and language, connecting folks to low-cost offers, providing access to digital literacy training, doing targeted device training programs.
That is how we're setting up our grant program.
And we're, I could tell you more, we're currently in the coming out of the public common process where we've sought input from our stakeholders, but we also have a second track that we've included in our program that really addresses some of the outcomes that the federal government is asking states to really lean into.
So outcomes in education, health access, essential services is building a separate subgrant track for select entities that could work at a very statewide level building ecosystem to do that.
And so that's where we're at right now.
And I'm really excited about moving forward.
Well, we'll come right back to this.
So let's invite Dylan to turn your camera on, Scott, to turn yours off, and let's get the same question from you.
And then we're going to go to other topics.
And thank you for the discussions on Zoom.
Obviously, if you're watching on television on C-SPAN or on any of our other channels, by sign up, you can get access to the discussion that's taking place here.
Dylan, about the capacity grant program in the state of Idaho.
Yes, thank you, Drew.
And I'll keep, I know we have lots of other questions, so I'll keep this pretty short.
We are very similar to Alaska and California in how we're implementing this.
Most of our capacity funds, Idaho's first tranche, is $6.3 million.
It's going to be going out in subgrants over the next couple of years.
We've got our first set of subgrants open, and I'll just provide a little bit more context on those.
A bulk of those are going to be in monetary grants, kind of like what Lisa illustrated for Alaska in the sense of competitive monetary grants to address any of the issues identified in our digital access for All Idahoans plan.
But we've also got a couple of other sub-grant programs that we're hoping folks will take advantage of.
One called Connecting Communities and the other called Tech Refresh that are going to be provided competitive device programs.
So we're going to provide devices, some for the connected communities that our organizational partners that apply for this will be able to distribute directly to the covered populations in a learn-to-earn model.
And then a tech refresh to provide refreshed public computing access at libraries and other institutions throughout the state.
So we're really trying to address a few different ways with our sub-grant programs.
And then in addition to those, we do have some statewide programs we're going to be working on.
And we're bulking up our digital navigator service as well.
So trying to take a multitude of approaches here, as I think the other states are.
Awesome.
Let's invite Angela to turn your video camera back on.
And if you wouldn't mind addressing the question that you wanted to address, read it out and then answer it, okay?
Yeah, sure.
So, Jim asked: Is your organization or does your organization or state have anything planned regarding responding to Senator Cruz's recent letter to NTIA?
He has a request to significantly modify the BEAD program.
So, I'm actually, he had two letters.
I'm suggesting we're focused on digital equity.
Let's focus on the digital equity one.
Respond to the digital equity letter and asking, Jim's asking if we're encouraging local community digital equity organizations to submit comments to Senator Cruz.
NDIA is encouraging all those who have digital inclusion programs and care about digital inclusion programs to submit comments and letters and reach out to all their congressionally elected officials.
I think this is a thing where this is a situation where not enough folks know about that work.
So, you see the name of a program, but you don't actually know what that program is.
You maybe think you want to cut the budget, but if so, if you know more about what the program is, you maybe think that's not the place to cut the budget.
So, we are encouraging that kind of reach out and educate your policymakers as to what it is that this work is about and the impact of this work, the way that folks can find jobs, the way they can access their doctors online, all of the reasons that this work is important.
Yeah, thanks.
We got so many questions we're not going to be able to give everyone.
So, please, please, if you're on the panel, you know, send me a chat message or try to raise your hand.
I hope I'll be able to see them if your camera's off.
I do want to just let's just ask this question of Dr. Ron Suarez.
In a time when there was a war of words with the new administration, can we use the word affordability instead of equity?
Your organization, Angela, is of course the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.
I know this has been a kind of a point of discussion, but could you just speak to is digital equity a word that is now overly politicized?
Right.
I don't think we are at digital equity being over-politicized.
I think the word equity is over-politicized.
So, because this is codified into law, the name of the program is the Digital Equity Act.
The competitive grant program is the digital equity competitive, right?
Like it is here.
And I don't think we can just decide, well, we're just not going to use that term anymore because it is what's already Congress already made a decision.
But what we can do is make sure that folks know what we mean by that.
And in our local context, we use whatever words make sense to folks locally.
I just sent an email to our thousands of people community yesterday saying, do what you need to do.
There are folks who cannot use the word equity because it causes, it loses, it keeps them from getting new allies.
It keeps them from partnerships.
It may even keep them from losing their job.
So we need to make sure that those of us who care about this issue are including and supporting everybody no matter where they are and whatever words they're using.
So we're encouraging folks, use the words you need to use.
And I think this is good to remember: we've not always used the same words anyhow, right?
Digital divide, community technology centers, we have lots of words in this space, and that's okay.
If anybody wants to call it digital opportunity, super, as long as they're doing the work.
Welcome, any others on the panel to speak to this.
I've just put in the link for our Zoom audience.
Again, you can go to Broadband Breakfast and see a certain number of stories for free each month.
And the story five days ago by reporter Jake Neenan, Cruz once beat on hold planning substantial changes.
The sender also asked NTA to pause a digital equity grant program.
Yes, you've turned your camera on.
Scott, thank you.
Let's invite, thank you.
Go ahead and tackle this question of the points that either Senator Cruz or others have been making about the digital equity programs.
Go ahead, Scott.
Yeah, and I think I would answer the question taking a different approach.
Know that there is a dialogue that is going on in other states and across the nation.
I think what I'd like to kind of underscore is what Angela said: that, you know, there's a distinction between equity, you know, obviously in digital equity.
And if we look at equity is, you know, acknowledging that people are at different places and at different levels.
We learned very much during the COVID pandemic that when folks had to work and go to school from home, that they had very degrees of ability to be connected to get the essential services that they needed.
And that I think, you know, the work we did with our ecosystem during the planning process to identify the common digital equity barriers for all Californians and the specific digital equity barriers for each of the covered populations acknowledges that there are different barriers and constraints that have to be addressed if our ultimate goal is then to ensure,
for the long-term health and sustainability of our communities and of our states and our nation, that folks are connected and have the ability to get there, and that it is a at least for California, it's a.
It's an important framework for us to look through that in order to to overcome the, the inequities, we have to look at the equity framework.
Um, we have a question from uh Stephen Schwerbel that raised a number of points, but I want to just pull out the point about workforce development.
Is workforce development part of digital equity programs?
Is it part of bead programs?
Is it part of both, and what exactly does that mean in so far as your states?
Lisa, thanks for turning your video on, or whoever uh from the panel would like to answer.
Thanks, Lisa.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Workforce development is very much uh, a part of both digital equity and bead.
We have to be addressing the workforce workforce shortage in the state of Alaska?
Uh, not only for broadband but also for all of the Uh Infrastructure Act programs that were funded, and not only in Alaska but across the entire United States.
Uh coupled with the other non uh, non Um infrastructure Act development that's going on in our state as well.
So that that is the part that is an issue for BEAD.
The issue for digital equity is making sure BEAD actually requires that we make sure that populations that are typically underrepresented in the telecommunications industry have equitable on-ramps To these jobs.
And so that is where our workforce development plan is partially focused: making sure that we are getting not only the eight covered populations that are identified in the Digital Equity Act,
but also all populations that are typically underrepresented in the telecommunications industry included in a manner in which they can participate in these job opportunities that are coming along as part of the huge investment in broadband and the other infrastructure areas as well.
So stay on for a quick moment.
I know this is controversial, but this is by the person who could be the chair, incoming chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Ted Cruz, asked the agency, the NTAA, to axe the $1.25 billion subset of funding called the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program.
And he said the program engaged in, quote, impermissible race-based discrimination by funding efforts to get racial minorities among other groups online.
Again, just want to give you the opportunity to react.
Lisa, I know we're going to go to you next, Scott.
Do you have any concerns about that, or how do you kind of address this question of these groups being a kind of a race-based approach?
I am not prepared to give an answer on that right now.
That's something that we'll have to take as it comes as things begin to unfold.
Well, no, completely fair point.
And Scott, let's go to you.
You can either take this question or another aspect of the workforce that you were raising earlier on.
So, Scott.
Yeah, thanks, Drew.
I really wanted to reiterate, I'm glad Lisa kind of, you know, framed the response the way that she did, because the way that we're approaching it in California is that workforce development is important to both bead and digital equity.
And like Lisa said, it's incumbent upon us to divert resources to support workforce development to meet the labor supply needs, but also sustain the labor supply needs once infrastructure projects are developed.
There's maintenance and operations and a whole host of other functions.
And to ensure that as we develop those, to the extent we can, those positions are in the communities and regions where those jobs are being created.
I think, you know, the second piece that Lisa said, I also wanted to underscore and reiterate is when we're looking at the future, like what is the long-lasting change that the internet for all investments and the broadband for all investments can make in our communities?
And that is that we're setting ourselves up for not just the economy of today, but the economy of tomorrow.
So there's a whole host of digital knowledge-based skills and jobs that as we create a digitally inclusive and digitally equitable society, that folks across our vast state are able to seek training and improve their economic outcomes for their own families.
And so really couldn't underscore enough that workforce development is critical to both the infrastructure side, but also the digital equity side for looking at the future.
Angela, you've got your hand raised.
Let's turn to you to tackle this question.
Yeah, I think as a nonprofit organization, as a non-governmental organization, we can be part of these political conversations in a way that's more difficult for our government friends on the call.
So I'm happy to take those for the group.
The covered population question that Senator Cruz raised is about one of the eight covered populations being racial minorities.
The reality is that digital inclusion programs serve everyone.
And if one looks at the populations that they're serving, they're serving individuals who are in more than one covered population.
It just, it happens.
Nobody's out.
To be really clear and honest with you all, for example, the laptops that get distributed, they're not MacBooks.
I mean, they're affordable, right?
This is not something where those who have resources necessarily are asking for the resources from these programs.
So the fact that the programs that are out there are serving multiple covered populations, I think kind of actually makes this point moot, because that's not actually a thing that's happening.
Right, right.
No, thank you.
Thank you.
And thank you for stepping in, Angela, on this question.
I, you know, again, don't want to overemphasize any particular point, but we do want to talk about the future of all of these digital equity programs.
And I want to raise the affordability question.
We've got a question from Michael Pitch who highlights that analysis showing households are willing to pay $10 a month on average for home internet service, though three of four say any cost is too much.
Could we just speak to the affordability question momentarily?
And obviously this raises another issue, the affordable connectivity program, which was another part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and that is now over, expired, right?
And so how do we get low-cost options to people who are not online, but primarily because of cost?
Again, Angela, let's let you go first, but I'd love to hear other officials from the states speak to the affordability and how the digital equity programs may play a role on the affordability front.
Affordability is a problem, like 100%, right?
It is the top reason people don't subscribe to broadband.
And when they're not subscribing to broadband, it doesn't mean they're not really using it.
It means they're using it less.
They're using it as a workaround.
They find public access.
They have a data limited cell phone, right?
There's the, it's not, I want to make it clear that it's not that people are or aren't online.
It's that they're doing it in ways that are more difficult and it impacts the rest of their life, et cetera.
How we get there, we need lots of solutions, particularly since we don't have a full broadband benefit right now.
So we need options that are low cost so folks can cover the cost as they are able to do.
We need a benefit for those who really need to have that benefit.
The opportunity in front of us is that universal service fund needs revamped.
So the potential is to have a broadband benefit included as one of the programs in the universal service fund.
It's a huge lift to get a universal Fund revamp.
So that's a whole other show that Drew has done and we'll probably do some more of because it's such a big issue.
Let's go to Lisa.
Go ahead and turn your video camera on and tackle this question.
Thank you for raising your hand.
Thanks, Drew.
I don't have, we haven't determined solutions yet because it's going to be varied at best.
But one of the things I want to draw people's attention to, especially for places like I believe Alaska and Idaho to some degree, as well is our population density is such that there's an intersection between what is affordable and what is sustainable in terms of owning and operating infrastructure, broadband infrastructure.
And that in Alaska, our affordability is, you know, when we talk about what affordable broadband is, where the urban areas are at, a decent internet plan is $100 or more in urban Alaska.
So when you talk about going into rural Alaska, into some villages that have a population in the dozens, and you talk about bringing broadband infrastructure to those locations, the operations and maintenance associated with that is incredible.
And there is no amount of monthly fee that is going to be able to pay for what the ongoing operations and maintenance are, even with there being complete bead coverage of the original capex costs of that.
And so I just want to make sure that people are realizing that there is, as we talk about the affordability side of things and the idea that internet has to be free or so reduced that some sort of federal program can pay for it, you have to look at it in terms of the sustainability model for the OpEx of those infrastructure networks as well.
Well, our time has sped by, and we are not going to be able to get every question in, but I do want to give each panelist an opportunity to make a closing thought.
And you can respond to whatever you'd like.
We're going to go in the order we started in.
So, Scott, let's turn it over to you for 30 to 60 seconds on the future of the digital equity programs.
Well, thanks, Drew.
For some reason, I'm having a canon to my video, but it's been a pleasure being here.
Great to be a part of the conversation.
Just wanted to say that, like others, this is, I think, one of our time's greatest challenges.
And that, you know, collectively, we've all been working to get it right to close the digital divide and kind of empower our nation and our communities for that size scale amount of funding is always going to be a challenge.
But I think that the national ecosystem and that in California have shown great capacity for cooperation, collaboration, and alignment.
And that while it's essential to have, you know, federal and state funding seed these efforts, that on the digital equity side, we're very much encouraging our folks to also look down the road at other sources of funding, you know, to expand the table in their local communities and develop room for public-private partnerships and private and philanthropic funding to do that.
I think at the end of the day, regardless of what happens, we just here in California, the Department of Technology, the broadband office, want to give a Thanksgiving shout out to our team and our staff.
We're still mission-oriented and keeping our heads down and doing the work that we plan for over the last two years and looking forward to continuing to implement over the next five.
Awesome.
Thank you very much.
Let's go to Dylan.
I know you were responding to some questions about curriculum and other programs.
And let's hear your final thoughts on this topic, Dylan.
Yeah, thank you so much, Drew, and everybody participating.
Really great to have a platform to talk about digital equity efforts across multiple states and at the national level.
I think I just really want to highlight my last shout out here is when we're looking at sustainability long term, we know we probably can't style this in five years.
It's going to be an ongoing effort.
You have new people, you have changing digital skills.
Really encourage folks to work with their libraries, whether it's their state libraries, their local libraries.
Libraries really are a trusted institution, as well as other community anchor institutions that can really help address that digital divide in the digital equity that we are working on.
So wish everyone a happy holiday too.
Thank you.
Wonderful.
Thank you very much.
Lisa, quick final thoughts, and then we'll give Angela the last word.
I just want to say thank you to everybody.
I won't go into additional remarks.
I will just say if anybody that had a question or a comment about Alaska in the chat wants to get in touch with me, please go to just Google the Alaska Broadband Office.
You can find my information.
I'm happy to have a one-on-one chat with anyone.
Thank you so much, Drew and everybody.
It's wonderful to see the sunrise in Alaska.
So thank you for being with us, Lisa.
Angela, you get the last word here.
I welcome and encourage everyone to contact their elected representatives to talk about digital equity, like what it really is, right?
That work on the ground, helping people get connected to the internet, the digital skills, the devices, like the real tangible piece of it.
And if folks are uncertain how to do that, NDIA is helping our affiliates know how to talk to their elected representatives to educate them on this.
So if you're not sure, we'll help you.
Well, wonderful.
Well, wonderful.
And with that, we're going to thank each of our panelists for being with us and for spending this hour one day ahead of Thanksgiving on behalf of Scott Adams, Lisa Van Bargen, Dylan Baker, and Angela Sefer.
I'm Drew Clark with Broadband Breakfast.
We'll see you next week.
And don't forget to sign up for Broadband and the Trump administration on December 12th.
Take care, everyone.
Bye-bye.
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