Officials Remain Optimistic About NTIA Timeline on State Digital Equity Capacity Grants
State broadband officials and digital equity leaders are optimistic that NTIA will soon announce additional awards in its $1.44 billion state digital equity capacity grant program that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds (see 2403290039). During a visit Wednesday to Michigan, which already received its award amount, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said the agency is "working with each state on their plans for how they're going to spend that money." He also noted NTIA is accepting applications for its $910 million digital equity competitive grant program.
The digital inclusion community "has lacked funding for many years," said National Digital Inclusion Alliance Policy Director Amy Huffman in an email. Being able to access the funds "sooner rather than later to increase digital inclusion efforts across the country is essential to ensure the IIJA investments are implemented well."
NTIA wasn't bound to the Aug. 28 timeline in its notice of funding opportunity for the announcement of states' awards, so it issued some awards sooner, Huffman noted. Nevada was the first state to receive its capacity grant award, in July. The award, more than $9 million, is for implementing its digital equity plan (see 2406260035). Michigan got its award of about $20.5 million shortly thereafter (see 2407180032).
Michigan may have gotten early approval because it’s “very competitive” and submitted its application well ahead of other states, Allie Herkenroder, the state’s digital equity director, said in an interview. The deadline was May 28, but Michigan submitted in early April, she said. Considering how early Michigan submitted, Herkenroder doesn’t think other states should worry if they haven’t received their grants yet. “Curing takes a long time … We’re all going to get these funds.”
Explaining why Michigan applied early, Herkenroder said, “Four years is really not a long time when it comes to creating and implementing very real systemic change. I wanted to make sure that we had as much time as possible with these dollars so that we could get as much impact on the ground within communities as long as we could, as quick as we could.” She continued, “We made sure that, despite the fact that we were running our [broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD)] challenge process at the same time, we were devoting a lot of … staff energy to making sure that we were one of the first states to get [an application for] these dollars in.”
The capacity grant is “absolutely critical” to Michigan’s digital equity work, said Herkenroder: The state’s digital equity plan couldn’t be realized without that federal cash. Communities know and trust their local library or United Way more than Michigan’s relatively new broadband office, she said. “If we can support the capacity of those local organizations” and “get these dollars down to communities as quickly as we can and as close to communities as we can,” it will have a “tremendous impact.”
Huffman expects "additional capacity awards announced in the coming weeks and months," with all awards announced by the end of the calendar year "at the latest, but I would think they'd be awarded much sooner than that." The only exceptions are native entities, which are on a different timeline, she added.
The Minnesota Office of Broadband Development is “hopeful” NTIA will approve its digital equity capacity grant soon, said Bree Maki, the state broadband office’s executive director. Funding for the state's digital equity office staff ran out in March, she said. “Minnesota has prioritized this work, but the lapse in funding is challenging.” Maki said she kept staff by tapping into other state and federal funding. “I can’t afford to [lose] their expertise and relationships they have built across the state.”
"We have heard from NTIA a few times since we submitted as we've been curing our capacity grant submission,” emailed Utah Broadband Center Director Rebecca Dilg. “It's been a while since we last exchanged emails, so I suspect they will be making additional awards soon.” She said Utah submitted its application “just before the deadline.”