Lujan, Markey Grill Commerce Department Nominee on Digital Equity Act Cancellation
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., grilled Commerce Department general counsel nominee Pierre Gentin on Tuesday about President Donald Trump’s move last week to block Digital Equity Act funding (see 2505090051).
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“I hope my colleagues from across the country whose constituents are depending on this program just to get connected to the internet … can work together to reverse” Trump’s action, Lujan said during a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing. He criticized Gentin for his lack of knowledge about the program and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that authorized it. “The purpose of the Digital Equity Act [is] to help close the gap in broadband adoption and support programs that help provide children and seniors with the skills they need for the digital age,” Lujan said.
“My understanding is that is a program that is designed to ... make the digital economy available to Americans,” Gentin said.
Lujan also asked Gentin about the constitutionality of Trump canceling the funding, including whether the Constitution “grants the president the power to nullify entire sections of laws passed by Congress.” Gentin said he's “aware that [Trump] issued a Truth Social post” canceling funding, but “I have not looked into in any way the constitutional issues that you just flagged relating to this.”
Markey said Congress “directed the Commerce Department to issue formula grants to the states, and we appropriated money for it, and now the department is simply ignoring the law.” Gentin told the lawmaker he's “committed to look into” whether cancellation of the grants is legal, but “I do not have a view on that sitting here today.” Gentin also told Markey he hasn’t been involved in meetings or conversations about terminating state digital equity grants in response to Trump’s directive. “We can all agree, I think, that everyone [should] be able to participate in the internet economy. In my role as a senior adviser at [the Commerce Department], I've had no role in the digital equity issue.”