The Divide: NDIA's Amy Huffman on implementing state digital equity plans

This episode features Amy Huffman, policy director at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). The NDIA recently released a new manual designed to help states implement their digital equity plans, with funding from the NTIA via the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act.

As Huffman explains, the Digital Equity Act essentially funds two implementation programs: the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program ($1.44 billion) and the Competitive Grant Program ($1.25 billion). That funding is in addition to $60 million set aside for planning grants.

In order to unlock grant funding for implementation programs, states and territories were required to submit digital equity plans to the NTIA, and the agency has been approving those plans on a rolling basis. The NTIA announced in April that it had received plans from every state and territory. The agency is currently accepting applications for the Capacity Grant Program and will make $800 million in funding available this year for states to implement their digital equity plans.

Best practices

In this episode, we discuss the importance of the Digital Equity Act as a companion to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. And we get into the key details of NDIA's new State Digital Equity Implementation manual, designed to help states and territories successfully implement their digital equity plans. You can download NDIA's manual here.

Related:The Divide: Maine's five key strategies for achieving digital equity

Here are some topics covered in this conversation:

For a lightly edited conversation transcript, click the caption button on the podcast player.