C&RL News April 2022 179

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eShawnda Hines

ALA joins digital inclusion advocates to launch Airwaves for Equity coalition
ALA, along with eight of the nation’s leading digital equity organizations, recently an-
nounced the launch of Airwaves for Equity, a coalition focused on asking Congress to 
dedicate the net proceeds from future spectrum auctions to support digital literacy and 
inclusion efforts. 

The coalition consists of ALA, the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, the Center 
for Rural Strategies, Common Sense Media, Consumer Reports, National Digital Inclu-
sion Alliance, Public Knowledge, the Open Technology Institute at New America, and the 
Schools Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition. 

ALA has long endorsed efforts in Congress and at the FCC to improve rural and tribal 
broadband access and to increase the amount of unlicensed spectrum available to support 
critical library technology services. ALA Senior Director of Public Policy and Government 
Relations Alan Inouye, who spoke at the launch webinar in February, said “ALA is ready 
and eager to make a big leap with the Airwaves for Equity initiative to advocate for sustain-
able federal investments in digital literacy and inclusion that could support services libraries 
have long excelled at.” 

Airwaves for Equity proposes that Congress dedicate a substantial portion of wireless 
spectrum auction revenues to endow a Digital Equity Foundation. The goal is to provide 
sustainable funding for initiatives designed to promote digital literacy and inclusion, from 
local digital navigator programs and telehealth to disability access and efforts to close the 
learning gap. 

Leaders from both parties on the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy 
and Commerce Committee have embraced the concept of dedicating auction proceeds to 
help close the digital divide in other recent legislation. Because the FCC’s auction author-
ity must be extended this year, the needed legislation will create an opportunity to leverage 
revenues from the invisible natural resource owned by the American people that has become 
essential as the Internet goes wireless: the public airwaves. 

For more information on Airwaves for Equity, visit www.airwavesforequity.org.

Shawnda Hines is assistant director of communications, public policy and advocacy at ALA’s Washington Office, in email: 
shines@alawash.org

http://www.airwavesforequity.org
mailto:shines%40alawash.org?subject=