JFAC hears plan to continue federal digital-access grants, questions about summer reading materials

The Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee on an unspecified date reviewed budget requests from the Idaho Commission for Libraries including a request to make an existing federal "Digital Access for All Idahoans" grant an ongoing $2.5 million item in the state base budget and a $42,400 ongoing reimbursement for libraries under the Education Opportunity Resource Act (Chapter 56, Title 33, Idaho Code).

The request matters because the digital-access grant — currently an NTIA-administered federal award authorized through IIJA and administered alongside Idaho Broadband Office activities — has funded subgrants, devices and digital navigator positions intended to reduce barriers such as affordability, device access and digital skills. State analysts told the committee the commission expects additional notices of award that can be spent through 2032 and is asking to fold $2.5 million into the base to sustain implementation.

Committee members pressed for more detail on how the federal grant monies have been spent so far and how the commission will distribute future subgrants. “I do have kind of an overview of what that digital…