Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Access to computers and computer technology is indispensable for success in the 21st century. Millions of Americans do not regularly use a computer, and research shows that substantial disparities remain in both internet use and the quality of access with the digital divide concentrated among older, less educated, less affluent populations, especially veterans, low-income students, and senior citizens. In 1996, the President issued Executive Order 12999 instructing the General Services Administration
(GSA)to allow schools and nonprofits the ability to receive Federal surplus computers for educational purposes. GSA created the Computers for Learning Program, which distributes approximately 30,000 computers and computer-related equipment annually to public schools and educational nonprofits for reuse. In July 2017, the Inspector General for GSA issued a report on the lack of controls with the CFL website. The report noted multiple cases of theft or fraud pertaining to lack of vetting of education nonprofits registering on the website. Although GSA indicated that other Federal agencies had responsibility to vet nonprofits for eligibility, many agencies were not aware of this requirement. Since the IG report was issued, GSA has implemented reforms to ensure that agencies are aware of their responsibility to determine that educational nonprofits are certified tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations. However, there remains an issue with schools obtaining surplus computers that are not ready to use. In most cases, the schools do not have the resources to pay to refurbish the computers, which results in computers being wasted. Any Federal program that distributes retired Federal computers to a public school, an educational nonprofit organization, or a nonprofit computer refurbisher for repair and distribution, would benefit from a partnership with a nonprofit organization, whose mission includes bridging the digital divide.