‘Leave it alone’: Amid BEAD review, state leaders plead for stability

A bevy of House Republicans lined up at a subcommittee hearing last week to bemoan the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, minutes after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced he would conduct a “rigorous review” of the effort to close the digital divide.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Florida told the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology that BEAD’s “slow execution” means that connectivity is still a concern, and the “original hope in the program is turning to disappointment.” Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia said former President Joe Biden’s administration had been “nothing short of a disaster for broadband deployment and expansion through America.”

Rep. Rick Allen of Georgia, the subcommittee’s vice-chair, lamented that BEAD is “full of unnecessary requirements” that has meant “not a single inch of fiber has been laid.” And Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, who chairs the subcommittee, talked up his new legislation that he said would improve the program, and lamented BEAD’s “regulations unrelated to broadband to appease left-wing interest groups,” including “technology preferences, burdensome labor rules, and climate change requirements, to name a few.”

Many of those arguments looked to be rehashed from previous House hearings on BEAD, which was included in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. But proponents of the effort to close the digital divide said it takes on new urgency given Lutnick’s review and the apparent desire of some in President Donald Trump’s administration to at the very least rethink the program, or scrap it altogether.

“Let's be honest, it seems to me that today's hearing is about Republicans fishing for excuses to toss three years of work into the trash and undermining our efforts to connect every American,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, a California Democrat and the subcommittee’s ranking member, in her opening statement.

While that hearing turned into another Washington food fight, among state officials, BEAD still appears to have plenty of bipartisan support. Their message to the federal government, Washington, D.C. and Congress is simple.

“Leave it alone; let the states do what they've done,” Missouri State Rep. Louis Riggs, a Republican, said in a recent interview. “The feds could not do what the states have done. In 10 or 15 years, all they basically did, they walked in and screwed everything up. God love them, they just keep throwing money at the problem, which is okay when you give it to the states and let us do our jobs, but trying to claw that funding back and stand up a new grant round is the worst idea I've heard in a very long time, and that's saying a lot coming out of D.C.”

Like every state, Missouri has had its plan to deploy high-speed internet approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and has expanded its state broadband office from one person to a team of 15 who are out in the field checking revamped broadband availability maps and making sure internet service providers are on task.

“For us, this is something that we have waited for for a very long time,” Riggs said. “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not the onrushing train. To have that ability with what we've been able to do, and compare that to what the feds didn't do, I don't think there's any question. They just need to back off and give it to the states. We've carried the ball. We've done an expert job of it all over this country."

Some federal leaders appear supportive too. In a statement after Lutnick’s announcement, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, said she favors “improving the program,” but does “not want to see West Virginia wait longer than is necessary or have to redo their proposals and application.”

Redoing those maps to better reflect broadband availability at a more granular level has been a key driver of delays in getting BEAD money out the door, but there has been more movement in several states as Delaware, Louisiana and Nevada have started making grant awards. Others are hesitant amid the federal uncertainty, however, including Texas, which paused its digital equity program early this month.

Many states have pressed ahead too. The Vermont Community Broadband Board, which is responsible for deploying high-speed internet in the state, has already connected 60% of residents to fiber and plans to connect the rest using BEAD funds, according to Christine Hallquist, VCBB’s executive director.

“We have the plan, we have the funds, we have the expertise, as long as the federal government doesn't get in our way by changing things and adding more guardrails, rather than giving flexibility to the experts at the state that have been doing this,” said Robert Fish, VCBB’s deputy director, in an interview. “That is what keeps me up at night: that the federal government is going to get in the way of the great things that we're doing at the state level.”

A shift away from fiber to other technologies, including satellite internet, also gives broadband officials in Vermont pause. The federal government has so far been reluctant to give satellite its full support for BEAD funding, but that could change and benefit Starlink CEO and special government advisor Elon Musk. Hallquist is not convinced, although she acknowledged it could help in specific areas if states have the flexibility to do what suits them. “If it's not fiber, it's not broadband,” Hallquist said.

“There's no way Starlink could ever even come close to the capacity of fiber,” she added. “Don’t let Elon Musk fool you.”

Former federal officials echoed states’ desire to be allowed to get on with the job of getting people online.

“States are on the one-yard line at this point, and they just want the ability to get into the endzone, get these shovels in the ground and get things built,” said Sarah Morris, a former acting NTIA deputy administrator, during the House subcommittee hearing. “Anything that will set that back or create more redundant work on these plans will be frustrating to these state broadband offices.”