A BEAD critic could end up running the internet access program
Michael Duva via Getty Images
By
Chris Teale
Arielle Roth, a former aide to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has been tapped to head up the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. She has long been skeptical of some of the $42 billion effort’s provisions.
A critic of the federal government’s $42 billion program to expand broadband internet access could end up running an agency responsible for it, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Arielle Roth, the current telecom policy director for the Senate Commerce Committee, to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. If confirmed, one of her many responsibilities would be implementing the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.
Roth has expressed skepticism in the past about some of BEAD’s provisions, rather than “prioritizing connecting all Americans who are currently unserved to broadband,” she said at an event hosted in Washington, D.C. last year by the conservative Federalist Society. Roth has taken issue with various BEAD requirements, including that states must have a low-cost internet option, must consider projects’ impact on climate change and must hire a certain number of unionized and underserved workers for those projects.
“The NTIA has just been preoccupied with attaching all kinds of extra legal requirements on BEAD and, to be honest, a woke social agenda, loading up all kinds of burdens that deter participation in the program and drive up costs,” Roth said at the event.
She also said NTIA’s “left-wing priorities on the program” would “divert resources away from the overall goal of closing broadband gaps” and would “make the program less cost effective and undermine its goals.” Roth did not respond to requests for further comment.
Leading federal figures, who have also expressed their skepticism of BEAD, quickly showed their support for Roth’s nomination. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a post on X — formerly Twitter — that she has “fought to defend the taxpayer,” and will work “to advance government efficiency, economic growth, and innovation.”
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr also praised Roth’s nomination on X and noted the “exceptionally important role” ahead for NTIA in the coming years, including on “broadband and innovative technologies.”
A wide swath of industry representatives also congratulated Roth on her nomination, which first will be debated by the Senate Commerce Committee on an as-yet unnamed date.
“The opportunity ahead for NTIA to be a huge engine for American innovation and connectivity is a massive one and Arielle Roth is a great choice to help ensure that the agency will realize its full potential,” Jonathan Spalter, president and CEO of the United States Telecom Association, said in a statement. “A key part of NTIA’s work will be to finish the job of connecting everyone everywhere to the best that broadband has to offer. We are all in to partner with her in getting the job done and I wish her a speedy confirmation. We don’t have a moment to waste.”
It is as yet unclear how the new administrator could impact the BEAD program, especially as NTIA has already said every state and territory is ready to proceed with their plans to expand broadband access. One area of possible change could be giving more help to satellite internet, a technology that has until now not been given the federal government’s full-throated support.
But Trump and Elon Musk, the CEO of satellite internet company Starlink currently working as a special government employee, might want to change that. In a previous interview, Blair Levin, a policy analyst with equity research firm New Street Research and a senior nonresidential fellow at Brookings Metropolitan Policy Project, said a new NTIA administrator might choose to “put their thumb on the scale” for satellite.
“There's a lot of very worthwhile debate that, in my opinion, should happen,” about the technology, Levin said. “But the question is, is this about policy debate, or is this about political power? That is a question we will be asking ourselves a lot.”
One state-level Republican wants to let BEAD play out in the states without much interference from the federal government. In a post for the nonprofit Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Missouri State Rep. Louis Riggs called BEAD a “once in a lifetime investment” that has only taken so long to implement due to the complexities of updating broadband coverage maps. Riggs said he has doubts about satellite technology as a solution, and said fiber is the best solution as it is “future-proof.”
“Now is not the time to short circuit BEAD,” Riggs wrote. “Now is not the time to deploy broadband internet on the cheap. We have been there, done that, and that is precisely what landed us in this mess to begin with. So, Federal folks, please do us a favor. Stop trying to fix things. You have done more than enough harm already.”
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