On January 3, 2025, the 119th Congress was sworn in. Republicans now hold majorities in both the House and the Senate. With the incoming Trump administration, Congressional Republicans have a lengthy list of priorities. Although broadband does not appear to be near the top of the policy agenda, observers are looking to see how the new leadership will approach the broadband programs established by Congress in recent years including the deployment and digital equity grants created in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

In the Senate, the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's jurisdiction includes communications, interstate commerce, consumer issues, economic development, technology, and competitiveness among other issues. The Commerce Committee is likely to drive broadband policy and oversight in the coming years—and a former Republican leader of the committee will now head the full Senate. 

Here we take a look at the broadband priorities of two new Senate leaders in the 119th Congress.

New Senate Majority Leader

In mid-November 2024, Senate Republicans elected Senator John Thune (R-SD) to be the Senate Majority Leader in the 119th Congress. Upon his selection, he said, "The Senate Republican majority will work with President Trump to ensure the Senate calendar allows us to confirm his nominees and pass our shared agenda as quickly and as efficiently as possible."

Thune pointed to an agenda that includes taking "a hatchet to the regulatory apparatus choking our economy"—especially 1,000 regulations enacted under the Biden-Harris Administration—and addressing the rising cost of living, highlighting looming tax increases.

“We have an ambitious agenda, and it will take all of us – each and every Republican – working together with President Trump’s leadership to achieve it," Leader Thune said.

Sen. Thune was first elected to Congress in 1996 and has served in the Senate since 2005. Since 2006, Sen. Thune has served in a number of leadership positions including Chief Deputy Whip (2006-2008), Republican Conference Vice-Chairman (2008-2009), Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee (2009-2012), Republican Conference Chairman (2012-2019), Majority Whip (2019-2021), and Senate Minority Whip (2021-2024).

Thune's Broadband Policy

When it comes to broadband policy, Sen. Thune has been a key player for many years on the Senate Commerce Committee. Sen. Thune was first elected chairman of the committee in the 114^th Congress (2015-2017). Prior to that, he served as the committee’s ranking minority member for two years. When Sen. Thune was selected by his Republican colleagues to serve as the Majority Whip for the 116^th Congress, he was precluded from continuing as Commerce Committee chair. 

As Commerce Committee Chairman, Sen. Thune championed the MOBILE NOW Act which required that 255 megahertz of spectrum be identified for fixed and mobile wireless broadband use by 2022—at least 100 megahertz for unlicensed use and at least 100 megahertz for licensed use. Further, it identified mid-band and high-band spectrum to be studied for possible commercial use. The law also directed executive agencies to approve or deny applications for broadband infrastructure within 270 days. MOBILE NOW was originally introduced on February 11, 2016, and passed out of the Commerce Committee on March 3, 2016. Sen. Thune reintroduced the bill on the first day of the 115^th Congress in 2017, the legislation was reported out of committee on January 24, 2017, and passed the Senate on August 3, 2017. MOBILE NOW eventually was included in the RAY BAUM’s Act which passed the House in March 2018.

In April 2024, the Government Accountability Office reported significant issues with federal agencies processing broadband applications within the 270-day deadline. Following that report, Sens. Thune and John Barrasso (R-WY) urged the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service to fix the broken permitting process for broadband infrastructure on federal lands. In late July 2024, Sen. Thune introduced the Accelerating Broadband Permits Act, bipartisan legislation that would improve federal agencies’ review and processing of broadband permits and allow service to be more quickly deployed to unserved communities. The legislation would cut red tape, increase transparency in the federal permitting process, and require all federal agencies to implement controls to ensure broadband applications are being processed within the required 270-day deadline.

Early in the 118th Congress, Sen. Thune reintroduced the Rural Internet Improvement Act, bipartisan legislation that would streamline and bolster U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development broadband programs and ensure that their funding is being targeted to rural areas that need the support the most. The legislation would:

• Streamline USDA’s broadband authorities by merging and codifying the popular Rural e-Connectivity Pilot Program (ReConnect) with USDA’s traditional broadband loan and grant program;
• Ensure ReConnect funding is going to areas most in need of reliable broadband service by limiting funding to areas where at least 90 percent of households lack access to broadband service;
• Enhance the participation of all types of broadband providers in the ReConnect Program by removing unnecessary barriers;
• Increase transparency by improving the challenge process in the ReConnect Program;
• Improve the coordination between USDA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on broadband programs; and
• Require USDA to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the FCC and National Telecommunications and Information Administration to facilitate outreach to rural residents and businesses of available federal programs that promote broadband access, broadband affordability, and broadband inclusion.

In late 2022, Sen. Thune launched a broadband oversight effort aimed at holding federal agencies accountable and ensuring that previously authorized broadband funding is being used in the most efficient way possible to protect taxpayer dollars. Thune also highlighted his bipartisan Rural Internet Improvement Act, legislation that would streamline and bolster U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development broadband programs and ensure that their funding is being targeted to rural areas that need it the most. Sen. Thune was concerned that since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress had allocated nearly $80 billion in federal broadband investments. Additionally, the so-called American Rescue Plan allocated $350 billion for state, local, territorial, and tribal governments that could be used for broadband infrastructure. Due to this unprecedented amount of funding for broadband-related services, Sen. Thune believed stringent oversight of how these dollars were being spent was necessary to avoid agencies misusing billions of taxpayer dollars. Sen. Thune invited stakeholders from around the country to respond to nearly 20 questions about federal broadband investments. He never published the results of his inquiry.

Early in 2023, Sen. Thune was the lone cosponsor of a bill introduced by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) that aimed to require the NTIA to reallocate Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding to states and territories based on the most current version of the National Broadband Map.

Also in March 2023, Sen. Thune worked with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on the Reforming Broadband Connectivity Act which would have required the FCC to make changes to the financing of the Universal Service Fund. Specifically, the bill directs the FCC to (1) study the need for expanding the fund's contribution base to ensure fairness and equity in applicable contribution requirements, and (2) reform the fund's contribution system through rulemaking. In carrying out the rulemaking, the FCC must consider the findings and recommendations of its study and the impact of changes on consumers, businesses, and seniors.

Later that same year, Sens. Thune and Klobuchar joined Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Jerry Moran (R-KS) in the creation of the bipartisan Senate working group to evaluate and propose potential reforms to the Universal Service Fund (USF). The goal of this working group is to create a bipartisan forum to guide education, awareness, and policymaking. The working group later expanded to include Members of the House as well. The group worked throughout 2023 and 2024, but no consensus on USF reform was ever publicly released. 

New Senate Commerce Committee Chair

At a December 2024 meeting of the Senate Commerce Committee, then Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-TX) noted that he was likely to chair the panel in the 119th Congress and pledged to adhere to many of the customs and practices that Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) established with regard to minority [party] rights on the committee. Noting President-elect Trump's "unequivocal mandate," Sen. Cruz revealed that he had already begun the vetting process for New York business leader Howard Lutnick to serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Cruz also pointed to the precedent for moving forward on the confirmation process even before Trump takes office on January 20, 2025. 

“Alexandar Hamilton, the first executive officer to receive the Senate’s advice and consent, wrote in Federalist 76 that the purpose of the Senate’s advice and consent role is ‘to prevent the appointment of unfit characters.’ That is the standard on which the Senate should judge nominees—not whether they have jumped through procedural hurdles," said Sen. Cruz.

Cruz's Record

Cruz touts his "unwavering commitment to advancing pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-freedom policies" and noted a number of telecommunications-related accomplishments in the past year:

• Sen. Cruz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) secured passage in the Senate of their Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks (TAKE IT DOWN) Act which would criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), including artificial intelligence-generated NCII (commonly referred to as “deepfake” revenge pornography), and require social media and similar websites to have in place procedures to remove such content within 48 hours of notice from a victim.
• Sen. Cruz and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced the bipartisan Kids Off Social Media Act, to set the minimum age of 13 to use social media and to prevent social media companies from feeding algorithmically-boosted content to users under the age of 17.
• Sen. Cruz released an investigative report he says shows how online service providers are weaponizing their terms of service to deny conservative access to essential business technology causing conservative groups to lose out on thousands of dollars in revenue.
• Sen. Cruz sent a letter asking the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, to fulfill the commitment Zuckerberg made to “personally look into” how often Instagram’s child sexual abuse material screen warning screen was displayed and the number of times users presented with the warning screen clicked “See results anyway.”

Cruz's Broadband Policy

Concerning Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act broadband programs, in November 2024 Sen. Cruz sent letters to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) instructing the agency to halt implementation of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program.

In August 2024, Sen. Cruz demanded answers regarding NTIA’s withholding BEAD funding to instead "build a bureaucracy that has saddled states with unlawful, and extraneous left-wing central planning mandates, resulting in massive program delays." In the letter, Sen. Cruz outlined how the NTIA diverted $849 million of BEAD funding to impose administrative burdens on the states in pursuit of social policies, including rate regulation, unionized labor requirements, climate change regulations, and technology mandates. As part of his investigation into delays in the BEAD program, Sen. Cruz requested a breakdown of administrative funding allocated and utilized by the NTIA, as well as information regarding the approval or denial of proposals received by NTIA.

In 2023, Sen Cruz released what he called the Red Light Report which found that:

1. BEAD allocations provide ten states and territories more than $10,000 per unserved location—including a galling $547,254 per unserved location in Washington, D.C. 
2. The BEAD program allocated funding to over five million locations that are already being funded by other federal programs. 
3. BEAD’s technology bias against non-fiber broadband will drive up costs by billions of dollars and likely deprive some communities of any broadband access at all. Further, some of the “unserved” locations that will receive taxpayer-subsidized fiber-to-the-home service include mansions, beachfront resort communities, and mountain vacation homes. 

Sen. Cruz recommended at the time that taxpayer dollars not be used to 1) overbuild areas that already have broadband service or are slated to receive support from other federal or state programs or 2) fund unnecessarily expensive solutions. "The administration’s technology bias is not only inconsistent with the text of the law but is likely to lead to overspending at the expense of connecting unserved communities," Cruz wrote.

Sen. Cruz has been critical of other provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including a mandate to prevent and eliminate digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin. In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress adopted the policy that:

1. subscribers should benefit from equal access to broadband internet access service within the service area of a provider of such service;
2. the term ‘‘equal access’’ means the equal opportunity to subscribe to an offered service that provides comparable speeds, capacities, latency, and other quality of service metrics in a given area, for comparable terms and conditions; and
3. the FCC should take steps to ensure that all people of the United States benefit from equal access to broadband internet access service.

However, in November 2023 Sen. Cruz led 27 of his colleagues in opposing the FCC’s order on digital discrimination—"an attempt to give the federal government control over nearly every aspect of the internet while opening broadband providers to expansive, indeterminate, and crippling liability," he wrote.

Although not part of the efforts of the bipartisan Senate working group to evaluate and propose potential reforms to the Universal Service Fund, Sen. Cruz released a white paper—Protecting Americans from Hidden FCC Tax Hikes: A Blueprint for Universal Service Fund Reform—that includes eight principles to guide USF reform:

1. Put Congress back in the driver’s seat, taking charge of defining universal service and deciding where USF funds may go;
2. Move social welfare spending on-budget and moving some or all of USF programs into direct congressional appropriations;
3. Eliminate program duplication;
4. Stop subsidizing networks that face unsubsidized competition;
5. Do not subsidize Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-funded networks’ ongoing operational costs;
6. Target low-income subsidies to those who truly need them—combine Lifeline and Affordable Connectivity Program and focus on increasing broadband adoption;
7. Ensure E-Rate is truly improving education and not aggravating kids’ screen addictions; and
8. Establish better controls to stop waste, fraud, and abuse.

"While expanding the tax base has been the focus of most US legislative efforts, the more lasting, meaningful benefits will come from spending reform. Guided by this blueprint—and its principles of fiscal responsibility, administrative accountability, and the rule of law—I look forward to developing legislation to address the USF challenge," Sen. Cruz concluded.

Agenda 2025

In his November 2024 letter to NTIA on BEAD, Sen. Cruz said the program "will soon be ‘unburdened by what has been’ and states will no longer be subject to the unlawful and onerous bureaucratic obstacles imposed by the Biden-Harris NTIA." He continued, "Congress will review the BEAD program early next year, with specific attention to NTIA’s extreme technology bias in defining 'priority broadband projects' and 'reliable broadband service'; imposition of statutorily-prohibited rate regulation; unionized workforce and DEI labor requirements; climate change assessments; excessive per-location costs; and other central planning mandates."

Just how Cruz will accomplish these objectives remains unclear. Over the past three-plus years, NTIA has worked with states and other stakeholders to derive BEAD rules rooted in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. States' BEAD plans—and funding allocations—have now been made based on those rules and the requirements of the law. Changes in BEAD rules may be too late—and changes to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act could take too long to make a difference.

Sen Cruz has expressed a desire for states to be able to "expand connectivity on terms that meet the real needs of their communities, without irrelevant requirements that tie up resources, create confusion, and slow deployment." Changing the BEAD Program now could create more confusion and slow deployment plans.   

Also see:

• New Leadership for House Commerce Committee in the 119th Congress
• Project 2025's Plan for the NTIA
• Project 2025: Brendan Carr's Agenda for the FCC

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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