Governor Patrick Morrisey Announces Collaboration With Trump Administration To Bring Broadband Investments to West Virginia

Governor Patrick Morrisey (R-WV) announced that West Virginia has been granted a 90-day extension to submit its final proposal to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. This action comes after the Governor met with Commerce Secretary Lutnick to discuss the Trump Administration’s plans to make changes to the BEAD program. West Virginia will use the additional time that NTIA has granted the state to work closely with federal partners and West Virginia BEAD stakeholders to expeditiously finalize the proposal in a manner consistent with the program changes being proposed by the Trump Administration. Doing so will best position West Virginia to submit a final proposal that successfully addresses the program’s new focus and brings the desired BEAD funding to the state. This extension will allow West Virginia to further focus on how BEAD funding can be most efficiently invested and most effectively leveraged to advance the state’s broader economic development goals, including attracting investment from AI hubs, microgrids, and data centers.