Infrastructure Bill’s Broadband Plan Shrouded From Scrutiny

Congress is poised to shield a $42 billion broadband grant program from federal transparency and privacy laws, hampering oversight of money expected to flow mostly to telecommunications companies. In a bid to cut through red tape and speed delivery of the broadband funds, the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and JOBS Act includes a provision that suspends certain rules the federal government ordinarily has to follow in administering programs. But that wording, according to federal court precedent and the Commerce Department, could put the broadband program beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, and the Privacy Act. The two landmark federal open-government laws give the public the right to demand documents or to know how information is being managed within the government. If passed into law as written, the bill could hide documents from public scrutiny about how the federal government plans to spend billions of dollars to expand broadband access to underserved areas. It could also shield the terms of any agreements between grant recipients and the government from federal disclosure laws. Senate aides involved in drafting the broadband provisions couldn’t say how the exemption came to be added, but it did spark a brief debate on the Senate floor on whether it should be kept.