Is it Too Late to Change BEAD?

There has been a lot of speculation since the election that the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program is going to get revamped. This raises the interesting question if it’s too late for a new administration to make major changes to the BEAD program. There is also the question of the process needed to change the BEAD rules. The BEAD rules were created by Congress, and it seems that Congress would have to act to change the rules. There are several ways the administration could give more funding for satellite. For example, they could pause work at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) until they figure out the path to do that. But if Congress has to go along with any major changes, this is not necessarily an easy path. Putting BEAD on hold would mean the administration would be delaying broadband implementation—something that Republican Senators have been complaining about the NTIA for the last year.