NTIA leader strikes an optimistic note about BEAD’s future

Evan Feinman, a director with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), addressed the “elephant in the room,” specifically what the new Trump administration will mean for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. “My job is to faithfully execute the laws as written by Congress and as directed by my leadership, and we are getting an awful lot done," he said. "I believe that whether that leadership is the current leadership or future leadership, the goal will be to get this done for the American people.” While there is a lot of speculation about the future of BEAD under President-Elect Trump and his friend Elon Musk, Feinman pointed out that BEAD “was always a 10-year program” with the likelihood of political changes. And there were always going to be significant personnel turnovers over the course of a decade. "We don't have any reason to believe at present that there's going to be any sort of significant shift,” he said.