Sen Cruz to NTIA: A Change Is Gonna Come to BEAD

Under your leadership, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has repeatedly ignored the text of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in administering the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. This past August, I sent you an inquiry regarding NTIA’s decision to hoard nearly $1 billion in BEAD funding to build a central planning bureaucracy that proceeded to impose extraneous mandates on the states and prevent the expeditious delivery of internet access to unserved communities. Instead of working to reverse course on the botched BEAD program, your agency responded by doubling down on its extralegal requirements and evading congressional inquiries. With anticipated new leadership at both NTIA and in Congress, the BEAD 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. 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. In turn, states will 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. It is incumbent on you to bear these upcoming changes in mind during this transition term. I therefore urge the NTIA to pause unlawful, extraneous BEAD activities and avoid locking states into in any final actions until you provide a detailed, transparent response to my original inquiry and take immediate, measurable steps to address these issues. I am enclosing a copy of NTIA’s letter to ensure full accountability for decisions that impact American connectivity.