Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been demanding an overhaul of a $42.45 billion broadband deployment program, and now his telecommunications policy director has been chosen to lead the federal agency in charge of the grant money. Arielle Roth's nomination to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is pending Senate approval. Roth works for the Senate Commerce Committee, which is chaired by Sen Cruz. Shortly after Trump's election win, Sen Cruz called for an overhaul of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which was created by Congress in November 2021 and is being implemented by the NTIA. Cruz previously accused the NTIA of "technology bias" because the agency prioritized fiber over other types of technology. 

With the new administration taking over federal programs, some companies and organizations are trying to change the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to focus on technologies that are cheaper to build initially but may charge more to residents while delivering much less. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is running the $42.5 BEAD program to improve rural Internet access and, as Congress required, has prioritized fiber optic network investments. Congress deliberately chose to prioritize fiber optic technology because of past failures in which the federal government made repeated investments into obsolete technologies. Congress was wise to require NTIA to focus on fiber first. States will make different decisions about when to allow other technologies to bid when fiber is too expensive, but NTIA and the federal government should keep this part of BEAD the way it was designed.

As a new administration refashions the federal government in Washington, D.C., questions have arisen about the billions of dollars previously allocated to bringing speedy internet connections to every home and business in the U.S. Pennsylvania’s share of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration’s $42.35 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program is $1.16 billion. None of the money has been awarded to internet service providers who will be making the connections, and now questions have arisen about new strings that might be attached to the money—providing it’s distributed at all. Rural Pennsylvania would be hurt most by any holdups, experts say, places like Fayette County in southwest Pennsylvania, population 124,000, which has some 7,600 sites where internet connections are inadequate at best. “This funding will allow us to connect to the world,” said Fayette County Commissioner Vince Vicites, who said he was concerned about the status of the funds. “We need to be connected to compete.

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government. The payment reports have been spread online by dozens of pundits, sleuths, and anonymous analysts in the orbit of DOGE and are often amplified by Musk himself. Though the interpretations of the office’s findings are at times inaccurate, it is clear that the GAO’s documents—which historically have been unlikely to cause much of a stir even within Washington—are having a moment. The documents don’t offer a crystal ball into Musk’s plans, but they suggest a blueprint, or at least an indicator, of where his newly formed and largely unaccountable task force is looking to make cuts.