American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

The Healey-Driscoll administration and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Massachusetts Broadband Institute announced $10,410,183 in grants to upgrade internet access in nearly 8,000 public and affordable housing across 26 Massachusetts communities. MBI provided the awards through the Residential Retrofit Program, an initiative that works with housing operators and internet service providers to upgrade broadband infrastructure in public and affordable housing properties.

The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity announced more than $10 million in Completing Access to Broadband program projects to connect 2,762 households and businesses in Cherokee, Clay and Macon counties to high-speed internet. These projects will be funded by more than $7.5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan awarded by NCDIT and nearly $2.6 million from selected broadband providers: 

The Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) Program, which announced a second round of broadband grants for $701.9 million earlier in 2025, has updated its list of grantees to include seven new awards. The awards now cover more than 76,000 locations in Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Carson, Coleman, Colorado, Edwards, Falls, Fannin, Irion, Karnes, Kenedy, Liberty, Marion, Morris, Newton, Reagan, Roberts, Throckmorton, and Trinity counties.

On March 5, the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing titled “Fixing Biden’s Broadband Blunders.” This title, chosen by wordsmiths in the Republican majority, hints at the policy direction the current Congress and Administration might take: undermining the progress the U.S. is making towards universal connectivity.

Brightspeed has made it easier for families and local businesses in Wake Forest and beyond to access multi-gig-speed internet. Joined by N.C. Department of Information Technology Representative Angie Bailey, State Representative Mike Schietzelt, Wake Forest Mayor Vivian A.

Seven planned gatherings of federal broadband grant recipients have been cancelled, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The agency manages several ongoing broadband grant programs totalling billions of dollars, including the Middle Mile program, Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, multiple digital equity programs, and others. The workshops were intended to help grant recipients navigate the administrative process and ensure builds were successful.

According to Albert Einstein, insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Congress is taking this to a whole new level with its latest discussions about how to “fix” broadband internet deployment across the United States. The most vociferous criticisms of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program have centered on how long it has taken to deploy. On its face, that is a fair criticism. Contextualized, however, the criticism does not hold water. No one is asking why it took so long. The simple answer: Maps.

Howard Lutnick, a wealthy donor to President Trump who has been chosen to lead the Commerce Department, defended Mr. Trump’s plans to impose broad tariffs and said he would take a tough stance on technology sales to China during his Senate confirmation hearing. If confirmed, Lutnick would lead on trade policy and oversee a broad portfolio of government programs touching on business promotion, technology and science.

The Trump administration is spurring confusion as it seeks to implement a sweeping freeze of federal assistance, undermining laws Congress has enacted in recent years.

The American people elected Donald Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans. Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities.