Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program

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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has rescinded a memorandum that would have put a pause on all federal grant funds, creating significant confusion.

Research shows that access to broadband correlates with greater economic opportunity and workforce participation as well as 

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.

Joshua Breitbart, Senior Vice President of New York’s Empire State Development, has spent most of his career working on broadband projects of one kind or another. In early 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) announced the formation of the Empire State Development ConnectALL initiative in her “State of the State” address.

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.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, the vast majority of the $40 billion or in broadband deployment funding that U.S. Congress enacted in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will have been allocated to specific internet service providers (ISPs) for specific projects. Unless something goes wrong, all the roughly 6 million to 7 million BSLs targeted by the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program will be included in some BEAD project. But the hardest part of the work will still lie ahead.

Six concrete actions that can be taken quickly to speed up connectivity to all in America:

1. Champion the Networks of the Future
2. Secure and Reform Universal Service
3. Put the Pedal to the Metal on Broadband Deployment
4. Review All Legacy Regulations with Fresh, Modern Eyes
5. Break the Federal Permitting Log Jam
6. Model Efficient, Effective Government on Cybersecurity

Virginia has made significant progress in providing high-speed connectivity to all its households and businesses over the past decade and anticipates using $1.43 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding to reach 100 percent connectivity to all addresses in the next few years.

I would greatly appreciate having the opportunity to serve as a thought partner and sounding board as you make necessary reforms to the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and the Broadband Equity Access Deployment (BEAD) Program. To get started on the reforms that would result in shovels in the ground quickly, I would propose the following based on our hard-won experience as the first state in the nation to achieve every major program milestone: