A Senate Republican has drafted legislation that would effectively cut a $42 billion broadband deployment program in half.
The bill would complement the Trump administration overhaul of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. The administration required states to rewrite their grant plans, reducing the overall projected spending and diverting some of the money from fiber projects to satellite.
The result is that over $21 billion is projected to be left over after money is allocated to projects that expand broadband access. Current US law allows nondeployment funds to be used for other broadband-related purposes, like providing Wi-Fi and Internet-capable devices to US residents. But a draft bill by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) would change the law to redirect all the remaining money to the US Treasury for deficit reduction.
Ernst doesn’t appear to have formally filed the bill yet. But the draft bill was leaked and published last week by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. We contacted Ernst’s office yesterday and will update this article if we get a response.
The bill is likely to escalate a conflict between the US government and states over the downsizing of a program that was designed to bring high-speed broadband to all unserved homes in the country. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, previously urged the Trump administration to make all the leftover money available to states.
Taking the money back
The 2021 US law that created the BEAD program encourages spending the full $42 billion. The law says that after approving a state’s plan, the NTIA “shall make available to the eligible entity the remainder of the grant funds allocated.” Eligible entity means a US state or territory.
Ernst’s bill proposes deleting that provision and replacing it with a directive to give each state and territory “the portion of those remaining funds that have been designated for a specific purpose in the final proposal” and “deposit in the general fund of the Treasury, for the sole purpose of deficit reduction, the portion of those remaining funds that have not been designated for a specific purpose in the final proposal.”