Senators press NTIA over long-delayed BEAD non-deployment funding guidance
A bipartisan group led by Jeanne Shaheen and Susan Collins is pressing Commerce to release guidance on how states can use billions in BEAD funds beyond broadband construction.
A bipartisan group of senators is pressing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to release long-delayed guidance on how states can use billions of dollars in Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) funds for activities beyond broadband construction.
Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, led a letter on September 30 to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and NTIA Assistant Secretary Arielle Roth urging the agency to provide guidance on BEAD’s non-deployment funding. The letter was also signed by Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, Bill Cassidy, R-La., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Mark Warner, D-Va.
The guidance would unlock funds for broadband mapping, adoption programmes, affordability and other uses — potentially as much as $21 billion of the $42 billion programme, according to GovTech. Commerce and NTIA have repeatedly set and then missed estimated deadlines this year for the guidance, leaving states waiting.
The senators called a parallel non-deployment effort a “worthy goal” alongside NTIA’s earlier announcement of an additional round of proposals for “newly identified unserved locations”, saying it would support “the long-term success of broadband investments”.
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