Cruz, Other Republicans Eye BEAD Revamp if Party Wins Hill Control
Congressional Republicans are eyeing potential legislative changes to rein in what they view as NTIA’s flawed implementation of the $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment program if the party wins control of Capitol Hill in the Nov. 5 elections. GOP lawmakers are stopping short of publicly suggesting Congress claw back BEAD funding, but Democrats are raising concerns about that possibility. Policy experts expect it will be difficult for lawmakers to reach a consensus on major BEAD changes during the next Congress given the Hill’s polarized reactions to the program over the past year.
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Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas told us he and other panel Republicans will “consider every option” to address BEAD’s shortcomings should they gain a majority in the upper chamber. Republicans “will address and reform” BEAD during the next Congress because Vice President Kamala Harris’ “record has been an unmitigated disaster for broadband deployment,” he added. Republicans began blaming Harris for BEAD’s shortcomings in August, when she became the Democrats’ presidential nominee, citing her role in shepherding the broadband portion of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure spending proposal through Congress in 2021 (see 2408130061).
Cruz was mum on policy specifics. Last year he called for states to return unused BEAD money if they have adequate funding from other federal broadband programs to deploy connectivity in unserved areas (see 2309150069). Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., told us he would like a potential GOP majority to “revamp the conditions” NTIA requires states to mandate for potential grant recipients. Republicans claim several NTIA BEAD requirements are hurting the program, including the agency’s language implementing a IIJA mandate that recipients offer a low-cost broadband option (see 2409100058).
Former Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., believes “legislation might be needed” to address BEAD’s troubles, but a “new administration” with former President Donald Trump in power will help address GOP concerns. A second Trump administration will “be in a much better position to remove these extraneous constraints” on BEAD that NTIA “added without statutory authorization,” Wicker told us. NTIA’s leeway in implementing BEAD outside IIJA’s mandate will “be curbed substantially” if the GOP gains power.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a lead IIJA negotiator, is a hard “no” on “repealing” BEAD money despite reservations about NTIA's implementation. West Virginia is “further down the line” in the BEAD process than most states, “but we still don't have the money,” Capito said. She instead favors “streamlining the process” to end “all these different kinds of metrics from NTIA that are making it difficult” to move the program forward.
Democrats' Concerns
Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington and other Democrats are concerned about how Republicans could tinker with BEAD if they retake the Senate. “It's clear that Republicans, in a large swath, don't support making sure that poor communities have the financial support for connectivity” in the way NTIA envisions for BEAD, Cantwell told us.
Senate Communications Chair Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said he doesn't “know what would change the minds of some of my colleagues across the aisle” about NTIA's management of BEAD given the GOP's litany of criticisms. Lujan expects congressional Democrats “will be in the majority” in 2025, so a GOP-led BEAD revamp won't happen. Democratic leaders would “continue down the line” finding bipartisan solutions on broadband, he said.
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said she's “always concerned” about what would happen to BEAD in a Republican-controlled Congress. “That’s more money than we’ll ever get again” for broadband connectivity, so Democrats will need to continue protecting it, she told us. “We’re well aware” that the BEAD funding rollout has taken a long time, and “I don’t think a change is going to happen in the immediate future, but I think everything will change next year” if lawmakers let the process play out.
Affordable Broadband Campaign Board Chair Greg Guice predicted it will be “quite difficult” for a Republican Congress to “try to claw back the [BEAD] money in a major way” once NTIA approves states’ plans. “There will probably be more interest” no matter which party controls Congress and the White House “in pursuing streamlining that benefits states as they're trying to get these projects deployed,” Guice said. Even a Harris administration “is going to want to put its fingerprints on this program.” States can best pinpoint problems “in trying to get the money spent” that Congress can address, he said.
James Erwin, Americans for Tax Reform’s Digital Liberty executive director, said “there doesn't seem to be a strong movement right now to claw back” BEAD funding. “Some people in the think tank world are talking about that,” but it hasn’t gotten much traction in Congress so far, he told us. It’s more likely Republicans would pursue “administrative” changes, although that could prove difficult because “most states have already passed laws governing how they're going to spend their own BEAD money and have accepted funding on the terms that the Biden NTIA laid out.”