Hill Appropriators Agree to Smaller NTIA Funding Cut, Direct BEAD on Rate Regulation Ban
House leaders are eyeing floor votes by the end of the week on an FY 2026 minibus appropriations package that would reduce the scope of President Donald Trump’s proposed funding cuts for NTIA and raise allocations for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the DOJ Antitrust Division. The package, which leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations committees released Monday, would give NTIA $50 million for FY26. That’s more than 8% higher than what Trump proposed in June (see 2506020056) but still 12% lower than what the agency received for FY 2025.
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A joint report on the package from House and Senate Appropriations leaders directs NTIA to ensure that all grants of funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD program “comply with” the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s ban on rate regulation (see 2108020061). House and Senate appropriators said the directive is a compromise “in lieu of language” in an earlier FY26 bill report that was cleared by House Appropriations and would have barred NTIA from approving any BEAD spending plans that require recipient jurisdictions to engage in rate regulation (see 2509100065). The House-Senate report also requires NTIA to brief both chambers' Appropriations members “on its plans and timeline for expending all remaining” BEAD funding.
The compromise FY26 bill would also give NIST $1.85 billion, up 59% from FY25 and more than 121% above what Trump sought. The package allocates $245 million, 5% more than Trump proposed, for the DOJ Antitrust Division, while the Patent and Trademark Office would get more than $4.95 billion, nearly level with Trump’s request.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security would get $235 million, 22% less than what Trump wanted but still 19% more than it received for FY25. The package report “directs BIS to review all licenses issued to entities to export to [Huawei and its subsidiaries] through the interagency license review process [and] rescind licenses, as appropriate.” House and Senate appropriators noted that BIS’ funding includes an additional $10 million to enforce restrictions “on end uses and end users” of semiconductors for AI.
The compromise bill notably has backing from House and Senate Appropriations' top Democratic leaders. House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said she plans to vote for the measure because it’s “an important first step.” Instead of “another short-sighted stop-gap measure that affords the Trump Administration broader discretion, this full-year funding package restrains the White House through precise, legally binding spending requirements.”
Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said passing the package “will help ensure that Congress, not President Trump and [OMB Director] Russ Vought, decides how taxpayer dollars are spent [by] providing hundreds of detailed spending directives and reasserting congressional control over these incredibly important spending decisions.”