States Expected to Get Some BEAD Non-Deployment Dollars
States will surely get access to at least some non-deployment BEAD funds, though it's not clear what limits will be put on their use, said Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton and Kathryn de Wit, director of the Pew Charitable Trust's broadband access initiative, during an FBA webinar Wednesday. Bolton said he's optimistic that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will accelerate its review and approval of states' final BEAD proposals, as NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth told him that the process "will go very, very quickly." NTIA and NIST didn't comment.
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De Wit said lawmakers, service providers and others are better versed on deployment policy issues than they were a few years ago, meaning there's more attention to otherwise-arcane issues like NIST approval. The resulting pressure should help speed up agency work, she said. There also needs to be close attention paid to potential procedural barriers or delays, as states will have only a four-year window to get deployment work done once they get their BEAD money, De Wit noted.
While there have been concerns that the Commerce Department will try to claw back BEAD money that's not spent on deployment, the agency seems to be leaning toward allowing states to keep it, Bolton said. De Wit said many governors and state legislatures had wanted to get some guidance by now on what non-deployment uses will be permitted. The hope is that Commerce sees the value in non-deployment dollars going to things such as AI-related digital skills training and workforce development, she said. Bolton added that there's also a need for resources to be directed at permitting reform at the state and local level.
In addition, Bolton said FBA backed HB-6920, a House bill introduced last month by Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky. It would let states use non-deployment funds for such needs as workforce development and wireless infrastructure.
FBA modeling indicates that the fiber broadband industry can handle about 12 million additional passings a year before it starts running into workforce and supply chain bottlenecks, according to Bolton. It hit 11.8 million new passings last year and is "going to blow past" that in 2026, thanks in large part to demand driven by AI infrastructure and to the tax bonus depreciation terms in the reconciliation package previously known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Bolton also pointed to the Government Accountability Office's finding that Commerce's 2025 BEAD changes needed to go through Congress first (see 2512170032), saying that it likely won't end up disrupting the program's progress because there's no appetite in Congress or the White House to do anything that would slow down deployment efforts.