Trump's BEAD Provisions Could Harm Consumers: AEI
Some Trump administration BEAD policies, such as conditioning funding on states not regulating AI, will make the program less effective, the American Enterprise Institute said in one of its tech predictions for 2026. President Donald “Trump’s team is adding its own extra-statutory requirements,” the organization wrote Friday in a blog post. While a market-based AI policy is the best approach, “using broadband subsidies as leverage makes federal oversight arbitrary and will result in less broadband deployment and more wasted taxpayer dollars.”
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AEI also predicted that in the guise of protecting residential electricity consumers, some states will place barriers on data center access to power. While that policy “may gain voter traction in 2026," states may “ultimately harm the very consumers they purport to protect.”