Adam Cassady Named Acting NTIA Head

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2025 – President Donald Trump nominated Monday Adam Cassady to be acting administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Cassady previously served as chief of staff for Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Nathan Simington.

“Until an Assistant Secretary is sworn in, Mr. Cassady will serve as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and Acting NTIA Administrator,” the agency’s website said.

Cassady spent four years in Simington’s office, holding various advisory positions before being named Simington’s chief of staff in January. Before joining the agency in 2021, Cassady had co-founded Tyche, a technology company that provided data analysis services to insurance companies.

Trump has nominated Arielle Roth, telecom policy director for Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to take the official spot leading NTIA. She’s been a critic of the agency’s $42.5 billion broadband expansion program, saying it imposed “extreme” bias in favor of fiber.

Evan Feinman, who had directed the program within NTIA since 2022, also left the agency Friday. He wrote in an email to former colleagues that he thought the administration might take steps to force states to spend less money on fiber and more on satellite services, which he said would be “betrayal” of rural America. 

Elon Musk, the billionaire who’s aiding the Trump administration’s effort to push out government workers and consolidate power over federal agencies, owns the satellite ISP Starlink, which dominates the market.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said the department, which houses NTIA, is “revamping” BEAD to make it more technologically neutral.