BEAD Spending Safe from Energy Executive Order, White House Says

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22, 2024 – The Trump administration clarified Wednesday that an executive order directing agencies to pause Inflation Reduction and Infrastructure Act funding applies only to certain energy projects, dispelling some fears of broadband deployment efforts being caught in a political crossfire.

“This pause only applies to funds supporting programs, projects, or activities that may be implicated by the policy established in Section 2 of the order,” Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a memo posted Wednesday. That section of the order deals with energy production on federal land, electric vehicle policies, and household appliance manufacturing. It does not mention broadband.

Experts said the memo was a clear signal the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program was not covered by the order’s call to pause funding. The order caused some speculation that all IIJA programs, including BEAD, could be held up by Trump’s policies.

There were also signs from the lengthy order’s focus on walking back clean energy provisions that BEAD wasn’t the target.

“This executive order is about energy and natural resources. It only mentions the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act once, and it doesn’t mention broadband at all,” said Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. “This is not a broadband order.”

Blair Levin, policy advisor at New Street Research and a former FCC chief of staff, said the memo confirmed a note he wrote to investors Wednesday morning.

“Given the context of the EO we don’t think it applies to the BEAD program,” he wrote. “Further, even if one thought it did, it does not apply to state activity.”

That’s not to say the program is totally out of the woods, Republicans have criticized several of its policies and some GOP lawmakers have expressed a desire to change certain rules related to project selection, like the preference for fiber, if they can. 

Three states received federal approval on their BEAD spending plans, the last step before funding projects, in the final days of the Biden administration. They’re expecting to get construction underway in the near future—within the next 100 days in the case of Louisiana. Nearly half have begun the process of fielding grant applications.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency managing BEAD, referred a request for comment to the Department of Commerce public affairs team, which did not respond to requests for comment.

The broadband office in Delaware, one of the three states with approved spending plans, said it was “monitoring the situation and awaiting formal NTIA guidance.”

This story was updated to add comment from the Delaware broadband office.