Carr To Congress: FCC Improving Coordination Among Federal Broadband Programs

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2025 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr wrote to Hill leaders saying the agency was working to improve interagency coordination in federal broadband programs.

In its April 28 audit, the Government Accountability Office faulted the FCC, along with Treasury, the Agriculture Department, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, for leaving coordination gaps in federal broadband programs three years after an earlier watchdog report called for a national strategy. 

Writing on Sept. 9 to a six of congressional leaders with jurisdiction over appropriations, oversight, and communications policy, Carr said the FCC was fully implementing GAO’s recommendations and tightening interagency processes.

“We are pleased to inform you that the Commission is actively addressing and incorporating GAO’s six recommendations into our processes,” Carr wrote. The agency had been criticized in April for only implementing two of eight recommendations put forth in GAO’s 2022 report.

One of GAO’s biggest concerns centered on the National Broadband Map, maintained by the FCC, which all four of the agencies rely upon to guide federal broadband funding decisions. 

GAO said the FCC had not formally assessed whether its validation, verification, audit, and enforcement referral processes were sufficient to ensure the map’s accuracy

Carr responded, defending the agency. “The National Broadband Map is also updated to reflect the outcomes of challenges, verifications, audits and other corrections providers make to their data every two weeks,” he said.

“The Commission continues to review validation processes after each filing round and has actively taken steps to remedy any deficiencies identified, while making other improvements designed to enhance the accuracy of Broadband Data Collection filer data,” Carr wrote, adding that the map now shows coverage for more than 116 million broadband-serviceable locations.

Carr also responded to GAO’s criticism that federal agencies lacked clarity on what broadband project data must be shared and how to prevent overlapping awards. 

He said the FCC, in consultation with NTIA, USDA and Treasury, has exchanged draft proposals to define “covered data” under the agencies’ memorandum of understanding. 

In addition, Carr noted that the three agencies have agreed in principle on timelines for submitting award information to the Broadband Funding Map and on procedures to avoid duplicative funding. Those draft agreements were now undergoing internal review/

According to the GAO report, there are 133 federal broadband programs administered by 15 federal agencies in the U.S.