Dems, Levin Defend BEAD in House Hearing

WASHINGTON, September 10, 2024 – House Democrats and a witness defended the Biden administration’s flagship broadband subsidy program at a House hearing Tuesday.

GOP lawmakers have criticized the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program for moving too slowly. They’ve pointed out that BEAD was established with the Infrastructure Act in 2021 and had yet to fund any projects while the $10 billion Capital Projects Fund, by contrast, was stood up months earlier and has now spent the vast majority of its cash.

But that’s in part because BEAD – aimed at connecting every home and business without adequate broadband – was set to be based on improved broadband coverage maps after a previous Federal Communications Commission program funded locations that didn’t need it, said Blair Levin, an FCC Chief of Staff in the 1990s and current industry analyst. The map used to determine each state’s BEAD allocation wasn’t finalized until May 2023, and states are required to field local challenges to that coverage data before awarding funds under the law.