Draft Bill Would Claw Back BEAD Non-Deployment Funds

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2025 – Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has reportedly drafted a bill that would claw back non-deployment funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Based on tentative bidding results from nearly every state and territory, that would be more than $20 billion of the program’s $42.45 billion funding pool.

The draft bill, called the RECAPTURE Act, would divert to the Treasury for deficit reduction any funding not designated for a specific use in the final proposals submitted by state broadband offices. Under the program’s updated rules, those documents only designate money for broadband deployment projects.

The bill hasn’t been introduced in the Senate, and may be changed before that or not be introduced at all. Ernst’s office didn’t comment or confirm that the legislation was in the works.

The draft was obtained and first reported by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.

“What many call ‘non-deployment’ funds are states' last opportunity to bring affordable broadband to low-income apartment buildings, to increase broadband adoption, and streamline network deployment,” Revati Prasad, Benton's executive director, said in a statement to Broadband Breakfast. “The U.S. was on the cusp of ensuring that everyone would be able to access, afford, and use high-quality broadband no matter where they live. We are squandering that opportunity.”

States and territories have so far come in more than $20 billion under budget for BEAD, a result of mapping updates since money was allocated in 2023 and the Trump administration’s push for cost savings.

States have to make their best effort to secure connectivity for each eligible home and business under the program, but had been planning to spend any leftover cash on non-deployment projects, as they’re called. 

Efforts include AI infrastructure, digital skills and workforce development

Those included efforts to ensure people would make use of the infrastructure being deployed through BEAD, like digital skills trainings and device subsidies, plus workforce development programs and other efforts.

The Trump administration is not eager to see much non-deployment spending, having rescinded approval for any such activities, including some already underway, in June. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency handling BEAD, has said more guidance on the issue is forthcoming.

While the agency’s posture has led to fears that NTIA itself would attempt to claw back all the remaining money, which states would prefer to keep, the agency’s top official said last week that at least some uses were under consideration.

 “NTIA is also considering how states can use some of the BEAD savings – what has commonly been referred to as non-deployment money – on key outcomes like permitting reform,” NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said in an Oct. 28 speech. “No final decisions have been made, but this could be a powerful way to advance BEAD’s goals.”

Some GOP officials and lawmakers have said they want their states to keep the funds, including Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va., and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. 

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, also a Republican, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in September to “respectfully request that you continue to hew closely to the statute by directing that remaining BEAD allocations be invested in state-led initiatives,” provided they advance certain policy goals. Those include AI infrastructure and “investing in education, training the workforce, and growing our industries,” which have some overlap with what states were already considering.

He had asked for guidance from NTIA on the issue by Oct. 1, which didn’t happen.

Gigi Sohn, head of the American Association for Public Broadband and a senior fellow at Benton, said last month on Light Reading’s The Divide podcast that she and others have been working to rally more Republicans to press Commerce on the issue. Democratic lawmakers have also been vocal on the issue, but GOP voices are considered more persuasive to the Trump administration.

“The only thing that’s going to turn this around,” she said, “is to try to get state legislators, governors – particularly Republicans – to weigh in and say, ‘That’s our money. By statute that’s our money.’”

NTIA has yet to approve states’ tentative bidding results under the program, which is supposed to happen by the end of the year for most states.

California, which received the second largest BEAD allocation, is the only state that has yet to report tentative results. It was given a deadline extension, and is set to publish its draft results by Nov. 14.