Former GOP FCC Members, Policy Experts Endorse Arielle Roth

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2025 – Conservative leaders and groups are voicing strong support for Arielle Roth to take over the top job at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and oversee the $42.45 Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. 

“The NTIA plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of America’s communications landscape, and Ms. Roth’s expertise, leadership, and dedication make her the ideal choice for this position. We commend President Trump for this nomination and strongly urge her swift confirmation,” the conservatives said in a letter sent Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and that committee’s ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

So far, no opposition to Roth has emerged. No date for her confirmation hearing has been announced. The BEAD program has not connected a single location to broadband in more than three years, though three states have NTIA gained approval to start signing project contracts with ISP subgrantees.

A group of sixteen policy experts signed the letter expressing their unwavering support for Roth to become NTIA Administrator as well as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information in the Department of Commerce.

Signatories included former Republican FCC Commissioners Michael O’Rielly and Harold Furchtgott-Roth; Executive Director of the Digital First Project Nathan Leamer; Foundation for American Innovation Senior Fellow Evan Swarztrauber, and President and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center Paul Winfree, PhD.

Roth served as Wireline Legal Advisor to O’Rielly during his tenure as FCC Commissioner. She most recently served as the policy director of telecommunications for Commerce Chairman Cruz. 

Roth has mentioned several issues she has with the current BEAD program, which Congress authorized to run in the The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021

Roth has criticized the program’s emphasis on fiber and “a woke social agenda” that the NTIA has been pushing in its funding.

The letter’s authors said Roth’s “deep insight into spectrum management, broadband expansion, and regulatory reform will be critical to marshaling the resources of the NTIA to advance.”

President Trump nominated Roth, a lawyer, on Feb. 3. At this time, she is expected to win confirmation easily.