House Panel Announces BEAD Hearing Witness List
No one from the Biden administration is scheduled to testify.
WASHINGTON, September 7, 2024 – House Republicans plan to put the Biden administration's top broadband funding program under a microscope Tuesday, but no one representing the White House is scheduled to testify.
House BEAD Witness List and Memo
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology is holding the hearing mainly to amplify Republican concerns about the Commerce Department's management of the $44.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
In July, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bob Latta, R-Oh., opened an investigation into the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's handling of state BEAD plans.
The two demanded that NTIA, a division within the Commerce Department, turn over its communications with state broadband offices related to the evaluation of their BEAD plans, including written feedback and edits, by July 23.
Latta’s panel posted a staff memo Friday that framed the hearing as another attempt at understanding whether NTIA has been imposing rate regulation on states that have applied for BEAD funding approval.
"The [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021] prohibits the NTIA from regulating the rates charged for broadband service. At the same time, NTIA requires states receiving BEAD funds to define a low-cost broadband service option. NTIA is responsible for reviewing and approving these low-cost options and has used this requirement as a way to regulate rates," the staff memo said. "The Committee considers these rate regulated approvals to be a violation of the IIJA’s rate regulation prohibition."
At a May hearing before Latta's subcommittee, NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson insisted that NTIA has not been engaged in rate regulation and has been flexible with the states.
“The statute requires that there be a low-cost service option,” he said. “We do not believe the states are regulating rates here."
The staff memo announced the following witness list:
- Misty Ann Giles, Director and Chief Operating Officer, Montana Department of Administration
- Basil Alwan, Chief Executive Officer, Tarana Wireless
- Shirley Bloomfield, Chief Executive Officer, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association
- Blair Levin, Policy Analyst, New Street Research; Non-Resident Fellow, Metropolitan Policy Project, Brookings Institution
On Aug. 13, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) said his was the first state to open its BEAD application portal. The state will stop accepting applications after Oct. 15. Louisiana and West Virginia quickly followed Montana. Wyoming said last week it expected to open the BEAD application window no later than the end of October.
