Johnny Kampis: Broadband Industry Hopeful to Get Waivers from Biden Administration Protectionist Policies

In a presidential administration rife with protectionist policies, the broadband internet industry is optimistic it will receive waivers from the “Buy America” mandate that threatens to derail plans to close the digital divide.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is likely to announce state funding allocations for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program by the end of June. That is the biggest piece of the taxpayer-funded pie allocated by Congress to extend broadband infrastructure across the U.S. over the next several years.

But, as the Taxpayers Protection Alliance has reported, broadband industry leaders say the Buy America mandate could seriously hamper the effort. As part of the mandate, the Biden administration has said that at least 55 percent of the component parts of a product used in federal construction projects must be sourced domestically. That rule applies to any infrastructure project, but broadband has taken center stage recently with the BEAD funding imminent.

Because fiber-optic cables primarily used in broadband infrastructure projects include materials such as aluminum, copper, glass, plastic and steel that are primarily manufactured in other countries, under the current rules they would be forbidden. And many other important cogs in the broadband machine, such as routers and switches, are mostly made overseas. Even the left-leaning Brookings Institution noted the policy “could put broadband deployments as risk.”

Fortunately, the Biden administration is softening on its Buy America policies — at least in the broadband industry. NTIA chose earlier this month to exempt several categories of equipment such as broadband routing equipment, transceivers and antennas from the domestic manufacturing requirements in the Enabling Middle Mile Infrastructure Program. The agency said that “although there are public and private efforts underway to increase manufacturing capacity… industry will not be able to address shortages of the manufactured products and construction materials required for middle mile network deployment within the timeframes required.”

Broadband Breakfast pointed out in a recent article that it will take several years to ramp up production of semiconductors in the U.S. and the BEAD program has set a five-year timeline for project completion.

“The estimates are that it would take at least, at a minimum, three to five years to bring a semiconductor chip plant to the U.S.,” said Pam Arluk, vice president of NCTA – The Internet & Television Association. “And even though the BEAD program is going to be over several years, that’s still just not enough time.”

The inherent difficulties in meeting the Buy America mandate, and the precedent now set with the middle mile program, provide optimism that waivers will likely be offered with BEAD. But that is just one of many infrastructure programs now being funded by taxpayers through federal recovery programs.

As President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union Address in February, “American-made lumber, glass, drywall, fiber optic cables…on my watch, American roads, American bridges, and American highways will be made with American products.”

Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria pointed out that what he calls the “Biden Doctrine” violates the spirit of the World Trade Organization and its framework of open trade. And another Post columnist, former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, noted that protectionist policies tend to hurt more people than they help — giving as an example steel tariffs that aided 60,000 steel workers, but threatened the jobs of 6 million other workers in industries paying inflated prices for steel.

Strides in broadband waivers are a good sign, but the Biden administration must do more to curtail its protectionist policies as industries use economic recovery funds to build infrastructure in the coming years.

Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to commentary@breakfast.media. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.