Louisiana Contractor Again Urging BEAD Progress

WASHINGTON, May 21, 2025 – A Louisiana contractor is again asking the Commerce Department to move forward with a $42.45 billion broadband expansion program.

“I’m writing to you now because what’s happening in Washington is actively threatening everything we’ve built,” Caleb Etheridge, co-owner of broadband construction company EPC, wrote in a Wednesday letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “To say it very plainly and remove any inferences, you’re not keeping your word.”

Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has put the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program on hold at the federal level while it prepares updated rules. The agency is expected to release them this summer, and it’s not yet clear if the updated guidance will require the more than 40 states that have already started fielding applications to redo any work. 

Etheridge’s letter follows a wave of public pressure from federal lawmakers – largely but not exclusively Democrats –  and other stakeholders urging Lutnick not to hand down sweeping changes and let states move forward.

Louisiana was one of three states that selected grant winners under the program and was given federal approval in January under the Biden administration, but they have been held up in a budget review since President Donald Trump took office. Other states that haven’t yet submitted their selected projects were given a 90-day deadline extension last month.

In the lead up to the program and in the wake of the awards, EPC increased in-house and subcontractor hiring, bought extra equipment, and contracted with BEAD winners in the state on planning work. 

“Every day of delay thins out our workforce. If other states catch up while Louisiana is stuck in limbo, our trained talent will be picked off,” Etheridge wrote. “Our builds, quoted and contracted based on the anticipated market, will become financially unworkable.”

Etheridge’s brother, Josh, who co-owns EPC, had penned a similar letter to Lutnick and spoke to Broadband Breakfast about the issue last month. He described internal layoffs and subcontractors, which had also scaled up, already scrambling to stay afloat. Two ISPs selected for grants in the state have described a similar situation.

NTIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said when it granted the waiver it was looking to “remove unnecessary rules and mandates, to improve efficiency, take a more technology-neutral approach, cut unnecessary red tape, and streamline deployment.”

Trump and GOP lawmakers have criticized BEAD’s preference for fiber, which can be more expensive but is capable of handling much more traffic. There’s been speculation the new rules could force states to spend less on fiber and more on fixed wireless or satellite.