Lutnick: New BEAD NOFO Likely Out Friday

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2025 – Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Thursday that a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program would likely be released Friday.

At a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, Lutnick put it this way:

“Our objective is as follows: within the next 90 days, I think we’re going to put it out on Friday, basically saying that if your state is willing to just be technologically agnostic, meaning produce the right access at the lowest price, if it’s a tie I don’t care which one you pick, make that application within 90 days, and then this department will put out the money by the end of the year. So we will go from not having given any money under the Biden administration [to] having the full program funded and distributed.”

He further stated, “Provided they’re technologically agnostic, by the end of 2025, all the money will be distributed so that broadband access can be built by the states. That’s my promise.”

The secretary provided few additional details in his testimony to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriation Subcommittee about what the NOFO would contain, or what changes the program would experience. Many states have expressed concern about possible changes that Lutnick could be making, and have asked him to preserve flexibility in the program.

After the hearing, as Lutnick walked out, Broadband Breakfast asked him if the National Telecommunications and Information Administration would insist on a maximum per-location cost. Just like on Wednesday, Lutnick refused to comment.

In response to a question from Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., Lutnick revealed that he planned to ask the states to start a rebidding process.

“What we’ve asked all the states to do” he said, “is rebid just with reasonable technology, and then we’ll get the money out the door in the calendar year 2025. The Biden administration had 30 months and they got zero out the door, so that’s the difference between the Trump administration and the Biden administration-we will get the money out the door.”

Lutnick did not discuss if it were feasible for states to run a rebidding process in 90 days. The original BEAD program gave states 180 days after receiving their formal notice of allocation to submit their initial proposals.

The original Notice of Funding Opportunity was released in May 2022. The notice of allocation by NTIA was released in June 2023, but some states are still in the process of completing their initial bidding process.

Lutnick also reiterated his commitment to deploying technology at the cheapest possible per-location cost.

“The Congress authorized broadband access across America. I want to make sure we get the benefit of the bargain, which means there’s three ways you can do it,” he said in response to Cline. “You can do it by fiber, you can do it by what’s called fixed wireless, like Wi-Fi  we all understand, and of course there’s satellite. Whichever is the most efficient option to get somebody broadband that should be the only rule. Let’s have the outcome be the determinant-and if it’s a tie then of course we don’t care at all which one you picked.”

Throughout the hearing, Lutnick continued to insist on technological neutrality. 

Concerns have been raised that Lutnick’s attempts to save money by imposing a technologically neutral standard may lead to inferior broadband technologies being deployed. Alford asked Lutnick about those concerns.

“Some of the folks in my district and state are concerned that we want to get everyone hooked up but it’s got to be the right system,” he said. “Satellite is not going to work all over Missouri, so we’re going to get the system that actually works right, for our money, right?”

“Yes,” Lutnick responded.

Though Lutnick declined to comment on a possible per-location cost cap, he did note a property’s appraised value when giving an example of an unreasonable broadband project. This suggests that property values might be a factor in how the agency decides to deploy broadband to specific areas.

“They had proposals where they were running $100,000 fiber to a house that was appraised at $100,000,” he said. “That’s silly. So whichever is reasonable.”