Michael Santorelli: Freeing BEAD from Its Bureaucratic Shackles

Incoming Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and President Trump’s  nominee to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Arielle Roth, have a prime opportunity to free the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program from bureaucratic red-tape heaped onto it by the Biden administration.

Doing so would unleash investment in high-speed broadband networks, helping to finally close the digital divide, create new jobs, speed technological innovation, and ignite economic growth.

Created by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and endowed with $42.5 billion, BEAD was supposed to be a gamechanger in the country’s decades-long struggle to bring high-speed internet to all remaining unserved communities. Unfortunately, after more than three years, not a single BEAD-funded broadband network has been built.

This delay is not due to a lack of funding or interest from prospective grantees. Instead, it is the direct result of excessive bureaucracy, regulatory overreach, and a misguided approach by the Biden administration, which prioritized its political agenda and program micromanagement over connecting people to broadband.

The problems can be traced to how Biden’s NTIA chose to implement BEAD. Rather than adhere to the law’s straightforward and laudable goal of working with states to get money into the hands of ISPs to build broadband in areas that need it, the Biden NTIA larded the program with rules and restrictions that slowed deployment to a crawl.

The most glaring example of Biden’s BEAD mismanagement was its embrace of price controls. Despite clear statutory language prohibiting rate regulation, the Biden NTIA coerced states into imposing strict affordability requirements for BEAD projects at prices far below market rates. Several states pushed back, recognizing that these mandates would make projects financially unsustainable and discourage ISPs from bidding on grants. But with approval of their BEAD plans contingent on compliance, states had little choice but to acquiesce.

Other bureaucratic hurdles have impeded progress. For example, the Biden NTIA attached a slew of requirements involving environmental reviews, climate resilience, prevailing wages, and labor mandates to grant awards. Few of these requirements have any basis in the BEAD statute and have made many ISPs think twice about seeking funding.

For the Trump administration, BEAD presents an immediate opportunity to show how cutting bureaucracy can lead to tangible results. 

The first step is to strip away the many extraneous mandates that have slowed the program and get back to the core mission of BEAD, which is to support fiber deployment wherever feasible and use other platforms, like satellite, to fill any remaining gaps.

NTIA must also make clear that rate regulation of any kind is prohibited and that states cannot impose any rules that dictate the cost of broadband offerings. NTIA should also remove unnecessary labor, wage, climate, and environmental provisions, which drive up costs and delay projects, and forbid states from imposing conditions on grants beyond those permitted by the federal agency.

Another essential reform is to ensure that experienced broadband providers lead BEAD deployment efforts. The most successful broadband expansions come via public-private partnerships with established ISPs. Unfortunately, the Biden administration did everything it could to favor entities with little or no experience, like municipalities and new entrants backed by speculative investors. Prioritizing awards to proven providers will ensure that BEAD funding is used efficiently and effectively.

The good news is that the foundation for BEAD is largely in place. Every state has completed its planning, and grants are ready to be awarded. What’s missing is a commitment to prioritizing speed and common sense over politics.

If the Trump administration wants a signature infrastructure success, this is the way to get it. BEAD represents a rare opportunity to quickly turn a bloated government program into a streamlined high-profile win. But that requires urgency. The longer these funds remain shackled by bureaucracy, the longer millions of Americans will wait for the broadband access they were promised years ago.

Washington has talked about closing the digital divide for decades. Now it’s time to do it.

Michael Santorelli is the director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School, which has just released a BEAD Acceleration Checklist. This Expert Opinion is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

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