Minnesota: Keep BEAD Fast and Grounded in Local Expertise

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2025 – Minnesota’s broadband office urged the Commerce Department Thursday to protect state-level decision-making under the $42.5 billion Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program, while making changes “to improve program acceleration and efficiency.”

In a letter sent Thursday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Minnesota Office of Broadband Development Executive Director Bree Maki called on the federal government to “respectfully request that [the National Telecommunications and Information Administration] continue to allow states to make choices that will best allow their residents to get online quickly.”

“Congress created [BEAD to give] states the power to create state-specific programs to suit our needs,” Maki wrote. “Any changes enacted by NTIA should be optional,” and “we urge you not to make any changes that will slow down the program.”

Minnesota’s letter outlined several proposed changes aimed at expediting deployment. Among the top priorities:

• Scrapping the federal letter of credit requirement, which Minnesota argues diverts resources away from infrastructure buildout and toward financial institutions;
• Implementing a federal “shot clock” for NTIA and [the National Institute of Standards and Technology] to approve or deny state requests—defaulting to automatic approval if deadlines are missed;
• Maintaining states’ ability to prioritize fiber projects in both BEAD funding rounds; and, 
• Applying consistent standards across all technologies, instead of creating separate requirements for low-Earth orbit satellites or unlicensed wireless providers.

The letter proposed a 15-to-60-day window for federal reviews, depending on request type, and called for a public dashboard to track pending and completed NTIA and NIST actions. 

Minnesota also wanted to eliminate the 365-day deadline for submitting final proposals after Volume 2 approval, requesting that extensions be automatically granted or mutually agreed upon.

On technology policy, the state warned against creating carve-outs for satellite or wireless technologies, emphasizing a performance-based approach instead. 

“By fostering an environment where all types of technologies and solutions are held to the same standards, we can expand a competitive and productive market,” the letter said.

Minnesota’s position echoed recent calls from Maine, which urged the Commerce Department last month to “invest in the right technology for the right place,” not default to a purely cost-driven, tech-neutral model – an approach Lutnick has publicly suggested may be coming.

Meanwhile, West Virginia has taken a different tack. The state recently delayed its final BEAD proposal by 90 days, with Gov. Patrick Morrisey stating the extension will allow the state to reassess its technology mix “in a manner consistent with the program changes being proposed by the Trump administration.” Morrisey called it a necessary step to align with the administration’s “new focus.”

As for Minnesota, the state leans on more than a decade of deployment experience to defend its current strategy. 

“Minnesota has data from 10 years of broadband grants and an independent cost analysis completed in 2024 that support a higher cost-to-serve rate than states without this history of state investment,” Maki wrote, emphasizing that Minnesota’s requests are backed by local, granular experience and evidence, not guesswork.