More Than 40 Lawmakers Urge Lutnick to Reverse New BEAD Guidance
'We fear this opportunity would be squandered by the restructuring notice,' the lawmakers wrote.
WASHINGTON, June 25, 2025 – More than 40 lawmakers urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Wednesday to reverse the agency’s new rules for its $42.45 billion broadband expansion program.
“We fear this opportunity would be squandered by the restructuring notice and its changes to coverage, quality, and affordability,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Lutnick. “We therefore urge you to implement the BEAD program in accordance with the best reading of the statute so we can make high-quality internet accessible and affordable for all Americans.
The letter, led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., was signed by 13 Democratic senators and 30 Democratic representatives, plus independent Senator Angus King from Maine.
Letter to Secretary Lutnick on BEAD Changes
FROM SPEEDING BEAD SUMMIT
Panel 1: How Are States Thinking About Reasonable Costs Now?
Panel 2: Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD
Panel 3: Reacting to the New BEAD NOFO Guidance
Panel 4: Building, Maintaining and Adopting Digital Workforce Skills
The lawmakers took issue with a provision of the new Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program rules, updated on June 6, that would allow applicants bidding to serve a given area to exclude certain homes and businesses that would be excessively high-cost or otherwise make the project uneconomical.
“Such an allowance would defy bipartisan congressional intent, which was predicated on the understanding that public investment was needed to achieve universal service precisely because building the infrastructure to cover many rural areas was too costly to be profitable,” they wrote.
The updated guidance rescinded Biden-era approvals on spending plans from the three states that had received them and requires every state and territory to conduct an additional round of bidding. In that new round, non-fiber applicants can apply to be considered with priority, a status the Biden Commerce Department had determined applied only to fiber because it’s the highest capacity technology available.
Priority projects get first consideration for any area they apply, and opening the category to non-fiber technologies would allow them to compete with fiber directly on deployment cost, where fiber is at a disadvantage.
“Of currently available technologies, fiber-optic networks are faster and more reliable and can scale speeds much more easily,” the lawmakers wrote. “We made the decision to invest larger sums now in broadband infrastructure that would be resilient and capable of meeting Americans’ growing digital demands for decades.”
Technically room for states to deny priority status
Experts have noted there’s technically still room for states to deny an applicant priority status, which under the infrastructure law requires a technology to be able to ““easily scale speeds over time to meet the evolving connectivity needs of households and businesses; and support the deployment of 5G, successor wireless technologies, and other advanced services.”
Commerce did say it would overrule states’ findings on that front if they are “unreasonable,” and the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers have been critical of fiber’s higher up front deployment cost. That’s led some to predict more BEAD money will be funneled to Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite service.
“The big question is how the Secretary will react if states, consistent with the rules they set out, provide plans that do not provide the outcomes the Secretary wants,” Blair Levin, policy advisor at New Street Research, wrote in an investor note Monday.
Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration did not immediatley respond to a request for comment, but said when it released the new rules that it was looking to institute “much needed reforms to the BEAD Program that will realign the Program with statutory intent, speed broadband deployment, and guarantee that American taxpayers receive the greatest ‘Benefit of the Bargain’ for their historic investment.”
Opposed provision allowing ISPs to define low-cost service plans
The lawmakers said they also opposed new provisions that would allow ISPs to define their own low-cost service plans and that put nondeployment funding on pause pending future guidance.
Under the law, participating ISPs have to offer low-income residents on BEAD infrastructure a low-cost plan. The Biden administration had asked state broadband offices to set specific price caps or ranges for those plans, which ended up varying by state.
The law also allowed for states to use some BEAD funding to promote broadband adoption, although they have to make a strong effort to connect every location. The Commerce Department has leeway to decide what other uses are acceptable, and the Biden administration greenlit an array of efforts including workforce development and telehealth initiatives, among other things.
The Trump administration rescinded approvals for all non-deployment funding, declining to continue reimbursements for the efforts already underway in some states. The Commerce Department has said more detailed guidance on that front is forthcoming.
“If the broadband infrastructure being built by BEAD program funds isn’t put to good use, much of the investment will have been wasted,” the lawmakers wrote.
