Nonprofit Urges Return of $22 Billion in BEAD Savings to Taxpayers

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2025 –  The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, once expected to cost more than $42 billion, may come in billions under budget, with watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste saying that up to $22 billion in savings belong to the taxpayers, not the states.

CAGW, hailing the savings as proof that cutting red tape and coordinating funding worked, reached a legal conclusion disputed by some, including Republican governors such as Louisiana’s Jeff Landry, as well as Gigi Sohn, Executive Director of the American Association of Public Broadband and Greg Guice, Chief Policy Officer of the Vernonburg Group.

In a blog post by CAGW State Government Affairs Manager Alec Mena said that while the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allowed surplus BEAD funds to be spent on “other activities related to improving broadband,” any such spending required approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.