Red State Senator and Broadband Providers Urge Against Major BEAD Changes
States expect new guidance from the NTIA this month.
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2025 – Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., urged the Commerce Department Wednesday to expedite its review of a $42.45 billion broadband expansion plan, not to upend the program’s rules.
State Broadband
And, in a Tuesday letter, a Missouri fiber provider that applied for funding also pushed the state’s Congressional delegation to back the broadband office’s fiber-oriented plan for spending its allocation.
“I urge you to expedite not only the review and release of updated guidance but the program as a whole,” Capito wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “West Virginians have waited long enough, and I hope with your leadership they will soon have broadband access and this will be President Trump and your greatest accomplishment for rural America.”
The Trump administration is planning to alter the rules of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, with new guidance expected to come sometime this month. The letters are the latest in a number of similar efforts to convince the administration not to stray too far from the course.
A group of other stakeholders from Missouri sent a similar letter to Lutnick last week. Two ISPs and a contractor in Louisiana, a group of state legislators from 28 states, and state broadband offices have done the same. They warned a delay could, and in some cases already has, been costly.
“As we have discussed, I am concerned that West Virginia may be told to move back from the 1-yard line to the 40-yard line after the review concludes,” Capito wrote Wednesday. “Many of the changes that should be made to the program can be made quickly, but as an example, reopening the subgrantee application process for ISPs could delay connecting rural Americans for another year.”
The Trump administration announced in March it was beginning a review of the program with the goal of, among other things, making the program more technologically neutral – the Trump administration and GOP leadership have opposed the program’s preference for fiber, citing its relatively higher cost to deploy.
More than 40 states have already started fielding grant applications under the current rules, with some deep into the process of selecting winners. Three states received NTIA approval on selected projects under the Biden administration, but their plans have been under budget review since President Trump took office. It’s not yet clear if the administration will want sweeping changes to their project selection criteria that could require work to be redone.
Capito’s state of West Virginia, which had finished its plan, was given in March an extra 90 days to conform the document to the administration’s priorities. Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration issued a blanket 90-day extension for all states last month.
While many states are moving ahead with their application and scoring work, at least Maine, South Dakota, and Alaska have said they’re waiting for new guidance. Missouri also said Tuesday that it had selected tentative awards from its first round of applications, but would not release them or contact winners until NTIA indicated whether or not the awards would still be valid under the new guidance.
The NTIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said when granting the extension it was looking to “remove unnecessary rules and mandates, to improve efficiency, take a more technology-neutral approach, cut unnecessary red tape, and streamline deployment.”
Missouri cooperative asks members of Congress to back state plan
A Missouri electric cooperative, SEMO, sent an open letter to the state’s members of Congress asking them to back Missouri’s plan for spending its BEAD allocation, which prioritizes fiber.
State Broadband
“This has become a true infrastructure need in rural Missouri, really rural America” Loyd Rice, a senior manager at SEMO, said in an interview. “You can’t even begin to have the conversation about a data center or a real bandwidth user without fiber infrastructure. Cellular networks can’t put a tower up that makes any sense without fiber backhaul.”
SEMO, which provides fiber broadband to about 11,750 customers, applied for BEAD funding for projects in seven counties throughout the state.
The first round of Missouri’s BEAD applications was limited to fiber projects. The state said Tuesday that it had tentatively selected projects that would serve 150,712 of its more than 200,000 BEAD-eligible locations, but was not yet releasing details or contacting those applicants because “Future guidance from NTIA may require amendments to Missouri's BEAD program.” A second application round is planned for this summer.
Under BEAD rules, fiber applicants get priority, although states are not required to have a separate first round reserved for fiber. States can fund non-fiber projects if no fiber providers submit a valid application for a given area, or if fiber would be too expensive, something states can currently decide for themselves.
States are required under BEAD rules to make a strong effort to fund connectivity for every home and business without adequate broadband. Even without a significant rule change most states are likely to fund some amount of fixed wireless and satellite depending on their allocation, geography, and number of eligible locations.
Louisiana and Nevada, two of the states that received approval under the Biden administration, made awards to both fixed wireless and satellite providers for their most remote locations.
“Just let the states finish the program,” Rice said. “That’s our very biggest ask.”
