Schumer Urges Trump to Release BEAD Funding, Warns Against Subsidizing Starlink

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2025 – Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urged the Trump administration to release funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, and to avoid directing those funds towards Starlink, in a strongly worded letter sent to President Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday.

Schumer, along with Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., asked “the Administration to move swiftly to approve state plans, and release the $42.45 billion allocated to the states by the BEAD Program,” arguing that further delay “means that we risk falling behind China.” 

They noted the economic benefits associated with high-speed internet access, and AI’s dependence on reliable broadband networks. They warned that further delays could result in “not only miss[ing] this year’s construction season but next year’s as well, delaying broadband deployment by years.”

The senators also criticized Starlink as a viable internet option, arguing that “Elon Musk’s Starlink… lacks the scalability, reliability, and speed of fiber or other terrestrial broadband solutions.” 

Democratic senators have been critical of the role Elon Musk played in the Trump administration, with some calling for an investigation of the ties between Starlink and the Federal government.

In contrast, Trump recently asserted that Starlink saved “probably hundreds of lives in North Carolina”, while legislation introduced by Rep. David Taylor, R-Ohio, in early April would amend the BEAD Act to allow for subsidization of satellite internet, including Starlink.

Funds from the BEAD Act have been frozen since the advent of the Trump administration, which seeks to strip various diversity requirements from the legislation while making it more “technologically neutral.” It is unclear when those funds will be released.