Sen. Ernst to DOGE: ‘Pull the Plug’ on BEAD Program

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2024 – Iowa's junior U.S. senator who just lost a key Republican leadership race has a simple message for the Department for Government Efficiency: Shut down the Biden Administration's signature broadband deployment program.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, got her point across in a recent letter to the Co-Chairman of DOGE: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who say they are in the process of slashing $2 trillion from the federal budget.

"President Biden’s so-called infrastructure program provided $7.5 billion to build a nationwide network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and $42 billion to expand broadband. Three years later, just 17 EV stations are completed and not a single person – not one – has been connected to the internet yet. It’s time to pull the plug," Ernst said in the seven-page letter dated Nov. 26.

Biden's Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, passed in 2021, included $42.45 billion to subsidize the deployment of internet networks to millions of unserved and underserved locations. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, charged with managing BEAD, has earmarked $415.3 million in grant money for Iowa.

Ernst sent the letter in her capacity as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. A few weeks ago, she ran to be Senate Republican Conference Chairman but lost out to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. Ernst will not have a leadership role in the new Congress.

Ernst did not provide additional details for her call to end the BEAD program, which was included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. Nineteen Senate Republicans voted for the IIJA, including Ernst's Senate Republican colleague from Iowa, Chuck Grassley. Ernst voted against the bill.

Musk owns 42% of SpaceX – the rocket company that operates Starlink, a satellite-delivered Internet access service with nearly 5 million subscribers globally.

Musk has referred to the BEAD program as “an outrageous waste of taxpayer money and is utterly failing to serve people in need."

In a Nov. 21 letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked him to pause several BEAD-related activities because under the incoming Trump administration "substantial changes are on the horizon for this program."