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.