Senators Looking for Briefing from NTIA on SpaceX Rider
The company had sought exemptions from certain BEAD rules.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2026 – Senators are looking to meet with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to discuss SpaceX’s efforts to exempt itself from certain provisions of the agency’s $42.45 billion broadband grant program.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said at a Tuesday markup that she was willing to withdraw her proposed amendment to a satellite licensing bill if as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, would “commit to having NTIA engage with members of this committee, either a briefing or a meeting, on the Starlink rider and how they plan to uphold the integrity of the BEAD program.”
Cruz responded, “And we’re happy to arrange that discussion.”
According to a New Street Research tally, Elon Musk’s SpaceX won more than $636 million to serve more than 460,000 rural locations through the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. Roughly 20 percent of the program’s eligible locations are set to be served by satellite, either from SpaceX or Amazon’s nascent Leo service, for less than $1 billion in total.
The Trump administration updated the program’s rules in June to make it easier for low-Earth orbit satellite services like SpaceX’s Starlink to win on cost against faster but more expensive fiber applications.
As NTIA is approving state plans and broadband offices are looking to finalize those funding awards, SpaceX has now proposed a contract rider that would cement a host of additional favorable conditions for the company. If the conditions aren't met, the company said in a letter to state broadband offices posted by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society that satellite ISP participation in BEAD could be “untenable.”
The conditions include being repaid in quarterly installments – with 50 percent of its grant award paid up front after certification that service is available – rather than based on subscriber milestones, excluding certain subscribers and documentation from its performance testing, limited default penalties, and other things.
“How will states or NTIA know if Americans are getting connected if the only places that can be tested for network performance are places that SpaceX determines?” Rosen said. “We can let the ‘benefit of the bargain,’ as the Commerce Secretary would say, only benefit big corporations owned by administration friends.”
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A state broadband official familiar with the matter told Broadband Breakfast last week that NTIA had told states to hold off on signing the rider as more agency guidance on the issue would be forthcoming.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said he appreciated Cruz’s assurance he would set up a meeting with NTIA, and that he wanted to “associate myself with many of the remarks made by the senator from Nevada. Because there is a concern among rural Americans that perhaps the build out will somehow disadvantage the least populated areas.”
“If Senator Wicker would like to be part of that briefing and discussion as well, he’s certainly welcome to participate,” Cruz responded.
SAT Streamlining Act
Rosen said her withdrawn amendment would have ensured “any satellite provider must comply with the BEAD rules outlined in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” in order to use the streamlined satellite application process outlined in the bill.
Cruz and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced the bill, which would set shot clocks for the Federal Communications Commission to process satellite licensing applications. The committee lost its quorum and had to pause the markup before taking action on the bill.
Cruz said the committee could return to the bill and other items as soon as tomorrow.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said she was concerned about a provision that she said would deem too many applications granted after the shot clock expired and offered an amendment that would replace the provision with narrower language from the House’s version of the bill.
She pointed to SpaceX’s recent application to launch 1 million satellites as an example of something that shouldn’t move forward without an explicit green light.
“Literally, the FCC could fail to take any action on this, and within one and a half years, one million satellites would be approved,” she said. “That's 66 times more than everything in current orbit.”
Cruz countered that the FCC would still be able to deny applications so long as the agency acted within the shot clock, which could be as long as a year and a half.
The agency currently has a rulemaking underway to overhaul its satellite licensing procedure, also aimed at processing applications more quickly.
Member discussion