BEAD

Senators Release Details of BEAD Permitting Bill

The proposal would require NTIA to publicly track broadband deployment progress

Georgina Mackie

May 6, 2026 — 1 min read

Photo of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., by Jose Luis Magana/AP.

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2026 – A Senate bill released Thursday would require federal officials to create public tracking tools for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment projects.

The Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026, led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to create a public dashboard tracking deployment progress across states and territories.

Under the proposal, the dashboard would display information including how much BEAD funding states have spent, how many locations have received broadband service, and how many households are subscribing to networks built with BEAD support.

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BEAD John Thune The Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026 Ben Ray Luján John Barrasso Arielle Roth FAST-41 National Environmental Policy Act Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

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