Virginia Lawmakers Urge NTIA to Approve State’s BEAD Plan
Both Democratic and Republican state lawmakers have rallied behind Virginia’s broadband office.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2025 – A bipartisan group of 15 Virginia state senators and delegates urged the National Telecommunications and Information Administration this week to swiftly approve the state’s proposal to access federal broadband funding.
Virginia submitted its plan on Aug. 29, pledging to deliver fiber to about 81 percent of unserved locations and to spend $613 million on deployment – roughly one-third of its $1.48 billion allocation under the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.
But it appears the state’s pitch might not be low enough for the Trump NTIA. In a document apparently prepared by the agency, it said it was working to identify “outlier, unreasonably expensive projects” in state plans for additional review.
In their Sept. 9 letter to NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth, Virginia lawmakers countered that the state’s broadband office had already done the hard work of aligning with NTIA’s June 6 policy notice. That notice reset the BEAD program to emphasize lowest cost and empowered the Trump NTIA to reject projects deemed unreasonably expensive.
“Virginia’s Broadband Office has worked hard to meet the tight deadlines set out by the policy notice, while carefully abiding by its core dictates,” Virginia’s state senators and delegates wrote. “We respectfully urge the department to approve Virginia’s final proposal in a timely manner, so that implementation can proceed without delay.”
The letter, signed by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers – including Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and Broadband Advisory Council Chair Sen. Jennifer Boysko – framed Virginia’s plan as technology-neutral and cost-effective. Lawmakers said the proposal would ensure “every resident of Virginia can access high-speed internet” while complying with the infrastructure law’s mandates.
Even with fiber trimmed to 81 percent of the state’s build, the plan quickly drew backlash from SpaceX, which argued Virginia unfairly limited the role of low-Earth orbit satellites to about 10 percent of eligible locations.
SpaceX argued that the federal government should block the plan unless the state awards more money to satellite bidders like itself. The company submitted bids to serve nearly every eligible location in the state, and claimed that its applications were unfairly disregarded.
Between NTIA’s tougher cost-cutting rules and SpaceX’s push for a larger role, the state’s broadband plan has become a test of how much control states really have over BEAD’s future.
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