Despite record funding from the IIJA, no broadband projects have broken ground.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to expand internet access to underserved and rural areas throughout the country. Congress authorized $42.45 billion under the IIJA for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to administer the BEAD program, and also established a process for how all 56 U.S. states and territories must submit an Initial Proposal of projects to the NTIA to be awarded funds.

While the process stipulated a submission deadline of December 27, 2023, which every state broadband entity achieved, the NTIA has only approved 16 proposals as of mid-July, and no projects have broken ground or are expected to break ground until 2025 or 2026.

On July 9, the House Energy & Commerce Committee opened an investigation into NTIA’s funding deployment of broadband projects under BEAD. The agency requested all communications between the agency and state broadband offices related to BEAD Initial Proposals.

In their letter notifying NTIA Assistance Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Alan Davidson of the investigation, Committee members stated that the NTIA’s review process is operating in an “opaque nature,” causing the committee to lack the information necessary to understand why so few initial proposals have been approved to move forward. On May 15, 2024, Assistant Secretary Davidson testified before the Communications and Technology Subcommittee on the NTIA’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, noting that 2024 will be the year of execution for the BEAD program and committing to a more transparent process surrounding the BEAD program.

The IIJA strictly prohibits the NTIA from engaging in “rate regulation” of broadband pricing, meaning that they are forbidden from telling states a specific price for low-cost internet. Committee members wrote in the letter that despite this prohibition, some states are reporting that the NTIA is basing their Initial Proposal approval on setting specific pricing for low-cost broadband. Additionally, according to the Committee, despite committing to more transparency, they have not received information from the NTIA necessary to establish whether the agency is pressuring states into rate regulation.

On the same day as announcing the investigation, the House Committee on Energy & Commerce’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee held a hearing on the 2025 Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) budget. The FCC has oversight of the NTIA, leading to questions from committee members before FCC Commissioners on BEAD project deployment and what is causing project rollouts delays.

A list of BEAD proposals under consideration for NTIA approval may be found here, while Assistant Secretary Davidson’s testimony before the subcommittee may be found here.

For more information, please contact John Chambers.