Recent Op-Eds

Broadband Blunders Leave Americans Disconnected

By Sen. John Thune

September 27, 2024

President Biden promised that his infrastructure law would make high-speed internet “available everywhere in America,” and he put Vice President Harris in charge of broadband initiatives to accomplish that goal. Three years later, this administration’s signature broadband program – the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program – has not connected a single household to the internet. In fact, not a single BEAD project has started construction and none are expected to begin until sometime next year or later.

So what’s taking so long? The BEAD program is a sad story of government inefficiency and progressivism run amok. Rather than focusing on delivering broadband service to unserved areas, the Biden-Harris administration chose to load up the BEAD program with a wish list of requirements that Congress never envisioned. There are climate change mandates, biased technology mandates, it prioritizes government-owned networks, union labor, and DEI hiring practices; and it even attempts to impose price controls in direct violation of the law. As a result, what should have been a straightforward application and approval process has become a mess.

Then there’s the Biden-Harris administration’s poor implementation of the program. During debate on the bill that authorized the program, I expressed reservations about the agency tasked with running it. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has previously fumbled administering broadband expansion programs with much smaller budgets than the $42 billion now under its charge. Not to mention another agency, the Federal Communications Commission, has the expertise and capacity to better administer broadband deployment programs like BEAD.

Unfortunately, my fears have been realized. One state official testifying before Congress said this of the program’s implementation: “NTIA’s functional requests are akin to building a plane while flying it without having the necessary instructions to be successful. NTIA has provided either no guidance, guidance given too late, or guidance changing midstream, all with a lack of appreciation for state operations and costs and the needs of our telecommunication providers.” Another state official called BEAD “the most burdensome federal program” she has ever managed.

While the president touts his administration’s efforts on expanding internet access, the reality is hardly worthy of boasting. And the vice president seems to have been about as effective as the “broadband czar” as she has as the “border czar,” which is to say she has failed at both. Three years into a $42 billion program, not a single dollar has been allocated, not a single project has begun, and not a single household is better off.

Rural and unserved communities were promised an internet connection, but this administration’s mandates and poor management have prevented that connection from being delivered. My Republican colleagues and I will continue our oversight efforts into the failure of this program – unfortunately, it’s one of many failures we’ve seen of the Biden-Harris administration.