from Your News:
More than three years after President Biden’s $42 billion broadband expansion initiative, not a single project has broken ground.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), which allocated over $42 billion to expand broadband access across unserved, mostly rural areas. More than three years later, however, none of the projects funded by this initiative have started. The administration had compared the initiative to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal efforts to expand electricity, yet federal subsidies are not expected to reach these projects until 2025. The delay is largely attributed to a range of regulatory hurdles, including requirements for internet service providers to participate in green initiatives and employ unionized workforces.
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Republican lawmakers have expressed frustration with the pace of implementation. “In 2021, Kamala Harris became the ‘Broadband Czar,’” noted South Dakota Senator John Thune in a recent X post, referencing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. “Three years and $42 billion later, not one person has been connected to the internet under the BEAD program.”
It’s been nearly three years since the BEAD program was established – and in all of that time the program has not connected a single household to the internet. “Broadband Czar” Harris’s tenure has been nothing short of a disaster. pic.twitter.com/3qmehkvIM5
— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) September 24, 2024
The initiative has encountered additional challenges, with applicants required to demonstrate how they will make internet services affordable to Americans earning below 200% of the poverty line. In Virginia, for example, the application process has been bogged down by a dispute over pricing caps for low-cost plans, delaying progress for over 10 months, according to a report from Broadband Breakfast.
The slow rollout of the internet expansion mirrors delays in other Biden administration initiatives, such as the electric vehicle (EV) charger expansion program, which has built only seven charging stations since receiving $7.5 billion in funding. As with the broadband initiative, regulatory requirements—specifically those related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—have been cited as major causes of delay. Applicants are required to engage underserved communities by hosting “neighborhood block parties”, among other DEI efforts.
Brendan Carr, former head of the Federal Communications Commission, criticized the administration for adding unnecessary political layers to the broadband program. “The Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program — a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans,” Carr wrote in a June X post.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is responsible for overseeing the BEAD program, is currently under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Lawmakers are scrutinizing the NTIA’s handling of the initiative, particularly in light of concerns that the program’s implementation has been slowed by requirements unrelated to its core mission.
As federal funds remain unspent and no projects have commenced, the Biden-Harris administration faces increasing pressure to deliver on its promise of connecting underserved communities to reliable broadband. The U.S. Department of Commerce has yet to provide a comment on the matter.
The challenges facing the broadband initiative underscore the complexities of large-scale infrastructure programs, especially when intersecting with broader political and social goals. With 2025 now identified as the earliest possible start date for projects, rural Americans waiting for reliable internet access will likely have to endure further delays.
