Ten Democratic members of the House of Representatives have asked the administration to clarify how non-deployment funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program will be managed.
The letter was sent to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Arielle Roth, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
It alludes to the open questions regarding allocations of funds that were part of the BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice (BRPN) that was released on June 6. The BRPN canceled all non-deployment allocations for the BEAD Program and said that updated guidance would subsequently be released. This has not happened, despite a September 4 deadline.
“Providing timely clarity to BEAD applicants is particularly urgent considering the upcoming September 4th deadline,” the letter reads. “States require clear and specific guidance to ensure remaining funds can be repurposed in accordance with BEAD statutory authority and the 2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) guidance.”
This is more than an inconvenience, according to the letter. It says that part of the law under which BEAD was created — 47 U.S. Code § 1702(f) — stipulates that “broadband adoption programs and affordable device distribution” and perhaps other non-deployment activities are part of the law and must be allocated.
The letter lists 12 of these uses. They include support for such things as training, remote learning, telehealth, direct broadband subscription subsidies, digital literacy, implementation of state digital equity plans, aid in broadband signups, multilingual outreach to promote adoption, digital literacy, and others.
The letter was signed by April McClain (MD); Rashida Tlaib (MI); Troy A. Carter (LA); James E. Clyburn (SC); Nikema Williams (GA); Timothy M. Kennedy (NY); Cleo Fields (LA); Sylvia R. Garcia (TX); Nikki Budzinski (IL); and Shri Thanedar (MD).
The Digital Equity Act, another non-deployment program, was put on hold in mid-May.
