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The law also says the NTIA may not “regulate the rates charged for broadband service,” and Republicans claim the NTIA is violating this restriction. A July 23 letter sent by over 30 broadband industry trade groups also alleged that the administration is illegally regulating broadband prices. ISPs pointed to NTIA guidance that “strongly encouraged” states to set a fixed rate of $30 per month for the low-cost service option.
“The statute requires that there be a low-cost service option,” Davidson reportedly said at a congressional hearing in May. “We do not believe the states are regulating rates here. We believe that this is a condition to get a federal grant. Nobody’s requiring a service provider to follow these rates, people do not have to participate in the program.”
With Republicans gaining full control of Congress, they could amend the law to require changes. The Trump administration could also make changes on its own after new leadership at the NTIA is in place.
Cruz’s letter referenced plans to eliminate the “rate regulation” and other requirements set by the Biden administration. That includes what Cruz called “extreme technology bias” in reference to the NTIA’s preference for fiber broadband projects instead of other kinds of networks like cable, wireless, or satellite.
Cruz wrote:
Congress will review the BEAD program early next year, with specific attention to NTIA’s extreme technology bias in defining “priority broadband projects” and “reliable broadband service”; imposition of statutorily-prohibited rate regulation; unionized workforce and DEI labor requirements; climate change assessments; excessive per-location costs; and other central planning mandates. In turn, states will be able to expand connectivity on terms that meet the real needs of their communities, without irrelevant requirements that tie up resources, create confusion, and slow deployment.
Cruz alleges “race-based discrimination”
While the FCC is not administering the BEAD program, Carr took aim at it today in a post on X. “VP Harris led the $42 billion program for expanding Internet infrastructure into a thicket of red tape and saddled it with progressive policy goals that have nothing to do with quickly connecting Americans,” Carr wrote.