
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Digital inclusion advocates are bracing themselves for an uncertain year ahead.
As the incoming GOP regime takes aim at key aspects of the Digital Equity Act (DEA) and the BEAD (Broadband, Equity, Access, And Deployment) program, those working to bridge the digital divide have more questions than answers just as states are preparing to dole out federal grant money yet to be awarded to grant recipients.
One major question looming over both BEAD and the Digital Equity Act is whether a new Congress can leverage the Congressional Review Act – a tool Congress can use to overturn certain federal agency actions – to undermine the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law behind the national “Internet For All” initiative.
“The Congressional Review Act only applies to things that were adopted in the last six months. I know that there were a number of things the FCC did to make sure that they were done and would be non-reviewable under the CRA and I suspect NTIA did that as well (with BEAD),” former FCC Chief of Staff and now New Street Research policy advisor Blair Levin said during our final Building For Digital Equity (B4DE) livestream of 2024.
Levin was joined by Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), for a candid discussion on how the incoming Trump administration may upend the work and planning of “Internet for All” advocates over the coming months.
Shooting a Musk(et) at BEAD
While Levin doubted that the broadband-related requirements of the infrastructure law could be easily cast aside, that’s not to say there won’t be any major changes to how BEAD or the DEA is implemented.
“I think the threat (to BEAD) is through executive action, particularly at NTIA,” Levin said, beginning with the observation that “Elon Musk will be the most important figure in telecom policy” when Trump takes office.
Musk, he noted, “has a business (Starlink) that has a very different business model and, if you look at BEAD or Universal Service, what he wants is very different then what other companies want. From an investor perspective, it is radically different then what existed when they passed BEAD in Congress and NTIA implemented it.”
Where Levin has a “high level of confidence” is that a Trump administration NTIA will “quickly make a number of statements related to DEI, union (labor), and climate change requirements under the law ... all of which will formally go away.”
He also expects the official NTIA preference for fiber networks will be undone with the agency tilting more in favor of subsidizing Starlink service, despite concerns of consumer affordability and demand capacity.
When it comes to building new networks with BEAD funds, Levin said, “the major question in my mind is: does Musk want to return part of the $42 billion (for BEAD) to the federal treasury. In other words, does he want to say to Trump: ‘I will solve this problem of rural broadband access all you need to do is give me a sufficient amount of money to give the seven million approximately unserved locations a satellite dish (for) $6 billion and then I will give you back the $36 billion that you no longer need.’”
Trump hinted at being enamored with Starlink during a pre-election interview on the Joe Rogan podcast.
‘Covered Populations’ in the Crosshairs
As for Digital Equity Act funding, Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) who joined Levin on the livestream, noted how the allocation of those funds are on a much quicker timeline than BEAD funded projects.
“We know that NTIA is moving as quickly as they can” to get the federal money out the door for both the Digital Equity Act’s competitive and state capacity grants, she said.
“NTIA is attempting to get as many of these (grant applications) decided on before January 20th as they possibly can.”
Still, Siefer said, “we're all just guessing,” adding that she is spending most of her time talking with policy makers and digital inclusion organizations around the country to get a better sense of the ground truth.
“We know that applicants are really nervous about the possibility of thinking that they have a grant – maybe even being told they have a grant – and a new administration coming in and being like: ‘we decided we're gonna pause this and look into this Senator Cruz unconstitutionality issue,” Siefer said, referring to the letter Cruz sent to the NTIA last month asserting that the Act’s requirement to focus on “covered populations,” which includes racial and ethnic minorities who have disproportionately been left on the wrong side of the digital divide, should be removed.
“Any kind of pause (with DEA funding) is not acceptable and we are very much thinking a way to get in front of that is to make sure that all of our Congressional members are fully understanding the value of this program,” Siefer said.
The Efficiency of Universal Connectivity
While there’s no certainty around what a Trump-led NTIA will do with BEAD funding or what Sen. Cruz might push to potentially strip away some of the Digital Equity Act’s provisions around “covered populations,” Levin noted that “if Cruz really was concerned about the constitutionality (of the DEA) he would have filed a lawsuit at the beginning, like a few years ago saying that it's unconstitutional. It just strikes me, if I were a judge, as a little bit odd.”
Beyond that, Levin said, “I think there are very good arguments for things like the Digital Equity Act – things like the ACP (Affordable Connectivity Program) – that are appealing to Republicans, or could be appealing to Republicans if stated correctly and the question is do we want to try to save these programs by making those kind of arguments.”
Toward the end of the livestream, ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Director and Building for Digital Equity co-host Christopher Mitchell did exactly that: articulated one argument that should be appealing to austerity-minded GOP leaders.
“The federal government has to provide services to people who are not able to use devices right now or do not have devices available. Being able to provide services both offline and online – the same service – is very costly. And so, if you care about government efficiency, being able to provide (government) services effectively online … there is tremendous cost savings in getting to that point.”
See the entire livestream below:
Header image of change management note next to keyboard courtesy of Clipboard 01, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
Inline image of Elon Musk and Donald Trump at election rally courtesy of FMT, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Inline image of NDIA's Digital Navigotors Corps courtesy of NDIA