Lawmakers and witnesses touted fiber over satellite and discussed USF reform and broadband mapping at a House Small Business Committee hearing on expanding broadband to help rural small businesses.
The House Appropriations Committee was debating at our deadline Wednesday afternoon the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2026 funding bill, which proposes to maintain the FCC’s annual allocation at $390.2 million (see 2507210064). Meanwhile, House Appropriations’ Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee voted 11-7 Tuesday to advance its FY26 funding bill, as expected, without language to restore the $1.1 billion for CPB that Congress clawed back in July via the 2025 Rescissions Act (see 2508290060).
The Trump administration and NTIA are "in a difficult position" over whether to approve certain states' final BEAD plans under the agency's revised rules, wrote Jeffrey Westling, director of technology and innovation policy at the American Action Forum. In a Thursday blog post, Westling said that in New Mexico, for example, some locations cost as much as $40,000 to connect, and the "staggering figures raise questions regarding whether the state fully considered its options." Noting the administration's shift from a fiber-first preference, Westling said NTIA will need to "carefully scrutinize" each plan while ensuring that states' plans aren't blocked "just because fiber won a bid."
Minnesota released its final BEAD proposal for public comment Thursday, as expected (see 2508270070), complying with NTIA's revised rules. The state will award "more than half" of its BEAD-eligible locations with fiber, its Department of Employment and Economic Development said in a news release. Other states have also released their revised final proposals in recent days and are now accepting comments, including Iowa, Mississippi and New Mexico. The latter announced Tuesday that it had awarded 44% of its funding to fiber, 40% to fixed wireless, and 16% to low earth orbit satellite providers.
Meeting the goals of the budget reconciliation package to make 800 MHz of spectrum available for auction (see 2507070045) won’t be easy, especially with 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz exempted from potential reallocation, warned Joe Kane, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's director of broadband and spectrum policy. Kane spoke with former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in a new webcast, part of a series for the Free State Foundation.
Rep. April McClain Delaney of Maryland and nine other House Democrats pressed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth this week to give states more “clarity” about how the agency's June 6 policy restructuring notice for the $42.5 billion BEAD program affects how they can spend grants on non-broadband deployment projects (see 2506060052). “We urge NTIA to issue formal clarification elucidating how States may use remaining BEAD funds [on] parallel investments in the foundational non-deployment activities that enable effective implementation and adoption,” said McClain Delaney, a former deputy NTIA administrator during the Biden administration, and her colleagues in a Monday letter to Lutnick and Roth. They want a response by Tuesday.
Regulatory changes being pushed by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will likely have little effect on broadband deployment, New Street’s Blair Levin said during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar Tuesday. Other speakers noted that for the most part, the U.S. broadband market is highly competitive and getting more so, as fixed-wireless access and satellite broadband become more widespread.
More states are staying the course on prioritizing fiber projects in their final BEAD proposals, despite concerns that NTIA's push to consider other technologies could delay funding from going out the door (see 2508200054). At least five states -- Arkansas, Kansas, Maine, Washington and Wisconsin -- submitted final proposals in recent days with the majority of subgrants going to fiber-backed projects and limited funding going to low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. Colorado, however, is proposing to award half of its eligible locations to LEO satellites.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has approved two safety standards, one for water beads and the other for neck floats for infants and young children.
States face a challenge getting their BEAD final proposals to NTIA by the Sept. 4, but most will meet the deadline, Colorado Broadband Office Executive Director Brandy Reitter said Tuesday at the Technology Policy Institute's Aspen Forum. Large states like Texas and California will probably need extensions, she told us. Reitter said she was fairly confident NTIA in turn would meet its deadline for reviewing the final proposals within 90 days of receiving them.