Progressive mandates have bogged down the Biden-Harris expansion of broadband so that not one American has been connected 1,024 days after lawmakers passed the so-called infrastructure bill.
Tucked inside the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a $42.5 billion fund to dramatically expand internet access across America. Otherwise known as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, the program has failed to connect one person, even though the bill was passed 1,024 days ago.
During President Joe Biden’s 2021 State of the Union address, he tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the effort “because I know it will get done.”
During his speech at the Democrat National Convention in August, Biden compared the broadband program to “what [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt did with electricity.”
Even though Biden, Harris, and battleground Senate Democrats have touted the purported success of the program, some leftist activists consider it a missed campaign talking point ahead of the 2024 elections.
Lynlee Thorne, a political director for the Democrat campaign group Rural Groundgame, said, “People need to see it. It’s got to be a lot more concrete. We’re past the point of being able to earn people’s votes based on the status quo or just hope.”
Senate Republicans, including Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee, have pointed out that the program may be hindered by the so-called the Biden-Harris administration’s progressive mandates. These include:
- Onerous labor requirements that “actively” discriminate against workers in a way that could “deny communities — particularly those in rural areas — access to reliable broadband services.”
- Encouraging government-owned networks over private investment
- Prohibiting non-fiber optic projects from receiving BEAD funding, prioritizing fiber optic cable deployment over wireless internet deployment
- Mandates for affordability and rate regulation. The confusion over how to comply with this rule led to a significant delay in Virginia’s BEAD broadband deployment.
- Eligible projects must account for “climate-related” risks, which was not included in the infrastructure bill text
- The Biden-Harris administration has an inconsistent waiver process to ensure speedy deployment for the purchasing of broadband products and supplies from American workers and businesses.
The onerous strings attached to the broadband funds led more than 30 telecom executives to complain to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that the onerous affordability requirement hampered the BEAD program.
“We and our members sincerely want this program to work, but we believe that your agency’s administration of the low-cost service option requirement in particular risks putting the overall success of BEAD in jeopardy,” the telecom executives wrote to the Biden-Harris cabinet secretary.
Misty Ann Giles, who heads the Montana Department of Administration and the state broadband efforts, said, “Is it my job to be telling companies what they charge? I would say it’s not.” She added that the Biden-Harris administration is “pushing a social policy.”
The stringent demands could give a future Trump administration the ability to rewrite the rules around BEAD deployment and make it easier to deploy broadband.
“We might not have to even ask those questions about rate regulation,” Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH), the House Energy and Commerce telecom subcommittee chair, said.
Thorne lamented that the numerous Biden-Harris mandates have bogged down the potential progress to expand broadband access.
“We put up these ridiculous barriers to just actually getting it to people,” Thorne said.
“There’s not the shovels in the ground. That’s what people need to see,” she said.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
