House Appropriators Grill Raimondo on BEAD Implementation

and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing. Cline faulted NTIA for previously rejecting the Virginia Office of Broadband’s BEAD Volume 2 application because that office “declined” to use the program to regulate broadband prices. Conservative groups previously latched onto the Virginia BEAD issue, which stemmed from NTIA’s requirements on participants offering a low-cost connectivity option (see 2403070065). “It’s been nearly five months since NTIA approved Louisiana’s [BEAD] plan, which was submitted at the same time as Virginia,” Cline said. “There are no outstanding issues,” so the Commerce Department should “commit to approving” Virginia’s application given it follows language in the authorizing 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act barring rate regulation. Raimondo declined to commit to approving the Virginia proposal but said NTIA approves state plans that comply with the rate regulation ban. “I will look in on Virginia” after the hearing, Raimondo said. “What I can promise you is we aren’t regulating” broadband prices. “We are not telling any state, including yours, ‘If you don’t provide [service] at X dollars, we’re not going to give you the money.’ But the statute requires us to have low-cost options” as a requirement for BEAD funding, she said. Gonzales noted prospective BEAD participants in his southwest Texas district worry “about their potential ability to participate” in the program “due to the large size of the [service] areas” and the low-cost option requirement. “My job in implementing this $42 billion is to make sure every American has access everywhere,” Raimondo told Gonzales. “We’re working very closely with” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) “using our maps to figure out who's not covered and providing subsidies to companies so that they” can cover rural areas.