Lutnick: NTIA to Issue BEAD Funding Notice 'Shortly' Amid Timeline Concerns
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during a Senate hearing Wednesday that NTIA will issue a new notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for its $42.5 billion BEAD program and will require all states to resubmit their applications. But the agency would still be able to dole out much of the money before year-end, he told the Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Meanwhile, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., expressed reservations about President Donald Trump’s proposal to claw back $1.1 billion in advance CPB funding as part of a rescission package that congressional GOP leaders want expedited (see 2506030065).
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Lutnick told Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., that his “expectation is we will put out [a NOFO] shortly, and then we would expect everyone to apply within 90 days. We're going to hold it hard at 90 days,” in keeping with the amount of additional time NTIA gave in April for all states and territories to submit their final BEAD proposals (see 2504220073). The agency will tell states and territories that "within the next 90 days, as long as you are technologically agnostic, and you agree to provide the broadband at the cheapest price per user, then we will get" the applications approved and BEAD money "out the door by the end of calendar year 2025,” Lutnick said.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., raised concerns about Lutnick’s BEAD plans. “It would be a huge waste of money and a disservice to Americans who need reliable internet service to restart a bidding and proposal process,” he said. “We’d like to have it faster than a 90-day process. The states have been working on this for some time,” and Michigan’s proposal is already technology-neutral. “Then it should be easy for them,” Lutnick responded. He countered Peters that “the Biden administration had 30 months [to roll out BEAD], and they did nothing.”
Senate Appropriations CJS Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., also appeared concerned about the prospective BEAD process. “I hope [applicants] don't have to reapply again, refill out the application that they spent a lot of time and money preparing and has been filed and approved with the state already,” he said. “We certainly need the reforms and changes to the criteria, but there's a very expensive process they've been through once before” that NTIA shouldn’t “replicate.” Lutnick replied that his emphasis is “on getting rid of” extraneous BEAD requirements that Congress didn’t mandate in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., urged Lutnick to reverse course on canceling $550 million allocated for the fifth year of IIJA’s Digital Equity Act program, which the Trump administration confirmed in its FY 2026 budget request (see 2506020056). “This is a program that every state, Democrat and Republican, has applied for,” Murray said. “No one has declared [the program] unconstitutional. Your job … is to carry out the law, [and] I would urge you to get those digital equity dollars out the door and save everyone the legal fees” that will come from challenges to Trump’s cancellation (see 2505090051).
Public Broadcasting Rescission
Trump’s CPB proposal would rescind $535 million in advance funding in FY 2026 and FY 2027. His FY26 budget proposal calls for giving back $30 million to CPB for its appropriations drawdown. “These funds would be used to subsidize a public media system that is politically biased and an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer,” the White House OMB said in its rescissions memo.
Rounds didn’t join public broadcasting supporters in forcefully criticizing Trump’s CPB bid, but he nonetheless indicated his reservations. “I tell folks we've got some stuff in [South Dakota’s] public radio for Native Americans, who don't have anything else to communicate with out there for emergencies and so forth,” he told reporters Tuesday night. “Before I decide on what I'll agree to, I want to find out what [rescinding CPB funding] would do to my Native American population," which uses radio to communicate in rural areas.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the panel “will carefully review the rescissions package and examine the potential consequences [on] emergency communications in rural communities, and public radio and television stations.”
Murray and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., were among those who blasted Trump’s proposal. He “wants Congress to vote to cut off public radio broadcasts our constituents count on for weather forecasts, emergency alerts, and updates on what’s going on in their community -- and force layoffs at local TV stations,” Murray said.
“Millions of Americans -- particularly in rural communities -- will be cut off from local newsrooms, lifesaving emergency alerts and programs they love,” Cantwell said. “The Trump Administration and Republicans are not only undermining laws on the books, but also the irreplaceable role public broadcasting plays in our communities.”