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FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the commission will have to have an important discussion about the future of the BEAD program.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to become chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given more information about how he intends to use the chairmanship.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, Trump’s Republican nominee for FCC chair, took to X on Friday and signaled that an “important discussion” would need to be held about the future of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
In his post, Carr wrote that Vice President Kamala Harris “led the $42 billion program for expanding Internet infrastructure into a thicket of red tape and saddled it with progressive policy goals that have nothing to do with quickly connecting Americans.”
Carr also called out that the program “still has not connected even a single person after 1,103 days.”
As recently reported by Broadband Communities, BEAD money has still not flowed to internet service providers (ISPs) for broadband expansion projects.
“There will be an important discussion about the program’s future, given that the lion’s share of the money has not been spent,” Carr’s post stated.
Carr also shared some “starting thoughts” in his post.
“DEI requirements? Afuera!” Carr wrote. “Climate change agenda? Afeura! Price controls? Afeura! Technology bias? Afeura!”
Carr has served as a commissioner on the FCC since 2017.
He was first nominated to serve on the FCC during Trump’s first term.
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