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Jon Stewart expressed dismay at the BEAD Program’s funding allocation process for states while talking with Ezra Klein, a New York Times columnist.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
Popular comedian Jon Stewart’s face said it all.
“I’m speechless, honestly,” Stewart said after New York Times columnist Ezra Klein explained the more than a dozen steps included to gain federal broadband funding disbursement under the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.
Stewart, who recently hosted Klein on his weekly podcast, said the bureaucracy included with the program was “far worse than I could have imagined.”
“The fact that they amputated their own legs on this is what’s so stunning,” Stewart said of Democrats.
Klein noted that the bill was supported largely by Democrats “with a regulatory structure written by a Democratic administration.”
However, Stewart also said there are two sides to the coin.
He said Washington can be frustrating and overly complicated.
“And then on the flip side is a group of legislators who don’t want to give you anything,” he said.
Klien then added to those comments, saying the nation is caught between a party that wants to “make government fail” and a party that “does not make government work.”
Stewart agreed.
Republicans have been critical of BEAD
The BEAD Program has come under fire from Republicans in recent months.
Memorably, while on Joe Rogan’s podcast in October, now-President Donald Trump criticized the program, which was born with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.
“Elon can do it for nothing,” Trump stated at the time.
Since taking office, Trump’s new commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has announced the beginning of a “rigorous review” of the BEAD Program.
“Because of the prior administration’s woke mandates, favoritism towards certain technologies, and burdensome regulations, the program has not connected a single person to the internet and is in dire need of a readjustment,” he stated, upon announcing the review.
Experts like Nathan Smith, the Director of Economics and Policy for Connected Nation, have previously noted that BEAD is “mainly going to benefit areas with heavily Republican constituencies.”
Since leaving his post in March, BEAD’s former director, Evan Feinman, has also warned that low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite connectivity will not offer the same price relief for consumers compared to fiber.
Feinman, speaking to the Beyond the Cable podcast last month, warned that rural Americans would “get less and pay more” with satellite connectivity versus fiber.
Additionally, he said the BEAD Program’s emphasis on state-crafted proposals has allowed states to decide the technology mixtures that best suit them, with factors like geography playing in.
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