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Questions continue to swirl surrounding the future of billions of dollars of BEAD funds, much of which is expected to remain unspent.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
When the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed in 2021, few considered the prospect that billions of dollars appropriated by Congress for broadband infrastructure could eventually remain unspent.
That was 2021. This is 2025.
The winds of change, ushered in by the election of President Donald J. Trump, has shifted the balance of power in Washington, giving Republicans uncontested majorities and allowing Trump’s administration an opportunity to take out their pencils to recalibrate programs like BEAD.
Taxpayer savings, a pressing item on the White House’s agenda, have been the main focus with new BEAD guidance issued by Trump’s cabinet.
The guidance, meanwhile, has been picked up by the states, who have by now mostly submitted reworked proposals to conform with new guidance from Washington.
As a result, as has been previously reported, state BEAD proposals are leaving lots of money on the table.
StateScoop recently dove into the numbers. The publication reported on data from the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute at New York Law School, which analyzed information from 49 states and 3 territories.
In total, over $20 billion in BEAD funds remained unspent in the proposals analyzed, StateScoop reported.
The data did not consider proposals from California, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico.
Questions mount
As the savings rack up, questions mount concerning the fate of the unspent BEAD funds.
Different ideas have been pitched.
Our own Bandwidth Hawk proposed that the NTIA could allow states to use some of the savings to guarantee repayment of state loans, arguing it could lead to faster deployment, lower ultimate costs, and lower customer costs.
Jeff Landry, the governor of Louisiana, has proposed allowing the states to keep the funds – provided they spend the money on things to invest in either AI, or “America First” policies.
“This approach would vividly demonstrate the business and financial savvy that is a hallmark of your department and the administration overall,” Landry’s September letter proposing the idea stated.
The NTIA, meanwhile, has boasted about the savings.
In September, NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said the savings were “driven by a rise in participation by the private sector, increased matching commitments by subgrantees, and a surge of innovative technology solutions to deliver high-speed connectivity.”
