Jake Neenan

The House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee advanced a 2027 funding bill that would provide the Federal Communications Commission with less money than the agency asked for. The bill provides $390.2 million for the FCC, which is $26 million, or 6.2%, less than the FY26 enacted level. The legislation would also:

Proposed reforms to a major federal broadband subsidy program are still taking shape on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers are aiming to circulate a discussion draft of legislation that would modernize the $8.5 billion-per-year Universal Service Fund. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission, which manages the fund, is asking for input on whether it should make changes to the nonprofit it delegated accounting and administrative duties to.

The New Mexico broadband office is likely to downsize after it’s done managing the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. “In New Mexico, we do have a plan, and I think the plan will be to scale down a little bit,” Aquiles Trujillo, deputy director of the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access & Expansion, said at the Connected America show in Dallas.

Some rural broadband providers are struggling to secure fiber that complies with a $42.45 billion grant program’s domestic manufacturing rules. Two internet service providers participating in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, plus a distributor, contractor, and others described orders for fiber being unexpectedly canceled in recent weeks.

As projects funded by the Commerce Department’s $42.45 billion broadband expansion program start to get underway, monitoring and oversight are going to be increasingly important, said broadband funding expert Carol Mattey. “I would be astonished if there weren’t defaults, just because every program has defaults,” said Mattey, head of Mattey Consulting and former deputy bureau chief at the Federal Communications Commission. She spoke about the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program on a Fiber Broadband Association webinar Wednesday.

Nearly half of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program’s funding won’t be used for broadband deployment projects, partly a result of new Trump Administration rules aimed at cost-cutting. When those new rules were instituted in June 2025, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) rescinded approval for any non-deployment activities, something state broadband offices had been planning on pursuing. Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton and Pew Charitable Trusts' Broadband Access Initiative Director Kathryn de Wit said they’re o

The Commerce Department has approved broadband spending plans for 29 states under its $42.45 billion broadband expansion plan. So far, most of the approved plans don’t differ much from the draft results released by state broadband offices. Kansas’s proportion of locations set to receive fiber fell by far the most of the approved states, a more than 16 percentage point drop.

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee cleared a raft of GOP-led broadband permitting legislation. The bills would make it easier for internet service providers to cross railroad lines, set shot clocks and fee limits on state and local permitting agencies, and exempt certain projects from environmental and historical reviews, among other things. The legislation approved by the subcommittee would give state and local permitting authorities 90 days to approve or deny requests to modify existing broadband infrastructure, and 150 days to approve or deny requests for new constructi

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is close to completing plans for studying two government spectrum bands for potential repurposing. Those are the 4.400-4.940 GigaHertz and 2.7-2.9 GHz bands, according to a top agency official, which together comprise 740 megahertz of airwaves. The agency is looking to make more spectrum available to wireless carriers. “During the shutdown NTIA has been working on band study plans for 2.7 and 4.4 so that we can quickly have those out the door when the government reopens,” NTIA Chief of Staff Brooke Donilon. 

The Senate voted 60-40 on November 10 to pass a continuing resolution that would reopen the government, plus some appropriations bills. One of the pieces of legislation would provide about $109 million for rural broadband programs. The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) ReConnect program would see $50,750,000 of that.