From 2020 through 2024, Congress appropriated over $82 billion to programs across multiple agencies to expand broadband access. In a number of reports in recent years, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s watchdog that investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars, recommended that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) better communicate the financial sustainability of broadband projects to Congress and improve collaboration with the other federal agencies that fund broadband deployment. On June 22, 2026, GAO wrote to Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Arielle Roth, who leads NTIA, to call attention to these and other recommendations that NTIA has not yet acted on.

In the two broadband reports GAO’s letter cites, the four agencies received 17 recommendations: 6 to NTIA, 6 to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 3 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and 2 to the Department of the Treasury. Sixteen of the 17 remain open (that is, not fully implemented), including two “priority recommendations”—GAO’s designation for recommendations that, when implemented, may significantly improve government operations, such as by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress on a high-risk or duplication issue. Both open priority recommendations belong to NTIA.

The stakes are not abstract. GAO reported that if NTIA worked with the other agencies to better manage duplication in their broadband funding processes, the federal government could save $10 million or more. The letter also notes, as GAO routinely does, the tools Congress holds if agencies stall: lawmakers can hold hearings on agencies' progress implementing priority recommendations, withhold funds when appropriate, or take other actions to incentivize agencies to act.

GAO sends letters like this to agency heads every year, and the communications rarely make news. That is arguably part of the problem. A recommendation an agency has agreed with, and not implemented, generates a paragraph in next year's letter and little else. What follows is what Congress's watchdog has asked NTIA to do, how long the requests have been pending, and what would count as done.

The letter highlights three areas warranting Assistant Secretary Roth’s “timely and focused attention”: managing radio-frequency spectrum, managing information technology and cybersecurity risks to spectrum infrastructure, and managing federal broadband programs. Here we focus on the third.

Financial Sustainability of Broadband Networks on Tribal Lands

In June 2024, GAO completed a review of NTIA’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) and reported its findings to the Senate and House Commerce Committees.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 established TBCP, initially appropriating $1 billion for grants to eligible entities—tribal governments, tribal colleges and universities, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, tribal organizations, and Alaska Native corporations—to be used for:

• broadband infrastructure deployment on tribal lands;
• affordable broadband programs, including free or reduced-cost broadband service and preventing disconnection of existing service; and
• telehealth, distance learning, digital inclusion, and broadband adoption activities.

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress appropriated an additional $2 billion for TBCP while allowing grantees more time to deploy broadband networks and help more people get online. Specifically, grantees were allowed 18 months (instead of 6 months) to commit (obligate) funds to an approved project—and 4 years instead of 1 to expend all their grant funding (i.e. actually spend the funds).

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 also includes a provision for GAO to review TBCP grants every six months until funds are expended. GAO’s June 2024 report—its fifth response to that provision—examined four topics:

1. grants that reached Tribes that had not received previous federal broadband support;
2. recipients’ plans for network ownership and financial sustainability, and the assistance NTIA provided on financial sustainability;
3. the extent to which NTIA provided recipients with technical assistance in the environmental review process; and
4. the extent to which NTIA identified duplication with awards from other federally funded broadband programs before making TBCP grants.

GAO compared NTIA’s efforts to leading practices and analyzed data from TBCP and other key federal broadband programs.

Tribal organizations and NTIA—which selects and oversees TBCP recipients—told GAO that it will be difficult to financially sustain networks built under TBCP. Although the statute does not require projects to be financially sustainable, GAO notes the program cannot fulfill its purpose if networks go dark. These networks will serve areas that have not attracted private-sector investment due to their location, density, and income levels.

NTIA’s plans for providing technical assistance throughout the funding period do not include support for recipients that are unable to implement their financial sustainability plans, the commitments applicants made in grant applications submitted as far back as 2021 to show how their networks would stay viable after the federal money runs out. In addition, over half of TBCP recipients with infrastructure projects planned to use other federal funding to support their ongoing financial sustainability. But those sources have proven difficult for Tribes to obtain or have ended. Recipients most frequently named the Affordable Connectivity Program, the federal broadband subsidy for low-income households, and FCC Universal Service Fund programs, and 36 percent (50 of 138) cited one or both. One Alaska recipient planning to serve more than 14,000 households told GAO its business model was contingent on Affordable Connectivity Program funding. That program's last fully funded month was April 2024.

GAO concluded that providing technical assistance to recipients and reporting to Congress on the financial sustainability needs of the projects would help NTIA achieve its purpose of improving the quality of life through expanding broadband service in historically underserved Native American communities.

GAO made three recommendations to NTIA. One—that NTIA consolidate technical assistance resources for the TBCP environmental review process in a single location on its website—was implemented.[1]

The two financial sustainability recommendations remain open:

1. The NTIA Administrator should provide technical assistance throughout the funding period to support TBCP recipients that are unable to implement their financial sustainability plans. NTIA agreed with this recommendation and said it is continuing to work to address it. NTIA has said it plans to work with the Tribal Broadband Leaders Network[2] (TBLN) to provide technical assistance to Tribes on building financially sustainable broadband networks. In March 2026, NTIA confirmed that an in-person TBLN meeting will convene in October 2026 with a dedicated session on financial sustainability strategies for Tribal broadband projects. GAO still considers this recommendation open.
2. The NTIA Administrator should report to Congress on the resources necessary to ensure the financial sustainability of TBCP infrastructure projects. NTIA also agreed with this recommendation and, in July 2025, indicated that it anticipates having the data needed to make that report to Congress in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026. This is one of GAO’s two open priority recommendations on broadband.

Federal Broadband Funding Collaboration

In 2022, GAO inventoried federal programs that either must or can be used to support expanding broadband access, identifying more than 100 administered by 15 federal agencies—a “fragmented, overlapping patchwork” of funding, in GAO’s words. The bulk of the support flows through NTIA, the FCC, USDA, and Treasury. GAO made three recommendations in that report:

• Two to NTIA—to report to Congress on the key statutory provisions limiting the beneficial alignment of broadband programs, and to incorporate user feedback when updating the BroadbandUSA Federal Funding Guide—and
• One to the Executive Office of the President—develop and implement a national broadband strategy. In a December 2024 written response, the Executive Office continued to promote the importance of providing broadband access to all areas but did not address the development of a national strategy. “Without a national strategy,” GAO writes, “broadband access for people living on tribal lands will continue to lag behind the rest of the country, perpetuating the digital divide.” GAO requested an update from the Executive Office in January 2026, but has not received one. “A holistic national strategy is needed to ensure that coordination efforts accomplish identified goals,” the GAO writes.

In 2023, then-Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD) (now the Senate Majority Leader) and then-Chairman Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband asked GAO to build on previous work and review federal broadband efforts. The resulting April 2025 report, Broadband Programs: Agencies Need to Further Improve Their Data Quality and Coordination Efforts, examines (1) the sources of broadband availability information agencies use and the extent to which the FCC ensures the quality of data in its National Broadband Map; (2) the extent to which agencies’ coordination of broadband funding programs aligns with GAO’s leading practices for interagency collaboration; and (3) how agencies have coordinated with state and territory governments on broadband funding, and those governments’ perspectives on that coordination.

On data quality, GAO found that federal agencies rely on the FCC's National Broadband Map as a key information source to target tens of billions of dollars in federal broadband funding. The map tells them where high-speed internet is already available. The clearest example is the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, the $42 billion state-administered deployment effort created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. As required by that law, NTIA divided BEAD's funding among the states based on each state's count of unserved locations on the National Broadband Map—and states then used the map to build their initial lists of eligible locations for funding. Yet GAO concluded the accuracy of the map's availability data "is uncertain" because the FCC has never documented or assessed whether its processes for verifying the data are sufficient. Without those steps, GAO found, the FCC cannot know whether its quality controls are working or whether staff applies them consistently, increasing the risk that inaccurate data appear on the map that agencies use to make funding decisions.

On coordination, GAO found that the four agencies’ efforts generally followed two of GAO’s eight leading collaboration practices[3] (including relevant participants, and leveraging resources and information) and partially followed the other six (defining common outcomes, ensuring accountability, identifying leadership, clarifying roles and responsibilities, developing written guidance and agreements, and bridging organizational cultures).

GAO made 14 recommendations: 6 to the FCC, 3 to NTIA, 3 to USDA, and 2 to Treasury. Three of the FCC’s are specific to its Broadband Data Collection (the twice-yearly provider filings that feed the National Broadband Map):

1. Formally document the FCC’s internal policies and procedures for validating, verifying, and auditing the broadband availability data it collects (and for making enforcement referrals);
2. Assess and document the results of FCC monitoring to identify deficiencies in those processes; and
3. Remedy any deficiencies that the FCC finds.

The remaining 11 recommendations direct the same three fixes to the agencies, each acting “in collaboration and agreement” with the others:

• Define “covered data.” Clearly define and document the scope of what “covered data” includes under the agencies’ information-sharing memorandum of understanding (MOU)—the 2022 agreement, revised in 2024, that governs how the four agencies share information about their broadband deployment projects. (Directed to all four agencies.)
• Set timelines for the Broadband Funding Map. Clearly define and document timelines for agencies to submit data on funded awards—including changes to awards—to the Broadband Funding Map, the FCC’s online tool displaying federally funded broadband infrastructure projects. (Directed to all four agencies.)
• Document the de-duplication process. Clearly define and formally document the agencies’ broadband funding de-duplication process—the process for making sure two federal programs don’t pay to serve the same locations. (Directed to the FCC, NTIA, and USDA—but not to Treasury.)

The agencies’ responses varied more than the topline suggests.

• The FCC agreed with its six recommendations in a March 2025 letter and described plans to address each.
• NTIA agreed with its three, though its agreement came in informal staff-level feedback, with a promise to prepare a formal action plan.
• USDA neither agreed nor disagreed with its three, arguing it is differently situated because it funds broadband providers directly rather than states.
• Treasury “agreed to address” its two but stated it believes its existing guidance is sufficient—prompting GAO to respond, in the report itself, that “we continue to believe that it is important for Treasury to be part of conversations with the other agencies.”

As of GAO’s June 2026 letter, all 14 recommendations remain open. NTIA’s de-duplication recommendation carries GAO’s priority designation—the second of the two open broadband priority recommendations. The gap is narrower than "no process." GAO observed agencies applying de-duplication in practice, and NTIA has internal procedures covering BEAD and TBCP's second funding round. No agency has produced a formally documented process that spans all of them; the FCC and NTIA told GAO they had considered developing one but offered no documentation or time frame. To fully implement it, GAO says, NTIA needs to establish a formal process for addressing potentially duplicative broadband funding. Formally documenting written guidance, GAO adds, would better position the agencies to sustain their collaboration, manage fragmented federal broadband efforts, and ensure that the considerable federal broadband funding is spent efficiently and effectively.

What to Watch

Two dates now sit on NTIA's calendar. By the end of fiscal year 2026 (September 30), NTIA expects to have the data it needs to inform Congress what resources are necessary to keep TBCP-funded networks financially viable (though having the data is not the same as delivering the report, and only the report will close GAO's priority recommendation). And in October, the Tribal Broadband Leaders Network convenes in person with a dedicated session on financial sustainability—a step toward, though not the sum of, the sustained technical assistance GAO says struggling recipients need.

The third thing to watch has no date at all: whether the four agencies ever put their shared de-duplication process on paper, the other priority recommendation that is still open. How NTIA handles all three will tell us whether this letter was a turning point or just another reminder.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2026. Redistribution of this email publication - both internally and externally - is encouraged if it includes this copyright statement.

For subscribe/unsubscribe info, please email headlinesATbentonDOTorg

Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-220-4531
headlines AT benton DOT org

Share this edition:

Broadband Delivers Opportunities and Strengthens Communities