Bipartisan Letter Urges NTIA to Follow the Law and Allow States to Access their Full BEAD Allocation

 
Washington, DC | December 9, 2025 -- In a strong bipartisan appeal, 164 state legislators from 28 states sent an open letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Administrator Arielle Roth, urging the Department of Commerce to release the remaining Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funds to the states for non-deployment purposes. 

The state legislators emphasize that “non-deployment” investments are required by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law; they are not optional extras but mandated by Congress to achieve BEAD’s mission of enabling states to strengthen the systems, workforce, and infrastructure needed to close the digital divide.

“Congress made non-deployment investments central to BEAD’s mission, and states built their plans around that mandate,” said Missouri State Representative Louis Riggs, and State Connections Co-Chair. “The support from over 160 state legislators represents the bipartisan urgency in receiving guidance from NTIA to ensure these non-deployment funds are released so states have the resources to deliver affordable and reliable broadband to their residents.”

According to the letter: 

The scale of non-deployment will allow states to improve virtually every aspect of their connectivity. Most states will likely have hundreds of millions of dollars available, while some—Texas and North Carolina—will have over $1 billion. This unprecedented opportunity was created in direct response to NTIA’s call for efficiency. To now deny states the funds their efficiency generated would penalize success and undermine BEAD’s purpose.

“Network deployment is BEAD’s top priority, but not its only priority,” said Indiana State Representative Matt Pierce, State Connections Co-Chair. “We’ve built smart broadband plans tailored to our communities, and the non-deployment funds are what turn infrastructure into opportunity.” 

This appeal builds on a letter that legislators initially sent on November 18, 2025, urging the Trump administration to release non-deployment funds so states have the resources Congress mandated to help BEAD close the digital divide. While legislators did not make the initial letter public at that time, it helped prompt Administrator Roth to state last week that she is “operating under the assumption that states will get to use their BEAD savings,” while emphasizing that no final decision has been made.

The letter was organized by State Connections: The Broadband Working Group for State Legislators and shared for publication with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. States represented include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The authors are still accepting signatures. A copy of the joint letter is available here.

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About State Connections: State Connections is a broadband working group created by and for state legislators. With hundreds of members from across the country, we provide a venue for broadband champions to exchange ideas and collaborate to close the digital divide. 

About the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society: The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a 44-year-old nonprofit working to make sure everyone in the United States can use and benefit from high-quality, affordable broadband. We strengthen local, state, and national leadership by providing the timely information and analysis, practical guidance, and advocacy needed to articulate and implement a broadband-for-all agenda. 

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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.

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