Letter

Representative April McClain Delaney (D-MD-06) led a letter with her House colleagues demanding that the Department of Commerce explain its continued withholding of appropriated funds that Congress explicitly authorized under its historic $65 billion-dollar internet initiative known as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Prior to serving as a Member of Congress, Rep.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and colleagues are sounding the alarm to President Donald Trump and Senate Republican Leader John Thune over the administration's concerted efforts to undermine the autonomy of independent agencies, citing the removal of Democratic leaders and the administration's refusal to nominate Democratic replacements to bipartisan leadership positions as required by statute. They write, "Congress designed these boards and commissions to be bipartisan and gave them the authority to regulate some of the most vital and significant parts of American life.

Yucca Telecommunications did not meet its applicable Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) deployment milestone by the required deadline due to the RDOF Interim list containing less locations than the number of locations Yucca was awarded in the RDOF auction. Yucca has passed a 100 percent verification audit to demonstrate to the FCC that Yucca is fully deployed to the RDOF-assigned blocks during May 2026. Yucca cannot achieve 100% deployment in the USAC HUBB because the RDOF Interim location list lists only 3 locations within the assigned census blocks.

A coalition of trade associations representing broadband providers, medical device manufacturers, automobile manufacturers, and national retailers sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Bessent and Commerce Secretary Lutnick to express concern about “an urgent imbalance in the market for memory chips that could lead to significant and sustained near-term price increases for American households and disrupt critical U.S. supply chains.” They urge the Administration to:

The Universal Service Administrative Company provided current E-Rate commitment and disbursement data for Head Start and pre-kindergarten facilities and students for funding year 2025. The commitment and disbursement amounts for Head Start and pre-K facilities are:

• Head Start Schools
  • FY 2025 Commitment Amounts: $15.5 million
  • FY 2025 Disbursement Amounts: $7.4 million
• Private and Public Pre-Kindergarten Schools
  • FY 2025 Commitment Amounts: $43.9 million
  • FY 2025 Disbursement Amounts: $21.6 million

The Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC’s) estimated total Rural Health Care (RHC) Program demand for Funding Year 2026 is $911.25 million, including the gross demand estimate of $882.19 million for the Telecommunications (Telecom) and Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Programs and the projected USAC administrative expenses of $29.06 million.

RiverStreet Communications of Virginia submited its twelfth quarterly report associated with the gap in meeting its December 31, 2022, interim milestone obligation for its Connect American Fund Phase II (CAF II) auction support (Compliance Gap). RiverStreet has deployed broadband to 115 locations since the company’s eleventh Quarterly Report filed on March 2, 2026 and, to date, RiverStreet has deployed broadband to a total of 7,327 locations. Since its Eleventh Quarterly Report, RiverStreet has continued its efforts to close the Compliance Gap.

NTCA urges the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to further advance accountability and transparency in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program by publicly releasing (or directing Eligible Entities to publish, as applicable) the results of each subgrantee’s performance testing.

MSEC Communications notified the Federal Communications Commission that the company had withdrawn from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program. Largely because of the extremely high construction costs associated with deploying service to the remaining locations within MSEC's RDOF service area, MSEC withdrew so that other funding can be made available in these areas.

On May 11th through 13th, SpaceX met with the offices of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Carr, FCC Commissioner Trusty, and FCC Commissioner Gomez, and with the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, to discuss reassessment of High-Cost programs in the context of satellite broadband services delivering broadband at competitive rates throughout the areas supported by High-Cost programs... The rapid growth of low-Earth orbit satellite broadband service in recent years has made high-speed, low-latency broadband access available throughout the entirety of the United States.