Agreed, But Not Done: The Broadband To-Do List Federal Agencies Keep Not Finishing

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, Congress’s watchdog that investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars, recommended that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration 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.