Sen Ernst Drafts Bill to Clawback BEAD Funding

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) has drafted a bill—the Recovering Excess Communications Appropriations while Protecting Telecommunications Upgrades, Reinvestment, and Expansion Act or the ‘RECAPTURE Act—that would amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require remaining funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to be used for deficit reduction. The RECAPTURE Act would change a section of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that redirects unused state BEAD funds to other states. Instead, states' unused BEAD funds would be deposited in the general fund of the U.S. Treasury. Current estimates find that states' recently revised BEAD proposals—which focus just on broadband network deployment—will result in nearly $21 billion for what's called "non-deployment" uses, including:

1. Data collection, broadband mapping, and planning,
2. Installing internet or Wi-Fi infrastructure or providing reduced-cost broadband within a multifamily residential building (priority given to unserved households or locations with high concentrations of families with incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line), and
3. Broadband adoption (including providing affordable internet-capable devices).