On September 9^th I testified to the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology at a hearing entitled “From Introduction to Implementation: A BEAD Program Progress Report. (My testimony can be found here.) The hearing, in a sense, was designed to convict the Biden Administration of administrative negligence in its handling of the BEAD program. When the hearing ended, my long dormant lawyer genes wanted to give a closing argument summarizing the hearing. Of course, Congressional hearings allow for no such thing. But if they did, here is what I would have said.

• First Count: BEAD is Taking Too Long. Verdict: Not Guilty on Account of Congressional Intent
• Count Two: BEAD is Violating “Technology Neutrality”. Verdict: Not Guilty
• Count Three: BEAD too Friendly to Labor. Verdict: Not Guilty
• Count Four: BEAD is Engaging in Price Regulation. Verdict: Not Guilty

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the Republicans were totally in their rights to ask the questions they asked and raise the questions they did. Further, the BEAD implementation has not been perfect. No implementation ever is. Further, we should be encouraged by the bipartisan agreement on the goal and the need to work together to address such problems as permitting, workforce and universal service reform. But in looking at the evidence provided in the hearing, one must conclude that the Administration has diligently moved forward in its efforts to achieve the bipartisan universal service goal, including having to spend considerable time and effort cleaning up the mess that a Republican FCC made four years ago and making sure that such a mess does not occur again.

[Blair Levin is the Policy Advisor to New Street Research and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro​]

In Montana, over 63,400 Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) remain unserved and nearly 24,000 remain underserved. The Montana Broadband Office’s vision is to close the digital divide in support of Montana’s economic, workforce, health, and educational goals by ensuring reliable, affordable internet access for everyone in the state. Montana aims to increase broadband access and adoption by pairing broadband deployment with digital opportunity efforts. To do this, the state has developed six goals, each with its own objectives, covering broadband deployment, access, adoption, affordability, digital opportunity, and economic growth and job creation. On affordability, Montana planned to leverage the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)—before the program ended—to ensure that cost is not a barrier to accessing broadband for all Montanans, irrespective of their income level. The objective is to ensure that more residents can access internet services, and that the internet is more affordable for them. In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress mandated that networks built with Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program support offer at least one low-cost broadband service option for eligible subscribers. Each state (in consultation with NTIA and subgrantees) will define what ‘‘low-cost broadband service option’’ means for this purpose and the NTIA will determine who the eligible subscribers are and approve state definitions of low-cost broadband service options. Some states—and this week we learned this week that Montana is one of them—have balked at NTIA's suggestion that low-cost broadband service options be priced at or near $30/month which, in combination with the ACP, would make broadband service affordable for any low-income household on a BEAD network. While the Montana Broadband Office (MBO) recognizes the importance of affordable access to broadband, the MBO philosophically disagrees with the NTIA’s position that rate requirements are not rate-setting. At a House Commerce Committee oversight hearing, Misty Ann Giles, the Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Montana Department of Administration, said, "The position of NTIA is ... that this is a voluntary program, so it's not rate setting. However, I would state that is a farce." However, the MBO has worked to find a data-driven solution that meets the NTIA’s requirements, improves the potential for companies to participate in the program, and serves all Montanans.

This annual report on the U.S. Microbusiness Activity Index (MAI) provides an update on microbusinesses, incorporating data up to March 2024. It covers the national, states, metropolitan areas, and counties. Highlights include:

• Recent months have seen a rise in the MAI, driven by increased microbusiness engagement and Generative AI tool adoption, enabling entrepreneurs with limited resources to boost productivity and compete effectively with larger companies.
• After controlling for various factors, we find evidence that the MAI, and its sub-indices: the infrastructure index and participation index are associated with local job growth.
• On average, we find evidence that an additional entrepreneur is correlated with an increase of 7.4 local jobs. Microbusiness participation also contributes positively to local labor force participation.