Department of Treasury

This week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a comprehensive review of federal broadband funding programs and what actions are needed from key agencies to help close the digital divide. In May 2022, GAO called for the synchronization of federal efforts on broadband, identifying 100 broadband programs and emphasizing the need for a national broadband strategy.

The state of Texas has awarded Lyte Fiber LLC $57.8 million to provide broadband to 6,750 unserved and underserved homes and businesses in Marion and Navarro counties. The Navarro County grant—which represents $43.3 million of the total—was a recent award. The awards were made by the state’s Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas II Program, which is overseen by the Comptroller’s Broadband Development Office.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved a historic $40 million investment in internet connectivity, announcing the New Jersey Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Equity Pilot Program grant awardees.

Governor Kathy Hochul highlighted the launch of Phase 4 of New York State’s Municipal Infrastructure Program Request for Applications, making nearly $50 million available to support broadband infrastructure projects across the state. MIP connects unserved and underserved communities to high-speed internet through open-access and publicly controlled broadband infrastructure. To date, ConnectALL has awarded over $240 million, enabling the construction of almost 2,400 miles of fiber and connecting nearly 100,000 locations statewide.

The Healey-Driscoll administration and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s Massachusetts Broadband Institute announced $10,410,183 in grants to upgrade internet access in nearly 8,000 public and affordable housing across 26 Massachusetts communities. MBI provided the awards through the Residential Retrofit Program, an initiative that works with housing operators and internet service providers to upgrade broadband infrastructure in public and affordable housing properties.

The Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) Program, which announced a second round of broadband grants for $701.9 million earlier in 2025, has updated its list of grantees to include seven new awards. The awards now cover more than 76,000 locations in Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Carson, Coleman, Colorado, Edwards, Falls, Fannin, Irion, Karnes, Kenedy, Liberty, Marion, Morris, Newton, Reagan, Roberts, Throckmorton, and Trinity counties.

The Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) recently approved 12 broadband infrastructure projects totaling $32.5 million to be funded by the Capital Projects Fund (CPF). These 12 CPF projects will provide $32.5 million of grant funding to build internet services to approximately 9,000 households in portions of 12 counties across the state. In 2024, BEAM approved 37 other CPF projects totaling $100 million to serve approximately 42,000 households across the state.

The Trump administration is spurring confusion as it seeks to implement a sweeping freeze of federal assistance, undermining laws Congress has enacted in recent years.

The American people elected Donald Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar. In Fiscal Year 2024, of the nearly $10 trillion that the Federal Government spent, more than $3 trillion was Federal financial assistance, such as grants and loans. Career and political appointees in the Executive Branch have a duty to align Federal spending and action with the will of the American people as expressed through Presidential priorities.

Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) announced the first grant awards under the Affordable Housing Connectivity Program that will deliver high-speed internet to thousands of lower income households. The inaugural awards from the Affordable Housing Connectivity Program will provide broadband service at $10 per month and Gigabit-speed service at $30 per month to an anticipated 14,167 lower income households across Buffalo, Rochester, upper Manhattan and the Bronx through 2034.