CAGW Declares Victory Over Biden’s Broadband Regulators
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) applauds a major victory for taxpayers, consumers, and rapid broadband deployment to close the digital divide as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) rescinds broadband price controls and other non-statutory guidance following a strong push for these changes by CAGW.
On June 6, 2025, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a “BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice” updating the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requirements for telecommunications providers to participate in the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021. The original NOFO, released on May 13, 2022, ignored the IIJA’s prohibition against rate-setting by imposing a complex series of costly and unnecessary rate regulations on broadband service to residential customers in low-and middle-income households across the country known as “Middle-Class Affordability” and “Low-Cost Broadband Service Option” (LCBSO) requirements, while allowing state broadband offices some flexibility in how they proposed to meet these requirements. The NOFO also included non-statutory provisions related to climate, data usage limits, government-owned networks, labor, and technology preferences.
CAGW first raised concerns about the non-statutory requirements in its February 3, 2022, comments to the NTIA about the NOFO, and reiterated objections to the price controls in February 2024. In October 2024, CAGW President Tom Schatz and State Government Affairs Associate Alec Mena detailed the complex web of each state’s proposed rate regulations in an issue brief, BEAD: Broadband or Bust.
While NTIA awaits Senate confirmation for President Trump’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, Arielle Roth, to take the reins, acting NTIA administrator Adam Cassady has overseen the process of issuing a comprehensive series of amendments to the NOFO. His first decision bodes well for further changes that will provide the flexibility needed to provide broadband connections for unserved and underserved businesses and households across the country.
After heeding calls from CAGW, then-Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and others, NTIA removed the rate regulations that would have undermined Congress’s goal of encouraging maximal provider participation to provide access to the internet for millions of Americans. The Restructuring Policy Notice also eliminated the NOFO’s non-statutory requirements related to “labor, employment, and workforce development,” including prevailing wage mandates, and its “climate resilience” requirement, which would have delayed broadband deployment by narrowing the pool of providers qualified to participate. NTIA also dropped the NOFO’s non-statutory prohibition on data usage caps and its preference for end-to-end fiber projects, instead adopting a technology-neutral, all-of-the-above approach to bringing every form of internet service to rural America, from fiber and fixed wireless to low-earth orbit satellite broadband. The promotion of government-owned networks, which CAGW has repeatedly revealed as being wasteful and ineffective, was also removed.
The NTIA’s decision should enable states to move quickly with agreements to begin efficient and effective broadband deployment. The agency’s decision to follow the law will provide the flexibility needed to reach businesses and households across the country, especially in geographically challenging locations or areas that do not already have service from private service providers.
