Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was enacted into law, household broadband users in the United States have increased from 50 percent to 96 percent. The Act established the Universal Service Fund (USF), which includes the Lifeline, High-Cost, Rural Healthcare, and E-Rate programs, to help increase access to broadband. The Act also gave the Universal […]
After Arielle Roth was confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), closing the digital divide may be closer than ever. Her confirmation comes at a critical time for the agency, as it begins to send out funding to states […]
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 […]
Since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued its first Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) guidance for the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that was created in the 2021 Instructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has raised concerns about the non-statutory prescriptive requirements that have […]
Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding included the repeal of a regulation that expanded the use of the E-Rate program under the Universal Service Fund (USF) to allows tax dollars to be used for the installation of Wi-Fi hotspots in school buses. The […]
Citizens Against Government Waste has long been concerned about wasteful spending on government-owned networks (GONs) that provide services that duplicate private sector providers in the same communities. This concern has heightened since the enactment of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021, which allocated $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment […]
Reducing regulations, especially after the massive expansion in the size and scope of the federal government during the Biden administration, will increase investment and stimulate the economy. That is one of the reasons President Trump signed an executive order (EO) on January 31, 2025, to cut 10 regulations for every new regulation, and another EO […]
It is time to review the 133 broadband programs across 15 federal agencies with an eye toward consolidation.
Issues with BEAD and USF must be resolved by the new Congress and Trump administration.
2023 saw Council for Citizens Against Government Waste secure another round of legislative wins in Congress and the states
