This Week In Waste – October 24, 2025
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior.
CCAGW Poll: Voters Demand Accountability for Wasteful Healthcare Spending
A national poll commissioned by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) shows that Americans across party lines want an end to the wasteful spending at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The findings are clear that Americans want failed models eliminated, stronger oversight, and a more flexible approach that puts patients first. Read more here.
Private Broadband Investment Is at a Near-Record High
Private investment remains the driving force behind broadband deployment. USTelecom reported $89.6 billion of private investments in broadband in 2024 and $2.2 trillion since 1996. This investment, combined with revised Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program guidance and other federal broadband programs, helps to explain why states have saved $22 billion to date in their final BEAD proposals. Read more here.
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Holds a Hearing on 340B
On October 23, 2025 the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on the growth of the 340B drug discount program. CCAGW has long advocated for Congress to reform 340B to include a clear definition of an eligible patient along with increasing transparency by participating entities in the program. The hearing should be followed by legislation to reform 340B. Read more here.
Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) Keeps Trying to Push a Failed Credit Card Policy
In the fourteen years following adoption of the Durbin Amendment, which capped debit card interchange fees, consumers have seen little to no benefit from the change. Consumer prices did not fall; instead, 98 percent of retailers either raised prices or kept them the same, while financial fraud increased by 60 percent and consumers lost their rewards programs. Now, Senator Durbin wants to extend the same failed price controls to credit cards, threatening to ruin popular rewards programs and limit access to credit, especially for lower-income consumers. Read more here.
Wireless and Aerospace Industries Agree to Open up C-band Spectrum
Representatives from the wireless and aerospace industries notified the Federal Communications Commission that they have been working together to resolve issues related to interference with aircraft altimeters in the upper channels of C-band spectrum. This agreement is a major step toward freeing up at least 180 MHz of full power spectrum for auction, subject to a few restrictions. Read more here.
West Virginia Says Municipal Pole Owners Must Pay to Replace Their Old Utility Poles
On October 15, 2025, the West Virginia Public Service Commission ruled that electric and telephone utilities, not internet service providers, must pay to replace damaged or unsafe “red-tagged” utility poles. This decision is a win for taxpayers and broadband deployment, as it helps streamline broadband expansion and protect federal funding critical to connecting underserved communities. Read more here.
