The Trump administration’s emphasis on broadband reform is saving taxpayers billions of dollars, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Lutnick announced on Monday that the deregulation agenda is on track to cut $21 billion in bureaucratic and politicized policies regulating broadband, which he said were pushed by the Biden administration.
“That means putting an end to arrangements that were trying to send tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to massively wasteful, complete rip-off projects run by powerful lobbyists who are very good at getting grants and very bad at delivering results,” Lutnick said in a post on X.
“Money is only deployed when the American taxpayer gets the benefit of the bargain. When states do it right, fairly, and appropriately, the dollars go out right away. No red tape. No delays,” Lutnick said.
The commerce secretary expounded on the matter in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that accused the Biden administration of using the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to “micromanage” billions in broadband subsidies.
The passage of IIJA established the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, which Lutnick said was used to craft burdensome regulations for providers applying for a piece of the $42 billion in federal broadband funding, including by favoring fiber projects over “faster” and cheaper alternatives such as satellite and fixed wireless services.
The Biden administration also spearheaded regulations for the BEAD Program that gave “liberal special interests a veto and let them extort developers,” according to the commerce secretary. Lutnick said the administration demanded broadband providers applying for the funding give hiring preferences to “underrepresented” groups, including “Indigenous and Native American persons,” “LGBTQI+ persons,” and “persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.”
“Enter the Trump team, led by assistant Commerce secretary Arielle Roth, which removed nearly all of the Biden mandates and prioritized projects in which private operators put up more capital so they would have more skin in the game,” Lutnick wrote. “The average cost for each new household or business connected in Louisiana fell to $3,943 from $5,245. … Similar savings have occurred in other states.”
The BEAD Program began in 2021, but heading into the 2024 presidential election, none of the $42 billion marked for the project had been spent, and over a dozen states had not had their spending plans approved.
States like Nevada have been among those that have had funding pulled under the Trump administration. Oklahoma voluntarily returned hundreds of millions in BEAD Program broadband stipends to Washington in August, saying it can expand internet service across the state using cheaper wireless options.
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Lutnick said the BEAD Program illustrates “how the Biden combination of spending and regulation created market distortions and raised costs.”
“It would be better if Congress let markets allocate capital, but the Trump Administration is ensuring taxpayer funds are spent in a more cost-effective way that does less economic harm,” he added.