Trump Wants to Overhaul Biden's Broadband Program to Award Tens of Billions of Dollars to Musk

WASHINGTON — According to recent press reports, the U.S. Commerce Department is looking to overhaul a $42.5 billion program to fund broadband deployment in rural areas, a shift that would include changes designed to directly benefit Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-internet service. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is reportedly reengineering the federal funding criteria to significantly increase the share of money available for satellite-based services.

Congress created the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program as part of the 2021 infrastructure bill that then-President Biden signed into law. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has already approved initial proposals from every state and U.S. territory. Thirty-nine states and territories have completed their initial eligibility challenge process. The access-provider selection process has already begun in 22 states, and three states are in their final challenge processes. 

A Free Press investigation of an earlier rural access program, created during the first Trump administration, found Starlink sought subsidies to bring connectivity to unoccupied parking lots and traffic islands, as well as to urban areas that other providers already served. During the Biden administration, the FCC rejected Starlink’s application for almost $900 million in subsidies when Musk's company failed to show it was able to meet service requirements for funding. 

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:

“The Trump administration is undermining an essential bipartisan program designed to bring reliable and affordable broadband to tens of millions of Americans — and it’s doing so just to line Elon Musk's already bulging pockets. Congress required the NTIA and states to prioritize broadband deployments that will provide the best and most reliable service to U.S. consumers for the long term. The Trump administration is throwing out this sensible approach to favor only providers who are stationed inside the White House. We need infrastructure that lasts, not insider trading.

“From the FAA to the Defense Department, giving billions to Musk seems to be the Trump administration’s top priority, and now the Commerce Department is getting in on the action. The bipartisan infrastructure bill that created BEAD and the Affordable Connectivity Program was designed to make broadband more available and affordable for tens of millions of families. But the Trump administration is jeopardizing that goal in favor of cronyism. There is nothing ‘technology neutral’ about this reported proposal: It simply exists to benefit the world’s richest man at the expense of the American public.

“Starlink’s internet-access service is currently available to anyone in the United States. The company doesn’t need a single dime of taxpayer subsidies, and its previous attempt to get free government money, which the FCC rejected, consisted of empty promises to serve empty places. 

“The NTIA has already approved the initial BEAD proposals of every state and territory. The promised and congressionally approved money is poised to go out the door — and the idea of costly delays in pursuit of so-called efficiency is outrageous. To throw a wrench in now will only lead to waste, fraud, abuse and delays that will further widen the digital divide in both urban and rural communities.”