A $42.5 billion program to expand high-speed internet in the US is facing new uncertainty after a government watchdog found that the Trump administration improperly overhauled it in June.
The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program had cleared its last hurdles, and was beginning to distribute funds to states to help build fiber networks and pay for satellite services. But on Tuesday, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a ruling that could open the program to new delays and even lawsuits.
The GAO found that the Trump administration’s controversial changes to the BEAD program were substantial enough to require a Congressional review before they took effect. However, the agency in charge, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the Commerce Department, never sent a notice to Congress. Instead it cleared the reforms itself, and required all US states and territories to re-submit their BEAD proposals. Since then, over half of the proposals have been approved.
The GAO ruling has prompted the nonprofit Benton Institute for Broadband and Society to urge Congress to intervene. “As GAO’s analysis clearly shows, the June 6th policy notice that dramatically changed the BEAD Program can not take effect without Congressional review,” the group’s executive director, Revati Prasad, said in a statement.
The Trump reforms included prioritizing lower-cost options and opening more funding to satellite internet services, including SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Leo, potentially taking it away from faster, but more expensive fiber installations.
The GAO told PCMag its role isn’t to enforce the ruling. Still, the office took up the matter on a request from Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Last month, a group of three other Democratic lawmakers called out the Trump administration’s June reforms, claiming the changes violate the original intent of the funding. “Rural communities were especially poised to finally receive the same future-proof infrastructure that today connects urban centers and densely populated suburbs,” the lawmakers wrote to the NTIA.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
One major question is whether Democrats will use the GAO ruling to try and invalidate the Trump administration’s reforms to BEAD through a special procedure under the Congressional Review Act. The Democratic lawmakers didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another issue is whether internet service providers will leverage the GAO ruling to file lawsuits because they were on track to receive a larger share of BEAD funding before the Trump administration changed the program. Currently, SpaceX and Amazon are slated to receive close to $1 billion collectively to serve close to 900,000 locations in the BEAD program, or about 22.5%. Fiber has been allocated to about 63% of the locations.
(Credit: Wes Robinson)
In the meantime, broadband experts are concerned that the BEAD program, which started in 2022 as part of former President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will face even more delays and turmoil.
“[State broadband offices] are ready to jump out of a window at this point,” Kansas’s former director for the office of broadband development, Jade Piros de Carvalho, posted on LinkedIn.
The Commerce Department and NTIA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, Indiana’s broadband office told PCMag: “We will, of course, comply with all federal requirements. Beyond that, we don’t have additional comments at this time.”
About Our Expert
Michael Kan
Senior Reporter
Experience
I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. Earlier this year, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how President Trump’s tariffs will affect the industry. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
Read Full Bio
&w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "Fone Bluetooth Galaxy Buds 3 Pro pelo menor preço com cupom; aproveite")
:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_08fbf48bc0524877943fe86e43087e7a/internal_photos/bs/2025/0/X/kdkGlZRvuSPHvqkAVfZw/mv5bmjrkmmvkngitmwu0yi00mgi3ltgynzqtywmymja4mtc2n2uyxkeyxkfqcgc-.-v1-.jpg?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "12 animes ecchi do Crunchyroll para quem gosta de produções adultas")
