Putting 'Visceral' Reactions Aside, State Broadband Officers Plan to Make BEAD Work
Do states and providers have more flexibility, or less, under NTIA's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment restructuring notice?
WASHINGTON, June 13, 2025 – After setting aside “visceral” reactions against the NTIA’s June 6 restructuring policy notice governing the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, state broadband officials Thursday expressed willingness to roll up their sleeves and make it work.
“It appeared to be much more of a mess last week, when we were all very visceral in our reactions to it,” Eric Frederick, Chief Connectivity Officer at Michigan’s High-Speed Internet Office said in an interview with Broadband Breakfast after the panel on which he spoke at the Speeding BEAD Summit.
“Having met with all the other offices and met with my staff for the last four days, it’s coming together. The plan is coming together. Our timeline is coming together,” said Frederick. “And so we’ll just tackle this like we did the first time.”
Panel 2: Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD
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“We had expected it, so I'm going to put a twist on it and say we're really glad to see and have some certainty,” Marissa Mitrovich, vice president of public policy for the Fiber Broadband Association, said when discussing the changes made to the program by the Commerce Department on June 6.
The panel on which they spoke, “Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD,” one of four panel sessions at Broadband Breakfast’s Speeding the BEAD Summit, also included two Republican Congressional aides. Both were bullish on the NTIA’s June 6 changes.
“We imagine that because these burdens are removed, the program will become more attractive to providers,” said John Lin, senior counsel for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “Before, a lot of providers looked at these reporting requirements, looked at these union report first requirements, or whatever, and were drawn away, pushed away, and we hope that now they see that they’re gone, they’re more interested.”
Flexibility is an issue
“NTIA is not dictating what each state should be offering,” said Reagan Harrison, legislative assistant for Congressman John Joyce. “I think now that we’ve actually been able to restructure, the flexibility is back.”
However, panelists from state broadband agencies also raised concerns about the future of the program, and pushed for state flexibility.
“Please do not set our extremely high cost threshold for us,” said Bree Maki, executive director at the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development.
“We have invested in Minnesota in broadband for ten grant rounds, over $400 million, and we know the information and how much it costs to get things done, and also the hardest and most difficult places to serve are what's left. So our extremely high cost threshold is going to look very different than other states, and so we need that flexibility to really maximize the dollars that we have.”
Maki expanded on her thoughts in an interview.
“It feels like the decision does come from NTIA,” she said, “when they read our final proposals and make decisions on how and when we move forward. We certainly are ready to step up, and we would love to be fully in charge, but it’s a partnership and so hopeful.”
But the Energy and Commerce Committee's Lin had a different take on flexibility.
“We thought that the original NOFO gave states too much flexibility beyond what the statute said,” he said.
Harrison, however, said that the Trump administration changes gave states more flexibility than they had before.
“NTIA is not dictating [anymore] what each state should be offering,” she said. “And so now that we've actually been able to restructure [the program] the flexibility is back.”
Next steps for the program
Panelists were quick to note changes to the program they supported, while sharing what they thought their next steps would be.
Mitrovich expressed excitement about changes regarding permitting.
The restructuring notice says that government officials are “going to be able to do approvals within one to two weeks, something that [before took] three to six months on average,” she said. “And so to me that was great. What you know, I want to see how this works, but that's a positive.”
“I know that [the ISP community] are likely going to be excited about some of these changes. I mean, we are too," said Frederick. "It’s an administrative burden [lifted] off. On a lot of those things, they’re going to be excited about it. I know they’re not going to be excited about reapplying. That’s my very first concern, is making sure that our providers stay interested.”
But his biggest concern is the need to resubmit locations, Frederick said in the interview. “That’s probably my most immediate concern, simply from a very data technical formatting perspective,” he said, “that’s kind of my biggest gray area at the moment.”
Participants also discussed the challenges of helping people gain the necessary skills to use broadband effectively.
“The infrastructure piece is easy,” Frederick said. “The hard part is getting people to adopt it, to know how to use it, to have an evolution of skills over time, to adapt to new technologies and new applications of this technology, to use their devices, to provide the tech support.”
The panel was moderated by Scott Woods, president of public-private partnerships at software company Ready.
