D.C. Memo: Lutnick's New BEAD Rules, Coming 'Shortly,' Rile Team Fiber
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BEAD: The future of the $42.45 billion BEAD program, a tense drama building since March, is no longer a mystery. Based on what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said yesterday on Capitol Hill, it is highly, highly unlikely that Beehive Broadband will receive $77,000 per location for a $22 million BEAD-funded fiber project awarded by the state of Nevada and approved by the Biden administration four days before President Trump’s second inauguration. Lutnick told a Senate panel that under new BEAD rules going live soon, BEAD-funded projects had to be strictly technology agnostic and done at the lowest price per user (he likely meant per location). “Just do the right thing for the American people, let's get the broadband to the people for the most efficient way, and we will put out the money,” Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies headed by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). (More after paywall.)
