D.C. Memo: NTIA Pick Roth Fends Off Senate Democratic Pressure
◾ Gov. Beshear Loses Chevron Doctrine Veto Fight ◾ Thune Pushing BEAD Reforms ◾ Mich. Tax Bill Would Exempt BEAD Grants ◾ Carr: No FCC Brain Drain ◾ New Mexico Unveils BEAD Bids ◾ NAB Show, April 6-9
NTIA: Senate Democrats tried repeatedly yesterday to get NTIA Administrator-designate Arielle Roth to say that she’s going to shift billions of dollars in the $42.45 billion BEAD program from fiber to Elon Musk’s Starlink service. They also tried to get her to agree to release funds to Louisiana, Delaware, and Nevada as soon as possible. And they wanted assurances that NTIA would not force states to redo their BEAD allocations – and thereby introduce a new delay – in response to NTIA’s emphasis on tech-neutrality in lieu of a strict fiber preference. All this played out before the Senate Commerce Committee under Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), where just 10 of 28 members attended. Roth handled each discrete issue almost the same way. She was mostly non-committal expect to say she would always follow the law, cut Biden-era red tape, and begin work on getting broadband projects rolling as expeditiously as possible. The most direct challenge came from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who asked, “If confirmed, would you implement a spending cap on the program and if so, at what threshold would you set it?” Roth was cautious. “In terms of a spending cap, I would want to speak with NTIA’s distinguish career staff to know what, if any, authority NTIA has,” she said. Reference to a spending cap was a proxy for saying NTIA will not fund fiber projects that cost more that x-amount of dollars and that the lower the cap, the more money for Starlink.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) accused the Trump administration of wanting to turn BEAD “into a subsidy for Elon Musk’s Starlink under the guise of making the program ‘technology neutral.” Cruz came to Musk’s defense. “If Elon Musk had decided to be a ginormous Democratic donor, I have no doubt that the Biden administration would have pulled out a piñata and celebrated Starlink providing broadband,” Cruz said. “But because he was on the other side politically, the American people paid the price and didn't get connected to the Internet.”
Roth testified with family (including five children) and supporters nearby. Roth disclosed she’s close to giving birth to her sixth child. Roth is married to former Jones Day attorney Yaakov Roth, who resigned on Feb. 21 to become principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil division.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said she was concerned that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s stem-to-stern overhaul of BEAD would cause needless delay. Markey also sought a commitment to a quick timeline to Lutnick’s review. “I am not in position to commit to a specific timeline,” Roth said.“I would hope than any review would be done quickly, with an eye to expediting deployment,” Roth said. (More after paywall.)
