Written by Ethan Mitchell.
In 2021, President Biden announced a $42.5 billion initiative to provide high-speed internet to all Americans. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reports that not a single American has benefited from this massive investment. Despite the grand promise, the initiative has yet to deliver any results.
Allegedly, the project is bogged down in bureaucratic red tape. One would think that with full government control, they could cut through these delays. The funds, managed by the Commerce Department under the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, are stuck in a regulatory quagmire.
Regulatory Roadblocks and Financial Mismanagement
The BEAD program aims to regulate consumer rates, putting it at odds with internet providers and congressional Republicans. The law, they argue, prohibits such regulation. This move appears to be an attempt to redistribute wealth under the guise of public service. Meanwhile, the administration is failing to build necessary infrastructure, such as charging stations for electric vehicles, while undermining the gas-powered car industry.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized the Biden administration, stating on social media that not a single person has been connected to high-speed internet. The question remains: where did the money go? A significant portion of it was diverted to Ukraine. Within two weeks, amounts of $250 million, $444 million, and $800 million were sent to Ukraine, reflecting a pattern of rapid financial support.
DEI and Other Diversions
According to The Washington Times, senators have repeatedly written to Alan Davidson, head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, complaining about the funding requirements related to labor, climate change, diversity, equity, and inclusion. These stipulations, they argue, were added after the program was signed into law, diverting resources from the primary goal of providing broadband service to rural America.
“As numerous states and stakeholders have articulated, current BEAD rules divert resources away from bringing broadband service to rural America and are inconsistent with NTIA’s statutory authority in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” 11 Republican senators wrote to Davidson. They listed several stipulations for obtaining funds that lawmakers say should be eliminated, including preferences for hiring union workers, prioritizing certain segments of the workforce, and accounting for future climate risks.
Broken Promises and Bureaucratic Failures
The Biden administration’s $42.45 billion plan from 2021 has yet to result in any tangible progress. In 2022, the government revoked an award to Starlink that would have provided high-speed internet to 642,000 rural locations. This failure was not just foreseeable but was predicted by senators in 2022, who warned that Biden’s convoluted process and excessive bureaucracy would delay connecting underserved Americans.
One former Biden White House official even blamed the 2021 Democrat-controlled Congress for the administration’s failure to connect anyone to the internet with the $42.45 billion. The White House had touted this as President Biden’s deal, yet the 2021 law did not mandate the administration to extend this process into 2025 without any progress.
Our Take
The Biden administration’s failure to deliver on its $42.5 billion high-speed internet initiative is a glaring example of mismanagement and misplaced priorities. While American taxpayers foot the bill, the promised benefits remain unseen. Redirecting funds to unrelated international aid and layering on regulatory burdens has only exacerbated the problem. The public deserves efficient use of their money, not bureaucratic delays and ineffective policies.
