Funds totaling about $20 billion delayed under the federal rural broadband internet program will be subject to new guidance “this summer,” the agency head overseeing the project said Tuesday.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration leader Arielle Roth gave lawmakers that timeline at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, where she was pressed about the agency’s commitment to make the funds available to states. 

Roth also deferred specifics on the question of whether those funds will be held back from states that enact regulations on artificial intelligence, as directed by a presidential executive order.

After approving state and territory plans for broadband deployment under the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, NTIA and the larger Commerce Department delayed guidance for the remaining billions in so-called non-deployment funds in March.

Questioned about the delay by Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chair Richard Hudson, R-N.C., Roth said the agency was nearing release of its plans but did not set a date other than “this summer.”

“We want the funding … to produce real measurable outcomes, be non-duplicative, non-distortionary….” Roth said.

She added, “we’re proceeding cautiously in producing the guidance so that we can ensure that this funding achieves the same success as the first segment of the BEAD program.”

Hudson offered his support for using some of the non-deployment funds for upgrading to Next Generation 911, a system based on internet protocol.

AI questions

Also in March, NTIA was expected to release a policy notice, required by President Donald Trump’s December executive order, to link access to remaining BEAD funds to whether states have artificial intelligence laws deemed “onerous” by the administration.

Roth told subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif., that there is a “symbiotic relationship” between broadband and AI, but that “no final decision” has been made on the policy notice.

“I’m not going to prejudge outcomes before we’ve completed our review. What I can say is … the report will comply with the law.”

Matsui said her state should not have to choose between its AI laws and funding to connect rural and other underserved communities.

“Congress passed the bipartisan infrastructure law to connect Americans to affordable, reliable broadband. It did not condition broadband funding on whether a state regulates AI,” she said.

Matsui is a co-sponsor of a bill that would repeal Trump’s executive order.

Republicans, including Roth, have long criticized management of the BEAD program under the Biden administration, saying that environmental, labor and technology requirements prevented any deployment over the course of three years.

Multiple lawmakers questioned Roth about the particular timeline for broadband deployment in their states. Roth did not make commitments on those questions.

Roth told the panel that so far, Louisiana and Nebraska have “gotten communities connected” through fixed wireless projects and five states have “signed agreements with satellite providers.”

According to NTIA’s dashboard, updated last month, final BEAD deployment proposals have been approved for all states except for California and Illinois.

Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., said she finds “it a little hard to believe that the two states that haven’t been approved are some of the … two bluest states that we’ve got.” She asked Roth if she’d been directed to slow California’s application or if the state was being held to a different standard.

Roth denied both and said the administration is “working actively to get California’s application approved.”

Democrats remain critical of NTIA’s current management of the program, which included a restructuring last summer to focus the program on the cheapest possible deployment options. Democrats say that change was meant to benefit Trump ally Elon Musk and his Starlink satellite internet service.

The full committee’s ranking member, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., called the revamp “inexcusable” and said it had increased costs for those connected.

“And now we’re seeing broadband providers leave the BEAD program and surrender their awards one after the other, not because of decisions made by the states, but because of moving goalposts and mismanagement from NTIA,” Pallone said.

Roth said that about 1 percent of BEAD locations have been affected by “changes” and that “there are multiple reasons” that might cause providers to reject their awards under BEAD.

“The good news is that we planned and we have a process in place to ensure that areas that are subject to changes get served. And we’ve successfully backfilled in about a dozen states where that’s occurred.”