E&C Democrats Press NTIA Administrator on BEAD Funding Updates & Stress Trump Executive Orders Do Not Supersede Federal Law
“NTIA should not risk tying up the BEAD Program in years of legal challenges and further delaying its already overdue implementation.”
Energy and Commerce Committee Democratic leaders wrote a follow-up letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today demanding that it abide by the law and disperse Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) funding as intended by Congress—after not receiving any response to an initial letter sent on November 25, 2025. The follow-up letter comes one day before NTIA was supposed issue guidance on an illegal Trump Executive Order from December that threatened to withhold some BEAD funding from states that pass laws to protect their residents against the harms of artificial intelligence.
The letter was signed by Full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Doris Matsui (D-CA), and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY).
The Democratic Committee leaders reminded NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth of the statutory requirements for BEAD funding, established on a bipartisan basis by Congress as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“It goes without saying that the sum of the BEAD Program’s non-deployment funds is much higher today than originally anticipated,” the three Democratic leaders wrote to Roth. “That is the direct result of the Trump NTIA’s shortsighted imposition of cheap, ephemeral, and less reliable broadband technologies onto states and communities that spent years planning generational infrastructure investments using faster, more reliable, and longer-lasting broadband technologies.”
Pallone, Matsui, and Clarke also reiterated to Administrator Roth that illegal executive orders from Trump do not supersede federal law.
“We also remind you that executive orders issued by the President do not supersede federal law. They certainly do not empower NTIA to impound billions of dollars—in full or on a state-by-state basis—that Congress authorized and appropriated to achieve specific policy outcomes, including universal connectivity, affordability, scalable infrastructure, and broadband adoption,” Pallone, Matsui and Clarke continued in their letter. Any effort to restrict or withhold funds because a state or territory has adopted laws or regulations to protect against harms from artificial intelligence is blatantly unlawful and a clear impoundment of appropriated funds. NTIA should not risk tying up the BEAD Program in years of legal challenges and further delaying its already overdue implementation.”
In addition to responses to their November 2025 letter, Pallone, Matsui, and Clarke requested NTIA brief the Committee immediately on how the Trump Administration intends to treat any remaining state program funds before issuing public guidance.
Full text of today’s letter is available HERE.
The November 2025 letter can be read HERE.
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