Calling Elon: Biden broadband plan spends billions but fails to hook anyone up | Opinion
It's an open question if counties like mine will ever get fully connected to high-speed internet under one of former President Joe Biden's signature programs.
In their search for broken federal programs to fix, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency shouldn’t ignore one that has my home county tied in knots.
Officials in Midland County, Michigan, are trying to connect a small number of residents to broadband internet under a federal program that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021. But even under the best-case scenario, the job might not get done until 2029 − eight years later.
Blame bureaucracy and special-interest carve-outs for creating a boondoggle that hasn’t connected anyone in Midland, the rest of Michigan, or − shockingly − all of America to the internet.
Midland is trying to participate in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, or BEAD. Created via Biden’s infrastructure law, it devoted an unprecedented $42.5 billion to connect the 24 million households that don’t have broadband internet access, many in rural areas.
With so much of daily life dependent on the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic − and with employment, education and health care all becoming increasingly digital − the BEAD Program was supposed to ensure that every American gets connected to the future. It’s arguably necessary for reaching rural areas, which usually remain unconnected because infrastructure is too expensive for private companies to build.
But as often happens when Washington is involved, a praiseworthy dream has become a bureaucratic nightmare.
Bureaucracy slows broadband expansion to a crawl
Midland is proof. We’re a midsize city in a midsize county in a Midwestern state, with a mix of urban, suburban and rural communities. Nearly all the county is already connected to broadband, the main exceptions being some hard-to-reach rural areas. While the county says about 5,500 households are “under or unserved,” the number of homes that don’t have any broadband access is probably closer to 1,000.
You’d think that once that $42.5 billion was allocated, it wouldn’t take long to finish the job. But this is government. The BEAD Program requires that every state submit a plan for federal review. The federal government then decides whether it approves the plan. If it does, it dispenses the money to states, which dole it out in turn to communities that apply for funding. At every stage, there’s bureaucratic bloat. And naturally, the bureaucracy has added special-interest handouts galore.
Labor unions demanded that the BEAD Program be used to encourage collective bargaining and prevailing wages.
Environmentalists got their wish as well, with the federal government requiring that state plans mitigate climate hazards and potential "climate-related disasters."
BEAD also favors expensive fiber-optic connections over cable, 5G mobile broadband, fixed wireless and satellite connections − a handout to some internet providers over others.
All this scale-tipping adds costs, ensuring that $42.5 billion won’t go as far as it should.
Figuring out this complicated system also has proved a tall order for states and cities. Even before BEAD became law, Midland had established a committee to look at expanding broadband internet across the county. But it still took years to put the application together, and in any case, Michigan wasn’t ready to accept applications until January of this year.
Other states have similar delays, and as of October, BEAD’s $42.5 billion hadn’t connected anyone nationwide.
“Right now, zero Americans have been connected, no homes, no businesses. In fact we haven't had one shovel full of dirt turned," Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said last fall.
BEAD Director Evan Feinman told Govtech.com in December that the program was finally almost ready for states to start hooking up homes to broadband − more than three years after Biden signed into law the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
It's ironic that a government program designed to provide citizens with faster internet is moving at such a glacial pace.
Is that finally about to change? Perhaps.
Midland's leaders are “hopeful” the funding will come through this year, so they clearly have doubts. But getting the money this year is key to Midland’s plans to reach those unserved households four years from now. Meanwhile, officials estimate that connecting each house will run up to $4,500 − far more than broadband normally costs, even in rural areas.
DOGE should overhaul broadband rollout
Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency shouldn’t accept this obvious case of government mismanagement. At the least, it should repeal the special-interest handouts that make compliance with BEAD so costly.
It should then set a clear deadline to force states to spend this money efficiently and effectively − say, the end of 2025. Whatever isn’t doled out after that, the federal government should claw back, defraying soaring budget deficits and protecting taxpayers.
DOGE could even take a more radical approach: Restructure BEAD altogether. Carr has suggested using the funding to send a $600 check to those who don’t have high-speed internet.
They could use the money to buy a product that competes with broadband − say, a satellite internet connection like Starlink or any of its competitors. This approach gets federal and state bureaucracy out of the way, saves money and empowers families to make the choice that’s best for them.
One thing is certain: The status quo is unacceptable. At this rate, it’s an open question if counties like mine will ever get fully connected to high-speed internet under one of Biden’s signature programs.
Imagine if Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency made the program their own − under budget and over delivering for the American people.
Jarrett Skorup is vice president for marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.