House Oversight Sheds Light on Biden-Harris Administration’s Broadband Deployment Failures

By Lawson Faulkner

On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing titled “A Legacy of Incompetence: Consequences of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Policy Failures.” During the hearing, lawmakers took aim at the disastrous mismanagement of the $42.5 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which has yet to show any material progress after three years of existence. Testifying before the committee, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr condemned Vice President Kamala Harris’s poor leadership over the BEAD program, adding valuable context to her dysfunctional tenure as the Biden administration’s “broadband czar.”
 
In his opening statement, Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) offered sharp criticism for the Biden-Harris administration’s record of broadband deployment. Despite Vice President Harris’s 2021 promise that “we can bring broadband to rural America today”, Chairman Comer noted that “over 1,000 days later, [the BEAD program] has not connected a single American to internet. Not one.” Chairman Comer reminded his colleagues that “American taxpayers, who are already struggling with sky-high inflation, are on the hook to pay for the Biden administration’s boondoggles.”
 
Commissioner Carr agreed with Chairman Comer’s appraisal, explaining that the Biden-Harris administration’s politicization of the BEAD deployment process has left countless underserved communities without critical broadband access. Carr explained that he was “initially pleased when a bipartisan consensus emerged with the support necessary to end the digital divide.” Nevertheless, during Vice President Harris’s tumultuous stint as “broadband czar”, Carr insisted that “BEAD is a program that has gone off the rails.”
 
Carr echoed Chairman Comer’s opening remarks, explaining that “it’s now been 1,039 days since the [BEAD] program was enacted. After all of that time, not one person has been connected to the internet. Not one home, not one business. Not even one shovel worth of dirt has been turned.” When asked about the justification for these delays, Carr explained that Vice President Kamala Harris concocted a “progressive wish list” for BEAD funding applicants, including “price controls, preferences for government-run networks and rules that will lead to wasteful overbuilding.” Carr could only offer condemnation for these unrelated mandates, suggesting that Vice President Harris “get rid of all of the extraneous political rules and focus on quickly connecting Americans.”
 
In addition to the mismanagement of the BEAD program, Vice President Harris’s politicization of federal broadband deployment appears to have spilled over into other internet infrastructure projects as well. In 2020, the FCC secured a contract with StarLink, a satellite technology company owned by Elon Musk, to provide internet for 640,000 homes at a cost of roughly $1300 per location. However, as Carr explained, “the government revoked that award last year after President Biden gave agencies the green light to go after Musk.” The cost of this political reprisal has been staggering. A report spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) discovered that the Biden-Harris administration is now spending over $100,000 per location, or “dollars on the penny” per Carr.
 
With this track record of fiscal irresponsibility and political vengeance, Carr predicted that “absent major reforms, Vice President Harris’s $42 billion program is wired to fail.” Not all hope is lost for reforming federal broadband deployment projects. With much of BEAD program funding still unspent, Carr concluded that there is still time “to grow and correct course” by getting rid of “extraneous political goals and just [connecting] Americans.”
 
By mandating a return to principles of objectivity, efficiency and transparency within the BEAD program, countless communities across America will finally gain access to the critical broadband resources necessary for closing the digital divide. Digital Liberty applauds the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability for highlighting the politicization and fiscal irresponsibility of the Biden-Harris administration’s broadband deployment regime.
 [JE1]Double-check that they haven’t changed the name to Oversight and Government Reform.