Today, Americans for Tax Reform led a coalition of 28 groups in a letter to Republican Congressional Leadership expressing concern over NTIA’s illegal rate regulation on broadband internet service. NTIA is pressuring states, most notably Virginia, to impose a $30 per month price mandate to participate in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The coalition urges Congress to hold NTIA accountable for its bureaucratic overreach and demand the release of BEAD funds to Virginia. The Infrastructure Law explicitly prohibited rate regulation by NTIA, making the agency’s actions unlawful and unhelpful in connecting unserved areas.
A copy of the coalition letter can be found here or below:
March 7, 2024
Re: NTIA’s Illegal Rate Regulation
Dear Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader McConnell, Chairwoman McMorris Rodgers, and Ranking Member Cruz:
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are alarmed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s illegal rate regulation for broadband internet service. NTIA is weaponizing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program to force a $30 per month price mandate on all states that participate in BEAD. This is a direct violation of federal law.
As section 60102(h)(5)(D) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act plainly states: “Nothing in this title may be construed to authorize the Assistant Secretary or the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to regulate the rates charged for broadband service.” Congress could not have been more explicit in barring NTIA from setting rates, which is counter-productive to broadband expansion according to all available research.
NTIA is abusing the program to price fix by proxy through state broadband offices, despite NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson’s promise that his agency would not require rate regulation at a December 5, 2023, hearing before the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee. By rejecting all applications a state submits until the desired price point is included, NTIA holds federal BEAD dollars hostage until state governments price fix for them, a form of administrative blackmail.
The most flagrant example is the Virginia Office of Broadband’s Volume 2 application. As memorialized by the office’s director in the attached December 6, 2023, letter, NTIA rejected the Commonwealth’s application because “the low-cost option must be established in the Initial proposal as an exact price or formula [emphasis added].” Virginia has proposed multiple compromises between their desired market-driven approach to middle class affordability and NTIA’s preferred $30 per month mandate, but all have been rejected. NTIA may try to hide behind the fig leaf of state-level cut-outs, but their repeated rejections of reasonable alternatives betray their agenda.
Now that the agency has demonstrated its disregard for the law and a willingness to subvert Congressional intent, we urge you to swiftly hold NTIA accountable for its lawlessness and demand the release of BEAD funds to states that have met the criteria duly enacted by Congress, not arbitrarily imposed by political appointees in the Biden Administration.
Signed,
Grover G. Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform
Steve Pociask, American Consumer Institute
Tom Hebert, Open Competition Center
James Erwin, Digital Liberty
Edward Longe, James Madison Institute
Lorenzo Montanari, Property Rights Alliance
Nathan Leamer, Digital First Project
David Williams, Taxpayer Protection Alliance
Jeff Mazzella, Center for Individual Freedom
Phil Kerpen, American Commitment
Barlett Cleland, Innovation Economy Alliance
Tom Schatz, Citizens Against Government Waste
Curt Levy, Committee for Justice
Jonathan Cannon, R Street Institute
Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
Jim Dunstan, TechFreedom
Evan Swartztrauber*, Foundation for American Innovation
Jeff Westling*, American Action Forum
Mario H. Lopez, Hispanic Leadership Fund
Benita Cotton-Orr, High Grounds Consulting/Georgia Second Friday Meeting
Karen Kerrigan, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council
Gerard Scimeca, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
Yael Ossowski, Consumer Choice Center
Jason Pye, FreedomWorks
Kevin Riffe*, West Virginia Center-Right Coalition
David Miller, Center Right Southwest Ohio
Stephen Stepanek*, Former NH GOP Chair
Tim Jones*, Former Speaker, Missouri House
* – Indicates Individual