Vermont will have to delay its rollout of a $223 million federal broadband project.
The money was included in the Biden administration’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, but the Trump administration earlier this year put a hold on the funding while it reviewed the program’s policies, pushing back broadband programs across the country.
The Vermont Community Broadband Board has been waiting to put those federal dollars to work as it moves ahead with connecting the most rural addresses in the state to a growing high-speed fiber broadband network.
Last week the U.S. Department of Commerce released the new rules, which will now delay the distribution of the federal funds even more.
“Our original concerns were labors and materials,” said Vermont Community Broadband Board Executive Director Christine Hallquist. “The problems have been these bureaucratic delays. It really is that simple.”
The delay will also complicate the state’s plan to use another pot of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Hallquist said the state wanted to use about $40 million in ARPA money for matching funds as part of the broadband work, but the ARPA money has to be used before the end of 2026.
And with the BEAD program delayed, meeting that deadline might not be possible.
“Some of it will be able to be used, but some of it we won’t be able to use,” Hallquist said. “We were counting on all of it, but this is adding some delays to the program.”
The $42.45 billion BEAD program gives states millions of dollars in federal grants to fund broadband buildout, and under the original guidance states had to open competitive bidding for the money.
Under terms of the original law, each state had to develop a grading system for deciding which companies will receive the federal money for its broadband work.
Those grading systems have to be approved by the federal government, and Vermont has already received the go-ahead for its program plan from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
The Vermont Community Broadband Board has been reviewing the applications, but the federal government is now asking states to reopen the bidding using the updated guidance.
States have 90 days to reapply to the federal government under the new rules.
The federal government then has another 90 days to approve the updated grading system.
The new rules were released June 6 and eliminate all of the Biden administration’s regulatory requirements tied to diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change.
The original rules also favored fiber networks, which are more reliable and robust than wireless systems.
National broadband experts said the new rules, which were released by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, could hurt rural communities by allowing the federal money to be used for wireless satellite networks, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink system.
“Secretary Lutnick’s actions will cement the digital divide for decades,” said Drew Garner, director of policy for the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, a national nonprofit that advocates for telecommunications policy. “Secretary Lutnick wants to invest in the ‘cheapest’ broadband infrastructure, not the best broadband infrastructure. It’s a self-inflicted wound to American competitiveness. China and Europe are going all in on fiber to position themselves for AI. Under Secretary Lutnick, America is getting cheap, unreliable networks. That’s the definition of penny-wise, pound-foolish.”
In issuing the new rules, the Trump administration said it was opening the funding up to all technologies while eliminating what it called “unnecessary regulatory burdens.”
“Today we proudly announce a new direction for the BEAD program that will deliver high-speed internet access efficiently on a technology-neutral basis, and at the right price,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a press release. “President Trump promised to put an end to wasteful spending, and thanks to his leadership, the American people will get the benefit of the bargain, with connectivity delivered around the country at a fraction of the cost of the original program.”
Vermont officials hope the new guidelines for satellite technology will not affect the work around the state as wireless broadband generally is not a good fit for mountainous terrain, like in Vermont.
The state still hopes that every address that wants to connect to a high-speed network will have access to the broadband service before the end of 2028.
