Chairman Hudson's Opening Statement at C&T Hearing on Rural Broadband

Closing the digital divide is a top priority for this committee. Too many Americans, particularly those in rural America, like so many places in my home state of North Carolina, lack access to reliable high-speed broadband. With so much of everyday life requiring an internet connection. This is a vital need. Since 2020, Congress has provided billions of dollars to connect unserved Americans. The most significant effort is the infrastructure investments and Jobs Act or IIJA. This massive bill included the $42.5 billion broadband equity access and deployment, or bead program at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration NTIA. It's been over 3 years since the IJA became law, and we're still waiting for the first home to be connected using these funds. I think we should understand how this happened. First FCC maps that Biden FCC chairwoman Rosenworcel said would be ready in months, instead took much longer to develop. Then the Biden Harris administration saddled the bead program with regulations unrelated to broadband to appease left-wing interest groups. These included technology preferences, burdensome labor rules and climate change requirements, to name a few. Worse, the Biden administration flagrantly ignored the law by forcing states to regulate broadband rates before NTIA would approve their proposals, even though the law explicitly prohibits rate regulation. These actions did nothing to deploy broadband, but instead created confusion while making the program less attractive to providers and deployment more expensive. Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are committed to fixing these. Um, mistakes so that every American has access to broadband as quickly as possible. That's why today I, along with many Republicans on this committee, introduced the speed to Bead Act. This bill would eliminate the burdensome Biden regulations so that we can get money out the door, shovels into the ground and broadband into as many homes as possible. Specifically, this bill would eliminate the unnecessary, expensive regulations, NTIA imposed further clarify the rate regulation by NTIA or any other entity is prohibited, ensure that the program is run on a technology neutral basis and more efficiently use tax dollars by ensuring that awards to providers are cost-effective and that funds are only used for deployment. These changes to the bead program can be implemented quickly. Provide certainty to the states and not hinder the progress that states have already made. And I'm excited to hear that uh Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, just a few minutes ago, announced that he's launching a review of the bead program to cut red tape, eliminate waste, and make sure Americans get connected faster. I'm thrilled to have him join me in this effort. Reforming bead is one important step to ensuring every American has access to broadband, but it's not enough. We also need to reform the permitting process for broadband projects. If we do not reform this process, all the money will get tied up in burdensome, permitting reviews resulting in more unnecessary delays. The past 3 Congresses, Energy and Commerce, Republicans have introduced legislation to streamline the broadband permitting process. We have proposed codifying existing shot clocks to provide predictability in state and local permit reviews. Exempting previously disturbed lands from duplicative and burdensome environmental and historic preservation reviews and instilling transparency and urgency in permitting on federal lands. Some of these bills had bipartisan support and passed the House last Congress. I wish my Democrat colleagues had been willing to work with us on the most meaningful reforms which were included in representative Buddy Carter's American Broadband Deployment Act. I hope this new Congress and the urgency of the moment will inspire bipartisan cooperation on this effort, and I certainly extend my hand to my colleagues across the aisle. We must do everything we can to remove these unnecessary barriers to deployment. In conclusion, unserved Americans have waited too long for the promise of connectivity, but now is the moment to close the digital divide once and for all. Today's hearing is an opportunity to hear from stakeholders about how to address these challenges, uh, and how to stop it from happening. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.