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U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, joined Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and other colleagues in urging Arielle Roth, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to ensure states can use their remaining Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funds as intended by Congress.

The senators also requested that NTIA provide a public report of unspent BEAD funds for each state, clarify its current interpretation of allowable “non-deployment” uses, and outline a timeline for issuing updated guidance on these non-deployment funds.

“We write to request the agency’s attention to a major question emerging within the BEAD Program,” stated the letter. “Under the latest BEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity, many states likely will — or already do — have leftover BEAD allocations. Given the intent of Congress that these resources be used to expand broadband access nationwide, we respectfully seek clarity on how NTIA will ensure proper stewardship and redistribution of non-deployment funds to close the digital divide.”