Trump’s NTIA Pick Prepares To Redirect $42.5 Billion In Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants To Trump Cronies
from the corruption-dressed-up-as-efficiency dept
It’s understandably not going to get the same attention as the dismantling of numerous government agencies at the hands of rich unelected manbabies, but the Trump administration is also taking aim at all the promising parts of the 2021 infrastructure bill. Especially as it relates to broadband.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) contained a whopping $42.5 billion to expand broadband access. To make sure that money wasn’t wasted, it contained a number of provisions.
Like demanding ISPs try to provide at least one tier of service poor people could afford. Or provisions encouraging networks built with taxpayer money try to be open access, which, as we’ve discussed at length, help boost broadband competition and lower cost. As well as encouragement that taxpayer money be spent on the most future-proof technology (fiber) where applicable. Pretty common sense stuff.
The program is heavily managed by the states and the NTIA. But Trump’s new appointment to the NTIA, Arielle Roth, attended a Federalist Society event where she stated she’s going to scrap all of the must useful requirements for being “too liberal” and “too woke”:
“Roth, who is poised to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, outlined her stance on the $42.5 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program in June, criticizing its emphasis on fiber deployments and what she described as a “woke social agenda” laden with additional regulatory burdens.”
“Requiring states to choose a statewide low-cost, low-income rate is just one of the ways that they’ve imposed extra legal requirements. There’s also climate change regulations, union mandates, wholesale access requirements… all kinds of left-wing priorities on the program that just divert resources away from the overall goal of closing broadband gaps. This is going to make the program less cost effective, and it’s going to undermine its goals.”
As with the DOGE stuff, authoritarians are having a good time stripping away stuff like this under the pretense that it’s “too woke,” or that by removing it they’re being more efficient. In reality they’re just stripping away this stuff due to corruption. They can’t just acknowledge they’re corrupt hacks, so the layers of performance are required to distract a lazy press and a broadly misinformed public.
The requirements to provide a cheaper tier to poor people have been aggressively opposed by giant telecom monopolies like AT&T (this “outrage” prompted a number of silly show hearings by the GOP). The provision that taxpayer money primarily be used for fiber upset Elon Musk, who wants to make sure his expensive, slower, less reliable Starlink service can hoover up a ton of subsidies.
Contrary to Republican whining, there’s a reason the NTIA didn’t want to throw billions of dollars at Starlink. If you’re going to spend taxpayer money on broadband, it makes sense to prioritize fiber and 5G wireless. Why? Starlink is capacity constrained, too expensive for many rural Americans, harms astronomical research, is destroying the ozone layer, and is run by a racist asshole.
I strongly suspect Republicans will throw as much of this money as possible at Starlink, ignore all the significant problems, then declare the U.S. broadband problem effectively “solved.”
A significant chunk of the $42.5 billion in infrastructure was likely poised to be funneled to the most innovative ISPs in broadband right now: cooperatives, municipally-owned broadband networks, and electrical utilities pushing into fiber. Instead, the NTIA under Roth will indisputably redirect that money to whichever big companies do the best job of kissing Trump’s ass.
Of course Trumpublicans voted against the infrastructure bill in the first place. And they’ve already begun taking credit for the benefits of the bill wherever possible among their constituents. But not before taking an axe to any parts of the bill that their biggest donors don’t like under the pretense of “eliminating waste” and “being efficient.”
It’s just corruption dressed up as efficiency, something press outlets covering this sort of thing still don’t illustrate particularly clearly to their readers.
Filed Under: bead grants, broadband, high speed internet, infrastructure, ntia, telecom
Comments on “Trump’s NTIA Pick Prepares To Redirect $42.5 Billion In Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grants To Trump Cronies”
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Essential Infrastructure
It is possible to be in favor of some of the provisions of a certain piece of legislation, while opposing others, and voting against it because it is overall a boondoggle. So both sides add some provisions to the bill, and can each take credit for a some of the accomplishments. Republicans can take credit for actually putting in the infrastructure, and Democrats can take credit for the Aurora Borealis not disappearing.
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The only thing Republicans can take credit for regarding infrastructure is half a century of neglecting it.
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The vast majority of the infrastructure money in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was added by Democrats, but Koby already knew that. The Republicans did nothing but remove money.
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“So both sides add some provisions to the bill, and can each take credit for a some of the accomplishments.”
For example you can take credit for tonguing the asshole of anyone you see as rich, important, and fascist enough for your taste (pun intended). And I can take credit for making up a song about how you run away from everything you’ve ever done because you’re a coward.
It’s just a variation on the insurrectionists’ slogan.
“Stop, THEN steal.”
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Or as we used to say in the OLD old days…
Loot, then pillage, then burn.
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Musk would say that if you start by burning, to can skip the first two steps and be more effective.
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A typically myopic view. He misses the purpose of the first two steps. But then, it’s not his swag, so he don’t care.
The utter corrupt absurdity of this is that any money spent on Starlink is burned. It’s going into Elon’s pocket to corrupt more political campaigns and I wouldn’t trust him not to be spying on anyone using it.
Meanwhile, the next Democratic administration and Congress will reprioritize terrestrial broadband and we’ll just be spending the money again on something more reliable, higher speed, and longer lasting.
We’re just burning money and then spending it again later.
“This is what I voted for!” – Matt
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“I’m super angry that I got exactly what I voted for and am drinking my tears thinking they’re yours!” – Also Matt.
'The only acceptable government subsidy is MY government subsidy'
I strongly suspect Republicans will throw as much of this money as possible at Starlink, ignore all the significant problems, then declare the U.S. broadband problem effectively “solved.”
Well, right until the likes of AT&T or Elon want to pad their quarterly profits anyway, at which point it will become vital for more government subsidies to be provided to ‘maintain’ the networks that were already ‘perfect’ and had ‘total coverage’.