Comptroller Glenn Hegar has sent a letter to the Texas Congressional Delegation about his concerns regarding the Notice of Funding Opportunity for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program issued on May 13 by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Hegar is calling on the Texas Delegation to contact NTIA and request it reconsider the technology restrictions it has placed on the program.
In the letter, Hegar states that the federal broadband infrastructure grant programs as written in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) are technology neutral. NTIA’s new rules skew the original intentions of the IIJA and potentially engender a government bias toward certain technologies and, consequently, certain internet service providers. “I am urging our Texas congressional members to ask NTIA to recognize the diversity of our state and give us the flexibility necessary to successfully connect Texans to the internet” said Hegar. The letter in its entirety can be found here.