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  "description": "$980 million in funds remain frozen; $294 million in announced awards still undistributed.",
  "path": "/cantwell-schatz-press-ntia-on-nearly-1b-in-undistributed-tribal-broadband-grants/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-11-07T17:16:03.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_a letter_",
    "_Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program_",
    "_“the lowest” costs_",
    "_less than $20 billion_",
    "_likely recision_",
    "_non-deployment funds_",
    "_launched by_",
    "_Biden_"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2025 – Senators are demanding an explanation from the Commerce Department for the Trump administration’s decision to freeze nearly $1 billion in broadband grants for tribal nations.\n\nIn _a letter_ Thursday to Commerce Secretary **Howard Lutnick** and National Telecommunications and Information Administration Administrator **Arielle Roth** , Sens. **Maria Cantwell** , D-Wash., and **Brian Schatz** , D-Hawaii, said roughly $980 million in second round _Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program_ funding remained unobligated, despite applications closing in March 2024.\n\nAnother $294 million in grants announced late last year have not been distributed, the senators said, and existing grant recipients have reported concerns that NTIA may impose new requirements or claw back previously awarded funds.\n\n“The TBCP is the first NTIA program to recognize Tribes’ sovereignty to determine broadband infrastructure needs on their own lands,” the senators wrote. “We are concerned that the agency is applying additional, unnecessary standards and requirements, resulting in uncertainty that threatens the success of existing and planned projects.”\n\nCantwell and Schatz questioned whether NTIA has begun using new percentile-based cost metrics, such as evaluating tribal projects based on their per-location costs. The senators say any such methodology would lack statutory basis and require prior tribal consultation.\n\n###  _Concerns reflect unease over NTIA administration of BEAD_\n\nTheir concern reflects broader unease over how the NTIA is administering another major broadband program, the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment initiative.\n\nUnder new policy directives from Lutnick and Roth emphasizing _“the lowest” costs_ possible, what was initially a $42.5 billion federal program, is now set to distribute _less than $20 billion_ of obligated funds. NTIA is reportedly still pressuring states to cut high-cost locations and alter plans in ways that could result in even more reduction in obligated money.\n\nThe senators asked about how NTIA’s June 6 notice restructuring BEAD may impact pending tribal projects.\n\nThey asked how many locations tied to TBCP applications were later included in state BEAD final proposals and, of those, how many fall within “hard-to-serve” or “high-cost” areas, which providers are now permitted to exclude.\n\nRelatedly, they asked how NTIA’s _likely recision_ of _non-deployment funds_ under BEAD would impact projects that would have benefited those same tribal locations. Those funds were allocated to support the long-term operation of BEAD networks through workforce training, broadband affordability and device initiatives, digital training and literacy programs, building middle-mile infrastructure, and more.\n\nIn a statement to _Broadband Breakfast_ , an NTIA spokesperson said NTIA had received the letter “and will respond in due course.” Cantwell and Schatz requested a staff briefing within two weeks of NTIA’s reply, though the letter does not specify a deadline for when the agency must respond.\n\nThe Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is a nearly $3 billion grant program, part of the Internet for All initiative _launched by_ the _Biden_ administration. The program was funded through $980 million from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and $2 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.",
  "title": "Cantwell, Schatz Press NTIA on Nearly $1B in Undistributed Tribal Broadband Grants",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T05:43:29.237Z"
}