Roth: NTIA Wants ‘Outcome-Driven’ Non-Deployment Spending

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2026 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration wants to be “outcome-driven” in how it lets states spend $21 billion in broadband funding, the agency’s top official said Tuesday.

NTIA’s $42.45 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program is set to spend about half its budget on deployment projects, partly the result of Trump administration efforts to drive down costs. It’s not clear yet how states will be able to spend their remaining allocations, as the agency rescinded approval for non-deployment activities when it overhauled the program’s rules in June 2025.

Guidance on how states can use that funding was expected March 11, but the agency said it would need more time to iron out allowed uses and which states might be ineligible to use the money. An executive order directed NTIA to issue a notice providing that states with “onerous” laws on AI companies were ineligible “to the maximum extent allowed by federal law.”

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