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  "description": "Senate minority leader asks the White House 'to move swiftly.’",
  "path": "/schumer-urges-trump-to-release-bead-funding-warns-against-subsidizing-starlink/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-06-02T15:35:08.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "_with some calling for an investigation_",
    "_recently asserted_",
    "_have been frozen since the advent of the Trump administration_"
  ],
  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, June 2, 2025 – Senate Minority Leader Charles **Schumer** , D-N.Y., urged the Trump administration to release funds from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, and to avoid directing those funds towards Starlink, in a strongly worded letter sent to **President Trump** and Commerce Secretary **Howard Lutnick** on Friday.\n\nSchumer, along with Sens. **Maria Cantwell** , D-Wash., and **Ben Ray Lujan** , D-N.M., asked “the Administration to move swiftly to approve state plans, and release the $42.45 billion allocated to the states by the BEAD Program,” arguing that further delay “means that we risk falling behind China.”\n\nThey noted the economic benefits associated with high-speed internet access, and AI’s dependence on reliable broadband networks. They warned that further delays could result in “not only miss[ing] this year’s construction season but next year’s as well, delaying broadband deployment by years.”\n\nThe senators also criticized Starlink as a viable internet option, arguing that “Elon Musk’s Starlink… lacks the scalability, reliability, and speed of fiber or other terrestrial broadband solutions.”\n\nDemocratic senators have been critical of the role Elon Musk played in the Trump administration, _with some calling for an investigation_ of the ties between Starlink and the Federal government.\n\nIn contrast, Trump _recently asserted_ that Starlink saved “probably hundreds of lives in North Carolina”, while legislation introduced by Rep. **David Taylor** , R-Ohio, in early April would amend the BEAD Act to allow for subsidization of satellite internet, including Starlink.\n\nFunds from the BEAD Act _have been frozen since the advent of the Trump administration_, which seeks to strip various diversity requirements from the legislation while making it more “technologically neutral.” It is unclear when those funds will be released.",
  "title": "Schumer Urges Trump to Release BEAD Funding, Warns Against Subsidizing Starlink",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T03:28:39.888Z"
}