Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick testified before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that he intends to “hew exactly to the statute” of Congress’s BEAD broadband program, a $42.45 billion initiative. The testimony comes amid questions about how unspent funds will be used and whether some money should be returned to the Treasury.
The hearing featured Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, pressing Lutnick on what happens to the so-called non-deployment funds and how they fit within the BEAD statute. Lutnick acknowledged that the administration plans to spend the money, saying, “That money that you have appropriated.”
When Moran asked whether the statute requires the funds to go specifically toward deployment, Lutnick said he did not have the exact text in front of him, but repeated his pledge: “We are going to hew exactly to the statute.”
Lutnick also pushed back on suggestions that leftover BEAD funds could be returned to the Treasury. “That is not the plan,” he stated. The administration has faced scrutiny over how unspent BEAD dollars are framed as taxpayer savings, even as NTIA officials have cited reforms and savings figures that critics say require further clarification.
NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth has cited an estimated $21 billion in BEAD “savings” following the reforms announced last June. Critics argue that these figures do not fully account for funds that remain appropriated by Congress for broadband spending and may not be real savings unless money is returned to Treasury.
