Thirteen Republican Senators last week criticized NTIA’s rules implementing the broadband infrastructure program and urged the agency to revise them. In a letter led by Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio, the group argued that the agency’s rule “undermines or conflicts with congressional intent and the plain language of the” bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and that “certain provisions go beyond the authority granted to NTIA.”
In challenging elements of the regulations, the senators criticized the Notice of Funding Opportunity released by NTIA on May 13. The Commerce Department agency has been given responsibility for the majority of the $65 billion for broadband under the Infrastructure Law, reported Inside Towers. Indeed, $42.5 billion of funding flows through the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program.
The Senators say the rules unnecessarily focus on fiber deployment. They note that other technologies, including wireless, cable, and satellite, have their advocates, and representatives of non-fiber technologies are advocating against the way that the Notice of Funding Opportunity shifts the broadband landscape going forward, according to Broadband Breakfast.
The senators acknowledge that many of the Notice of Funding Opportunity’s labor provisions are in accordance with federal labor law and the Infrastructure Law, but say NTIA goes beyond what’s written. “For example, the Notice of Funding Opportunity authorizes states to prefer or even mandate a provider’s use of a ‘directly employed workforce,’ as opposed to using contractors and subcontractors,” say the Senators.
They cite an acute, “widely-reported” worker shortage in the broadband industry, and state that the NTIA’s “extraneous” workforce regulations may worsen the existing crisis and prevent the timely deployment of broadband, notes Broadband Breakfast.
Others letter signatories included Mississippi’s Roger Wicker, Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Committee, plus Roy Blunt (MO), Richard Burr (NC), Bill Cassidy (LA), Kevin Cramer (ND), Michael Crapo (ID), Deb Fischer (NE), Chuck Grassley (IA), Mitt Romney (UT), James Risch (ID) and Thom Tillis (NC).
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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