A top director at the Commerce Department in charge of expanding internet access to rural areas claimed in a scathing email to colleagues that rural broadband funding may soon be funneled to Elon Musk’s Starlink, despite its comparatively lower quality service.
The 1,100-plus-word email, first reported by Politico, was written by Evan Feinman, the director of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program (BEAD), within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Part of the Department of Commerce, BEAD is a $42.5 billion effort created in 2021 to expand high-speed internet access across the country through initiatives like infrastructure implementation and funding.
Feinman has led the project since 2022, but announced that his last day in the role was March 14—part of a scorched-earth warning sent to his colleagues on Sunday about the program’s future and the Trump administration’s alleged cronyism.
It was unclear whether he had been fired or voluntarily left the role.
“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Feinman wrote in the email, according to Politico.
The former BEAD director added that he was “disappointed not to be able to see this project through” and warned that the administration should not change BEAD to “benefit technology that delivers slower speeds at higher costs to the household paying the bill”—referencing Musk’s satellite internet service, part of his astronautics company SpaceX.
“Reach out to your congressional delegation and reach out to the Trump Administration and tell them to strip out the needless requirements, but not to strip away from states the flexibility to get the best connections for their people,” Feinman continued.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Commerce Department, NTIA, and SpaceX for comment.
Over the past few years, BEAD has been the subject of bipartisan controversy for its prioritization of fiber projects, which provide higher speed and greater longevity, but also take longer to deploy and are more expensive.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick slammed the program in a statement earlier this month where he announced he would be launching a “rigorous review.”
“In 2021, Congress created the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to expand Americans’ access to high-speed internet. But, years later, because of the prior Administration’s woke mandates, favoritism towards certain technologies, and burdensome regulations, the program has not connected a single person to the internet and is in dire need of a readjustment,” Lutnick said.
“Under my leadership, the Commerce Department has launched a rigorous review of the BEAD program,” he continued.
“The Department is ripping out the Biden Administration’s pointless requirements. It is revamping the BEAD program to take a tech-neutral approach that is rigorously driven by outcomes, so states can provide internet access for the lowest cost. Additionally, the Department is exploring ways to cut government red tape that slows down infrastructure construction.”
