The Road Almost Taken

As initially conceived, the BEAD Program prioritized fiber-optic broadband over satellite provision because it’s faster, more reliable, unlimited, and built to last — “the gold standard” for rural internet provision, according to Cornell rural planning researchers. The only drawbacks of fiber-optic broadband are cost and availability, problems BEAD was created to solve.

Laying fiber is no simple task. This is a feature of the technology, not a bug. The BEAD Program explicitly promised to create high-quality union jobs in rural communities where such opportunities have been vanishing for decades. Installing fiber-optic cables requires boots on the ground, workers physically building infrastructure across America’s vast rural landscapes. Under Biden’s original vision, these would be good jobs with decent wages, health care, and a shot at economic stability in regions where such prospects have become increasingly scarce.

According to the Communication Workers of America, which backed the policy, BEAD’s eligibility requirements for its $42.5 billion in grants were calibrated to ensure that “federal dollars will not fund sub-par installations by fly-by-night companies.” They would instead go to subcontractors with unionized workforces or, at the very least, commitments to and proven histories of compliance with fair labor practices.

The program required states to consult and coordinate with unions throughout the planning and deployment process, with eligibility for funds contingent on proper documentation of this cooperation. While not mandating unionization, the requirements created favorable conditions for worker organizing by recommending project labor agreements, local hire provisions to prioritize area residents, and employer neutrality agreements intended to stop bosses from fighting union organizing campaigns. States could choose to make these labor provisions mandatory for subgrantees.

In sum, while BEAD was not as ambitious as a Green New Deal–style program, which would enlist an entirely public and unionized workforce, it was better than a garden-variety neoliberal public-private partnership with zero regard for labor standards.

Fiber-optic systems handle growing bandwidth demands through equipment upgrades, which require long-term maintenance crews — meaning stable employment and durable internet for these communities for decades to come. Instead of this promising vision, rural Americans now face the prospect of receiving inferior internet service while the potential for sustainable union employment evaporates in favor of satellite technology that requires minimal ongoing workforce investment in their communities.

By the time Biden left office, his administration had just finished approving state proposals, setting the stage for implementation. So long, BEAD. We hardly knew ye.

Washington Walks Away

The promise of laying fiber-optic cable was that it would require workers on the ground everywhere, creating jobs throughout rural America. By contrast, Starlink satellites are made in two locations in Washington and Texas, launched from Cape Canaveral, and managed remotely from SpaceX headquarters — bypassing any meaningful job creation in the communities that stood most to benefit.

At the same time, the Commerce Department has also announced its intention to relax the regulations pertaining to union coordination, canceling what it called “pointless requirements” to “get rid of the delays and the waste,” a framing taken directly from Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) playbook. If there are two things Musk loves, it’s fighting against labor organizing and leveraging government subsidies for personal gain — which, in this case, could be to the tune of $20 billion.

Former BEAD Program director Evan Feinman stepped down earlier this month. Grants to begin implementation are now in limbo.

“Shovels could already be in the ground in three states, and they could be in the ground in half the country by the summer without the proposed changes to project selection,” Feinman wrote in a fiery departing email shared with Politico. “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.”

As the Commerce Department pushes these revisions through, there’s been virtually no collective debate about its consequences for rural Americans. With the original program barely known to the public thanks to Biden’s communication failures, most rural residents aren’t aware that they’re losing out on both good internet and good jobs.

The combination of inferior technology and vanishing job opportunities represents a devastating one-two punch for communities already struggling with economic disinvestment — all while one of the world’s wealthiest individuals adds another government-subsidized revenue stream to his portfolio, courtesy of public funds that were meant to serve the public good.