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PHOTO BY AMANDA BERG\/SPOTLIGHT PA
\nA red barn in rural Pennsylvania is pictured with a cellular tower in the background.\n<\/p>\n
HARRISBURG \u2014 Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand broadband access in Pennsylvania is still on hold, after federal officials failed to meet their self-imposed early December deadline to review the commonwealth\u2019s plan for spending the money.<\/p>\n
Without federal approval, Pennsylvania cannot finalize agreements with the companies that expect to receive the money, and they cannot begin construction.<\/p>\n
The cause of the delay is unclear. A spokesperson for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the federal agency responsible for approving the plan, declined to comment on the delay.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania submitted its plan on Sept. 4. The federal government promised to review state plans within 90 days. But more than 120 days later, the commonwealth is still waiting.<\/p>\n
In a speech in December, NTIA administrator Arielle Roth said the agency was \u201cworking around the clock to approve as many states as possible by year\u2019s end.\u201d<\/p>\n
The grant program, created in 2021 as part of a massive bipartisan infrastructure package, aims to ensure that everyone in the U.S. has access to high-speed internet. It\u2019s the largest-ever U.S. investment in broadband.<\/p>\n
After President Donald Trump took office, his administration issued a sweeping rewrite of the program\u2019s rules and gave states a tight, 90-day deadline to redo the application process.<\/p>\n
The changes focused, in part, on lowering costs, which made satellite internet providers more competitive with those offering connections via fiber-optic cable.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania\u2019s submitted plan would connect roughly two-thirds of eligible locations to the internet with fiber, while another 18% would be served by satellite providers and 13% would receive wireless internet.<\/p>\n
In addition to the shift toward satellite and wireless internet, fewer locations are eligible \u2014 both because of the rule changes and because more broadband has been built since the infrastructure law first passed.<\/p>\n
As a result, Pennsylvania will be able to connect all the eligible locations in the commonwealth for only $790.7 million, rather than spending its full $1.1 billion allocation as originally planned.<\/p>\n
NTIA has warned that it could reject specific grant awards if it deems the cost \u201cexcessive,\u201d and some reports indicate it has begun asking states to quickly rebid awards for those areas.<\/p>\n
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has criticized the program\u2019s rollout under President Joe Biden, saying last year it had become bogged down in red tape and \u201cwoke mandates.\u201d He told a U.S. Senate committee that his department would \u201cget the money out the door in calendar year 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a public meeting in July, one state official explained that \u201cthe last few weeks have been a sprint\u201d as the state broadband authority worked to redo applications under the new rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cSprint is a kind way to describe it,\u201d former budget secretary Uri Monson, the authority\u2019s board chair at the time, responded.<\/p>\n
The federal government, in turn, promised to approve states\u2019 spending plans within 90 days of submission.<\/p>\n
For the most part, that timeline has held. As of Jan. 7, federal officials had signed off on 42 of the 53 spending plans submitted by states and territories, according to a public dashboard.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania was one of 10 states still waiting for approval, the data shows.<\/p>\n
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