AUSTIN — After Texas lawmakers scrutinized $110 million in government grants made to Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, Starlink, the state’s top legislative leaders called for an audit of the program Tuesday.
A joint statement from House Speaker Dustin Burrows and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick underscored concerns about federal grants intended to expand broadband access in rural Texas. The federal government allocated about $3.3 billion for the effort, supplemented by $500 million from the state. Less than half of that funding has been spent.
Burrows and Patrick said “it is critical the office’s performance and operations meet the expectations of the Texas Legislature and the people of this state,” the joint statement said.
Democratic Texas attorney general candidate Nathan Johnson, a Dallas state senator, recently called for a Senate review into awards made to Starlink.
The Texas Broadband Development Office chose the SpaceX subsidiary for roughly 99% of a certain portion of the grants, despite a competing proposal from Amazon that came in at one-third of the price.
The comptroller’s office, which oversees the broadband development office, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Under questioning from Johnson at a June meeting of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, director of the broadband office, Bryant Clayton, said Amazon’s grant applications were deficient.
“We gave an opportunity to another provider to cure the deficiencies, and they disregarded those instructions,” Clayton said of the competing Amazon proposals at the meeting.
Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary, did not return an email seeking comment.
The grant program appeared to be upended after President Donald Trump changed the rules to eliminate preferences for specific types of broadband connections, allowing Starlink to compete for grants on the same terms as fiber optic providers.
Starlink currently dominates the market for low Earth orbit satellite internet service. Johnson argued the outsized award was steered to Musk because of his Republican political connections.