Cruz, Blackburn, Lummis letter highlights discrimination against satellite and wireless broadband

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) called out the Biden-Harris administration for spreading misinformation about broadband in the U.S. in a letter to the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Sens. Cruz, Blackburn, and Lummis detail how the agencies are distorting census data to understate the number of American households connected to the internet.

As the Senators highlight, the administration is intentionally excluding from data on internet connectivity millions of households that rely on wireless and satellite technologies, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas. The action perpetuates the administration’s preference for fiber connectivity over satellite and wireless high-speed alternatives. The administration’s prioritization of politics over sound broadband policy has sabotaged the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which was intended to help more Americans connect to high-speed internet. In August, Sen. Cruz sent a letter to NTIA demanding answers about the agency’s misuse of broadband funding to impose unlawful, left-wing central planning mandates. Last year, the Committee released a report highlighting how NTIA’s extreme bias against satellite and wireless broadband increased costs and created massive delays in the BEAD program.  

The Biden-Harris administration’s manipulation of census data is especially troublesome considering recent Hurricanes Helene and Milton, emergencies where satellite internet was deployed to aid in lifesaving efforts. The letter describes how endeavors to undermine broadband providers like Elon Musk’s Starlink are politically motivated and harmful to public safety.  

In their letter to NTIA and the U.S. Census Bureau, the Senators wrote: 

“In yet another misstep from Vice President Kamala Harris in her role as Broadband Czar, it has come to our attention that this administration is manipulating census data to suppress the number of American households connected to high-speed internet via wireless and satellite technologies.  While millions of Americans rely on these technologies, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas and in times of disaster like the recent hurricanes, your agencies have deliberately excluded such households from a new census data project about U.S. broadband adoption. This exclusion seems politically motivated to disenfranchise alternative satellite broadband providers—similar to this administration’s earlier decision to revoke $885 million in funding from Elon Musk’s Starlink.  It underscores the current administration’s prioritization of politics over sound policy—an approach that has sabotaged the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program—and perpetuates misinformation about broadband in America.” […]

“A full year after the Committee’s Red Light Report recommended the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) revise BEAD guidance to eliminate the agency’s extreme technology bias against satellite and fixed wireless broadband, NTIA has finally begun to recognize that discriminating against these technologies through the BEAD program was a recipe for disaster and waste.  Not only does an overemphasis of one technology diminish competition and innovation, but it can result in billions in over-spending—such as cases reported by the Wall Street Journal where the cost of an internet connection can exceed the value of the house.”   

“Furthermore, this policy is divorced from a reality where satellite internet provided critical, life-saving capability during recent disasters like Hurricanes Helene and Milton.  The administration’s embarrassing record of denying consumers access to these technologies—seen in both NTIA’s decision to shut out satellite from BEAD as well as the Federal Communications Commission’s revocation of Starlink’s $885 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund award—was always lawless and arbitrary. Now, it has become apparent that these decisions, which delayed connectivity for communities in hurricane-affected areas, may have also come at a steep cost to public safety.” […]

“Despite the clear facts on the ground, NTIA, in collaboration with the Census Bureau, continues to misrepresent the American people’s use of these technologies. Project LEIA (Local Estimates of Internet Adoption), developed by NTIA in partnership with the Census Bureau, aims to produce an experimental model estimating ‘broadband adoption’ to increase understanding on internet issues. Yet, upon inspection of the fine print, this model deliberately excludes wireless and satellite broadband users.  While the Project LEIA website claims its estimates offer reliable data on internet adoption for all U.S. counties, it fails to mention the exclusion of millions of American households who rely on wireless and satellite technologies for internet access.  This omission results in systemic undercounting and data bias. When the data are wrong, policy outcomes will inevitably suffer.” […]

“Moving forward with misleading data will only compound these failures. We urge you to make the necessary changes to ensure accurate representation of broadband adoption, or, lacking reliable data to do so, to abandon this flawed experimental data initiative altogether. The American public relies on accurate and reliable census information, and they deserve nothing less.” 

Read the full text of this letter HERE. 

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