After Fischer Push, NTIA Announces New Round of Broadband Funding

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, issued the following statement after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced another round of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding: “The BEAD program is essential to getting all of Nebraska connected to broadband. I have worked for years to help build this program into something that can truly help rural areas. I’m thankful NTIA answered our call to make additional funding available to serve unconnected locations. We need to keep these funds working for Nebraskans, and I will be working hard to allow unobligated BEAD funding to be utilized for other critical purposes like precision ag technologies.” In the announcement, NTIA states this round of funding is intended to serve locations that remain unserved after the initial deployment round. In the initial deployment, only around $44.5 million of Nebraska’s allocation was spent, leaving approximately $340 million to be spent. Fischer’s work : NTIA’s announcement comes after Fischer’s numerous letters and close work with the U.S. Department of Commerce to deploy additional funding: In March of this year, Fischer sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Assistant Secretary Arielle Roth urging them to make additional BEAD funding available to serve locations that Nebraska’s final plan did not capture. In April of this year, Fischer questioned Secretary Lutnick on his plans to deploy the remaining $340 million in BEAD funds allocated to Nebraska. Fischer also met with Assistant Secretary Roth in her Washington, D.C. office earlier this year to discuss BEAD funding. In December of 2025, Fischer sent a letter to Assistant Secretary Roth advocating for NTIA to affirm precision ag as an option for unobligated BEAD funds. Also in December of 2025, Fischer sent a letter to Secretary Roth urging the administration to preserve states’ ability to use their non-deployment BEAD Program funds consistent with congressional intent and the bipartisan infrastructure law. See NTIA’s announcement here . ###