Two Tennessee representatives have joined 162 legislators from 28 states in urging the federal government to release funding for broadband-related programs and projects paused earlier this year by President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Tennessee was set to receive more than $813 million in funding through the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, passed in 2021 as part of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But in June, the Trump administration paused the distribution of most of those funds to states, including more than $600 million for Tennessee.
Tennessee House members Karen Camper, D-Memphis, and Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, signed the letter addressed to Howard Lutnick, secretary of the Department of Commerce, which oversees the broadband program.
The letter, sent Tuesday, asks the agency’s National Telecommunications Information Administration to act swiftly to release the money — known as non-deployment funds — for a variety of projects that help internet users in hard-to-reach or underserved communities access the technology and the opportunities it provides.
“The scale of non-deployment will allow states to improve virtually every aspect of their connectivity,” the state legislators said in the letter. “This unprecedented opportunity was created in direct response to NTIA’s call for efficiency. To now deny states the funds their efficiency generated would penalize success and undermine BEAD’s purpose.”