On March 29, NRECA, along with NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and the Fiber Broadband Association, sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, urging the agency to disregard a Management Alert by Commerce's Office of Inspector General (OIG) expressing concern with NTIA's implementation of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The associations stated the OIG report ventures far afield of any process or oversight concerns within the province of inspectors general and instead merely echoes the policy preferences of selected industry segments on policy determinations that are squarely within the province of NTIA's decision-making. The recommendations would have watered down the BEAD program fiber preference and would have sought to have areas served with satellite and using unlicensed wireless deemed served and thus removed from BEAD eligibility. Finally, the OIG said their management alert resulted from extensive industry outreach, yet none of our associations or members received any outreach from the OIG.
