The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was an early victory for the Biden administration. One of its highlights was $42.5 billion to bring broadband internet access to rural areas. “Lowering prices — including the cost of high-speed internet service — is President Biden’s top priority,” a White House press release said at the time. Like many of this administration’s “top priorities,” it never happened. Three years after Biden signed the legislation, not a single home or business has been connected to one of these new networks. In fact, the first project to modernize rural broadband has been pushed to next year. It all comes down to a stifling bureaucracy tangled in red tape. Arizona badly needs broadband accessNamed Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD), the project is being administered by Biden’s Commerce Department. States apply for the funds, that department approves them, and Washington opens the money spigot.In theory, at least. To date, a handful of states have been approved. Arizona submitted its documentation, which is still sitting in some bureaucrat’s inbox. When approved, our state should gain access to nearly $1 billion to modernize our networks. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, more than 18% of people living on tribal lands — that’s about a quarter of Arizona’s land — don’t have broadband access. In non-tribal areas, that’s just 4%.Alan Davidson, who runs the BEAD program, recently admitted to a House panel that the first two years were d …
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