The SPEED for BEAD Act is a bill that would modify the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to make deployment more flexible and technology-neutral, while expanding some uses of funds and tightening others. Key changes include defining gigabit-level broadband in a broader anchor-institution context, renaming the program’s focus from “Equity” to “Expansion,” allowing more diverse uses (including telecommunications workforce development), and giving eligible entities more flexibility to adjust project areas (including removing costly locations) and subgrant awards. The bill also imposes a broad prohibition on certain conditions in bidding or grant processes (restricting hiring mandates and labor or climate-related criteria, among others) and requires that all technologies meeting performance standards be treated as eligible. It further clarifies that rate regulation is not permitted, with limited exceptions. In short, the bill seeks to accelerate BEAD deployments by removing or relaxing several constraints, expanding eligible activities, and promoting a technology-agnostic approach—while also aiming to prevent certain labor- or policy-related conditions from influencing how funds are awarded or used.
Key Points
- 1Gigabit-level service defined and technology neutrality emphasized. The bill adds a clear definition that gigabit-level broadband means download speeds of at least 1,000 Mbps, and it extends the definition of reliable broadband to cover any technology that meets the performance criteria, not just specific technologies.
- 2Program name updated from Equity to Expansion. The BEAD program’s label and related language would shift from “Equity” to “Expansion,” signaling a policy emphasis change within the same program.
- 3Broader and reprogrammed use of funds. The act would add telecommunications workforce development as an eligible use of BEAD funds and would permit unused funds to be transferred to the general fund of the Treasury, potentially reducing carried-over balances.
- 4Project area flexibility for subgrants. Eligible entities could define project areas more flexibly and remove locations that would unreasonably raise costs, with the ability to reallocate subgrants to the removed areas.
- 5Strong prohibitions on certain bidding conditions; rate regulation barred. The bill would prohibit requiring or enforcing certain conditions in bidding, grants, or subgrants (including wage requirements, labor agreements, union-related provisions, climate criteria, data caps, open access, and diversity requirements), and it would affirm that rate regulation of broadband is not permitted, with narrow exceptions tied to pre-enactment approvals or a low-cost option requirement.