Thune Seeks NTIA 'Pause' of Tribal Broadband Funding Amid Mapping, GAO Concerns

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., asked NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson Friday to “pause the disbursement” of money for its tribal broadband connectivity program (TBCP) until NTIA uses updated FCC broadband maps to “verify that all funds for applications submitted … will not be used to overbuild existing broadband service.” Thune also asked for a pause until NTIA addresses GAO’s call last week for the agency to institute better performance goals and measures for TBCP (see 2301240047) that can better “detect fraud” in the program. Thune and former Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., first raised concerns about TBCP in December (see 2212080051), soon after Thune began a bid for stronger oversight of all federal broadband programs. Davidson indicated in his response earlier this month to that initial query that NTIA was still reviewing the broadband maps the FCC released in November (see 2211100072), but “I am concerned that if NTIA does not use” the updated data “to review all TBCP application currently pending, awarded and disbursed,” the agency “will once again waste billions of taxpayer dollars” by funding overbuilding of existing networks, Thune said in a letter to Davidson we obtained. The GAO’s report, meanwhile, said NTIA hasn't done a fraud risk assessment of the program and the agency hasn’t “designated an entity to oversee fraud risk management.” “This mismanagement of the TBCP by NTIA is deeply concerning” since the agency already disbursed more than $1.7 billion in funding through the program, Thune said. NTIA didn’t comment.