Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

28. Federal Communications Commission · Notable

Eliminate government-funded overbuilding of existing networks

Partially done

856 28. Federal Communications Commission

“A new Administration should eliminate government-funded overbuilding of existing networks.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    NTIA's BEAD Restructuring Policy Notice says in terms that its location rules exist "to prevent overbuilding of privately funded networks and Federal, state, or locally funded locations by BEAD". Eligible entities must remove locations dropped from the FCC Fabric, locations already served by an enforceable commitment and locations already served by non-subsidized service; must certify that funded locations are unserved or underserved; and must run a notice-and-evidence process with unlicensed fixed wireless providers so that locations already served to the Notice's technical standard are excluded from awards. NTIA validates the exclusions when it reviews Final Proposals. That eliminates overbuilding in the largest federal broadband program, not in government funding generally: the American Rescue Plan rules the Mandate names on the same page are untouched, and USDA's programs were not revisited.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • partial rather than done because the ask is open-ended — all government-funded overbuilding — and one program, however large, is not all of it. A government-wide instruction, or Treasury reopening the 2022 American Rescue Plan rules, would move it.
  • The FCC is working the same seam from its own side: the High-Cost Program modernization NPRM (2026-11353, 2026-06-05) and the E-Rate review NPRM (2026-16590, 2026-08-14) both discuss overbuilding. Proposals, so they are noted rather than leveled; they belong to #2215.
  • "overbuilding" returns three Federal Register documents since 2025-01-20: the two FCC proposals above and an unrelated FERC natural-gas rule (2025-19533).
  • Shares its Evidence with #2212. Leveled together: #2212 is about where the money goes, this item about what it may not be spent on top of.
Action
eliminate
Object
Government-funded overbuilding of existing broadband networks
ID
2213