Jeffrey Westling Quoted in Communications Daily on BEAD Funding Restrictions in Draft AI Order
ICLE Senior Scholar of Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling was quoted in Communications Daily discussing the political and practical implications of a draft AI order that proposes restrictions on the use of non-deployment funds within the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Read the full piece here.
Jeffrey Westling, a senior scholar of innovation policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, said the draft order’s BEAD language would likely be more palatable to congressional Republicans, given that it targets only non-deployment money that some in the GOP have eyed clawing back anyway (see 2511070035). Republicans “have really been hitting [the Biden administration] for the last two years that nothing’s been actually deployed” via BEAD, he told us. “Theoretically, this shouldn’t delay any actual deployment like this, so it’s a lot less of a problem [for lawmakers who] want to make sure they’re getting the broadband actually built out to constituents.”