Top Broadband Official Exits Commerce Department With Sharp Musk Warning

A top Commerce Department official sent a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door Sunday warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk's satellite internet company with money for rural broadband.

The technology offered by Starlink, Musk's company, is inferior, wrote Evan Feinman, who had directed the $42.5 billion broadband program for the past three years

“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world's richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Feinman said.

Key context: Feinman’s lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words and shared with POLITICO, is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently pledged a vigorous review of BEAD, with an aim to rip out what he sees as extraneous requirements and remove any preference for particular broadband technologies like fiber.

Musk, who runs the Starlink satellite broadband service, stands to reap a greater share of these subsidies under the revised rules.

Musk and Starlink did not respond to requests for comment.

The program, created in the 2021 infrastructure law program, became a source of partisan fighting last year on the campaign trail as Republicans attacked the Biden administration for its slow pace. No internet expansion projects have begun using BEAD money, although some states were close at the beginning of this year.

Feinman’s critique: In his email, Feinman notes Friday was his last day leading BEAD and that he’s “disappointed not to be able to see this project through.”

Commerce Department spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Feinman’s email or the circumstances of his departure.

Feinman's email warns the Trump administration could undermine BEAD and he encourages people to fight to retain its best aspects. Feinman said the administration should “NOT change it to benefit technology that delivers slower speeds at higher costs to the household paying the bill,” adding that this isn’t what rural America, congressional Republicans or Democrats, the states or the telecom industry wants.

“Reach out to your congressional delegation and reach out to the Trump Administration and tell them to strip out the needless requirements, but not to strip away from states the flexibility to get the best connections for their people,” Feinman wrote.

He said he’s not worried about the Trump administration nixing requirements around climate resiliency, labor and middle class affordability, saying those issues “were inserted by the prior administration for messaging/political purposes, and were never central to the mission of the program.”

Let projects go forth: Feinman is worried about the Trump administration killing state progress through changes to BEAD. Three states — Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada — are currently in “limbo” due to their final approvals caught in National Institute of Standards and Technology review, Feinman noted. Louisiana had previously anticipated it would begin executing internet projects within the first 100 days of 2025. Feinman said these states should be allowed to proceed and let other states ready with final proposals under the old rules, like West Virginia, move forward if they want.

“Shovels could already be in the ground in three states, and they could be in the ground in half the country by the summer without the proposed changes to project selection,” Feinman wrote.

What’s next: Lutnick has yet to release specific guidance around changes to BEAD nor presented any timeline for doing so. The Senate also still needs to confirm Arielle Roth, Trump’s nominee to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Commerce Department agency overseeing the BEAD program. She is awaiting a Senate Commerce confirmation hearing.