(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee rejected a motion from Democrats to make a $400 million investment in the Broadband Expansion Grant Program, which would seek to deliver high-speed internet to rural or unserved areas.
The rejected motion came in response to delays President Donal Trump’s review of the Broadband, Equity, Access and Development Program, which Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers objected to.
However, Sen. Romaine Quinn, R-Birchwood, pushed back on Evers’ proposed $400 million investment, saying it was “never realistic to begin with.”
“Four-hundred-million dollars, that’s not even real,” Quinn said. “We literally can’t spend $400 million and get that much fiber in the ground based on the providers we have or the construction crews we have.”
Quinn argued the motion was “all a talking point,” saying, “We can’t even put $400 million of fiber in the ground in the time period this needs to be spent on top of the fact that we’re also going to get BEAD money. It’s just being re-worked.”
Wisconsin had expected to receive more than $1 billion in BEAD money based on need, according to Evers.
Evers said in a statement that 39% of Wisconsin residents lack access to affordable internet and there are 262,000 locations considered “unserved” in the state as of December 2024.
“I’m proud my administration has done more than to expand high-speed internet than any other administration in state history, but we have a lot of work to do,” Evers said.
“With the Trump Administration delaying broadband funding Wisconsin expects to receive–over my objections–the $400 million investment I proposed to help expand high-speed internet is critical,” Evers said.
However, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had previously said in a statement the program was under review because it was tangled up in “woke” policy mandates.
“Because of the prior administration’s woke mandates, favoritism towards certain technologies, and burdensome regulations, the program has not connected a single person to the internet and is in dire need of a readjustment,” Lutnick said.
Lutnick said the Trump administration would work on delivering high-speed internet access at the lowest cost for states by removing delays, waste and diversity preferences before getting homes and businesses connected.
Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin, said Wisconsin needs a better broadband plan if it’s going to be invested in at all.
“When we start talking about connecting people to the last mile, we’re going to need to expand beyond the traditional methods that are used today in broadband,” Bradley said. “We have got to stop just upgrading and spending focus and money on trying to make it look like we’re doing more for broadband than we actually are.”
Bradley concluded, “We have to actually connect people. We need to have more focus and until we have a plan to do that, gutting this out of budget and rejecting this is the right thing to do.”
Capital budget amounts and other motions are planned to be taken up in Thursday’s Joint Finance Committee meeting.
