Article Summary
- JB Pritzker sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday, urging the release of $1 billion in broadband infrastructure funds previously allocated to Illinois.
- Lutnick announced a review of the federal funding program last year, saying it had failed to connect anyone to the internet due in part to “woke mandates.”
- President Donald Trump also directed the Commerce Department to explore whether the broadband funding could be withheld from states with artificial intelligence regulations that did not align with national policy.
This summary was written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday, urging him to approve Illinois’ proposal for federal broadband infrastructure funds.
The $1 billion proposal would connect roughly 383,000 people, mostly in rural areas, to high-speed internet.
However, Illinois and California lag months behind other states in the approval process — leading to speculation that the funds have been withheld from the two blue states for political punishment or leverage.
Those funds were previously allocated to states in 2023 under the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program established by the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by Congress in 2021.
To receive funding, states were required to submit a five-year plan and proposal identifying under- and unserved communities, solicit feedback from the public, and then file for final approval.
But midway through the process, Lutnick announced the Commerce Department would review the program, which he claimed had “not connected a single person to the internet” due to “woke mandates,” favoritism and burdensome regulations.
He vowed to work with states and territories to cut red tape and get households connected quickly at the lowest cost possible.
Last June, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, which oversees the approval of BEAD proposals, released a policy notice outlining restructuring for the program and creating new delays.
An audit by the Government Accountability Office later found the move had violated the Congressional Review Act by failing to approve the changes with Congress, but the agency has not since walked back the changes.
It gave states until September to comply with the changes and committed to reviewing all final proposals within 90 days of submission.
But, more than seven months since Illinois submitted its final proposal, the review is still not complete. California is the only other state or territory that still has not received approval, according to NTIA’s BEAD Progress Dashboard.
“At this point, it seems unusual and targeted that the U.S. Department of Commerce had the capacity to complete in-depth reviews and approvals for every single state except for Illinois and California,” Pritzker wrote in his letter to Lutnick. “Illinois families and businesses in rural areas are the ones paying the price.”
AI compliance
Potentially complicating the release of funds is an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last December. The order sought to shield tech companies from state laws regulating artificial intelligence. It targeted state laws, including several in Illinois, that Trump said are inconsistent with national policy on AI.
Read more: Illinois leaders ‘won’t back down’ following Trump’s order limiting AI regulation
In the order, Trump directed Lutnick to explore whether BEAD funding could be withheld from states with “onerous” AI laws, a move Pritzker’s office at the time called “reckless” and said “doesn’t protect anyone but the wealthy.”
An NTIA spokesperson said in a statement that “NTIA is continuing to work with Illinois to ensure its final BEAD plan delivers the benefit of the bargain.”
The spokesperson did not address questions about the impact of Trump’s executive order for AI compliance on the BEAD fund allocation.
‘Time is money’
Pritzker implored Lutnick to be guided by his decades of experience working on Wall Street in understanding that “time is money” for Illinois homes and businesses.
“Each passing day keeps over 383,000 Illinoisans and over 1,200 schools, libraries, and hospitals disconnected,” Pritzker wrote.
“Patients are unable to access critical telemedicine services, students cannot complete homework online, farmers are left without the necessary tools to monitor crops, new businesses cannot leverage online platforms and job seekers lose out on opportunities to support their families.”
Read the full letter here: Gov. Pritzer BEAD Letter
Lutnick’s office did not respond to a request for comment by the time of story publication.
When asked whether the attorney general might file a lawsuit challenging the delay, a spokesperson for Pritzker said the state is evaluating “all available options” to ensure Illinois receives the federal broadband funding necessary to move projects forward.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
