While the Trump administration is rewriting a federal program to bring high-speed internet to millions of households nationwide, West Virginia’s broadband expansion has been delayed for three more months.
West Virginians will have to wait even longer to get connected, falling further behind other states that have made significant strides in broadband.
“This 90-day delay is understandable,” said Bill Bissett, chair of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council. “But it’s still 90 days that we won’t have funding to reach unserved and underserved West Virginians who are still waiting for broadband.”
Last week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced that the state received a three-month extension to change an application originally due later this month for more than a billion dollars in broadband money.
He said the new extension would help the state focus on using the money to “attract investment from AI hubs, microgrids and data centers.”
In a press conference Thursday, Morrisey said he met with federal officials in the Trump administration to learn more about the proposed changes to the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.
“I want to make sure we do it right,” he said. “It would have been foolish to just submit something that was going to get rejected.”
The BEAD program is a federal investment that funds broadband projects across the country. West Virginia is slated to receive $1.2 billion of the funds later this year to connect thousands of homes and businesses.
After nearly two years of planning, West Virginia was due to submit an application for how the state would use the money later this month.
Other states like Delaware, Nevada and Louisiana have already submitted their applications and have been approved since early January.
In February, West Virginia broadband officials told lawmakers they were moving ahead with the final application and presented no uncertainty about potential federal changes to the program or threats to the funding.
Just a week later, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said the BEAD program would be under “rigorous review” as the new administration worked to streamline the program requirements.
Charlie Dennie, former director of the state’s broadband office, said federal officials are changing the program’s rules to open the door for Elon Musk’s Starlink to have a larger share of the funding following his large campaign donations to the new administration.
“They’re most likely working to roll back the rules from the Biden administration,” he said. “But the money has already been allocated by Congress.”
Morrisey said Thursday that the state was changing its application to meet the new rules for the program but declined to elaborate on what those changes would be.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, said in a statement that she thinks the federal changes will speed up deployment and hopes the state will be moving forward in the process by the end of July.
“I’m disappointed that after nearly four years, many West Virginians have to keep waiting for broadband.”
Editors note: This story has been updated with a statement from Sen. Capito.