Garfield County commissioners voted to send a letter to U.S. Representative Jeff Hurd and other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation asking the Department of Commerce and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to reconsider a recent restructuring of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.

County Manager Fred Jarman told the board that he and Commissioner Jankowski had asked about federal changes after text from Sen. Michael Hickenlooper’s office indicated updates were in play. Diane Cruz, a broadband consultant with NeoConnect, told commissioners the NTIA restructuring would rescind the state’s completed evaluation and require a new round of grant applications with scoring that favors the lowest-cost technology.

"Fiber is very scalable," Cruz said in the meeting, adding that the original BEAD scoring prioritized fiber and higher-capacity builds. She said the restructuring eliminates fiber priority and reduces the performance floor from what she described as "6,000 by 6,000" to "100 megabits per second by 20 megabits per second," which she called a "Band‑Aid" rather than a long‑term investment.

Cruz and county staff told the board that Colorado had completed evaluation rounds and had award recommendations ready for addresses in Garfield County; the proposed NTIA change would require rescinding that work and starting again. County Manager Jarman said that Garfield County had invested in middle‑mile infrastructure and carrier‑neutral locations (CNLs) and that the change could undercut that work.

Commissioners moved and approved a letter asking the NTIA and Department of Commerce to allow states to proceed with their initial award recommendations. The approved motion directed staff to send the letter to Rep. Jeff Hurd and to copy U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and U.S. Representatives Lauren Boebert and Gabe Evans, plus state legislators identified in the packet, and to include the Secretary of Commerce. The board authorized three commissioners to sign the letter.

County staff said the state would have fewer than 30 days to comply with the NTIA restructuring and issue new maps and grant rounds, creating urgency for the county’s planned projects. Cruz warned the lower bar and lowest‑cost scoring would likely advantage satellite providers and other lower‑cost options that she said would not support long‑term economic, education and medical connectivity needs.

The board’s action was procedural — a request for congressional intervention rather than an administrative change to county programs — and staff said they would forward the county’s concerns and the signed letter to the delegation and federal agencies.