House Small Business Committee hearing spotlights BEAD changes and urges fiber-first approach for rural broadband

The House Committee on Small Business held a congressional hearing titled “Wired for Growth: How expanding broadband can revitalize rural small businesses” to examine rural broadband deployment, federal funding priorities and obstacles to building and sustaining service.

The session featured testimony from rural broadband providers and small-business users who urged Congress and federal agencies to prioritize fiber-optic infrastructure in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, address mapping inaccuracies and permitting delays, and modernize the Universal Service Fund (USF) to sustain long-term operations.

Why it matters: Witnesses said technology choices and administrative rules in federal grant programs will determine whether areas now unserved receive long-lived, scalable networks or shorter-term fixes that may not meet future needs. Broadband decisions affect farms, small businesses, telehealth and education in large parts of rural America.

Christy Westbrock, CEO and general manager of Consolidated Telecommunications Company (CTC), told the committee that grants alone do not sustain networks and described specific BEAD funding she expects CTC…