Top broadband official exits Commerce Department with sharp Musk warning [View all]

Source: Politico

03/16/2025 12:42 PM EDT


A top Commerce Department official sent a blistering email to his former colleagues on his way out the door Sunday warning that the Trump administration is poised to unduly enrich Elon Musk’s satellite internet company with money for rural broadband. The technology offered by Starlink, Musk’s company, is inferior, wrote Evan Feinman, who had directed the $42.5 billion broadband program for the past three years.

“Stranding all or part of rural America with worse internet so that we can make the world’s richest man even richer is yet another in a long line of betrayals by Washington,” Feinman said.

Key context: Feinman’s lengthy email, totaling more than 1,100 words and shared with POLITICO, is a sign of deep discomfort about the changes underway that will likely transform the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently pledged a vigorous review of BEAD, with an aim to rip out what he sees as extraneous requirements and remove any preference for particular broadband technologies like fiber.

Musk, who runs the Starlink satellite broadband service, stands to reap a greater share of these subsidies under the revised rules. Musk and Starlink did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/16/official-exits-commerce-department-musk-warning-00232278