Route Fifty reports…

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Wednesday the department would undertake a “rigorous review” of the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, and said it would now take a “tech-neutral approach.”

Lutnick also pledged to reverse many “pointless requirements” the Biden administration had attached to the program and said it would find ways to speed up infrastructure construction, while reducing delays and alleged waste. He also assailed the former president for the program’s “woke mandates, favoritism towards certain technologies, and burdensome regulations,” and said it is in “dire need of a readjustment.”

“Under the revamped BEAD program, all Americans will receive the benefit of the bargain that Congress intended,” Lutnick said in a statement. “We’re going to deliver high-speed internet access, and we will do it efficiently and effectively at the lowest cost to taxpayers.”