For Immediate Release November 9, 2010

Contact:  Leslie K. Paige 202-467-5334 Luke Gelber 202-467-5318

CAGW ISSUES SPENDING CUT ALERT ON BROADBAND PROGRAM

IG Report Finds Serious Flaws in Program

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued a spending cut alert for broadband programs managed by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Reports documenting chronic oversight and management flaws have repeatedly illustrated that spending like this is a bad deal for taxpayers. The NTIA is responsible for managing the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, a multi-billion stimulus program for broadband expansion.

According to a November 8, 2010 article in Politico, “A government report released Monday found flaws in the stimulus program that’s putting roughly $4 billion towards rolling out broadband networks across the country…. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the agency that has been managing the program, isn’t doing enough to monitor how grantees are spending the stimulus money, the report finds. The Inspector General also pointed out flaws with the program’s internal processes.”

“CAGW has been critical of government funded broadband for from the start, and has warned against heaping piles of money on the NTIA and giving the agency impossible deadlines to meet,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

The Politico article also noted that the NTIA is awaiting congressional approval of $24 million in additional funding for the program so it can continue to keep tabs on its grantees. Unfortunately, this program’s oversight process has been defective from the start, and it seems that no amount of money will help it. The Government Accountability Office expressed concerns in August about NTIA’s inability to correctly track awards that it had granted.

Broadband programs have been among CAGW’s targets for spending cuts and are included in CAGW’s Prime Cuts database, a compendium of 763 waste-cutting recommendations that would save taxpayers $350 billion in the first year and $2.2 trillion over five years. The elimination of this program would save taxpayers $4.7 billion over a five-year period.

“While Prime Cuts is not the only answer, it will help reduce the $1.3 trillion deficit, the $13.7 trillion national debt, and keep more money in the hands of individuals and small businesses that can more directly address the stubborn 9.6 percent jobless rate,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz. “Taxpayers now recognize that President Obama and his congressional allies will say anything to sound fiscally rational, but their actions tell a different story. The spendthrifts in Washington, D.C. should read and adopt every recommendation in the 2010 Prime Cuts,” Schatz concluded.

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.