Congress opens the books on $42 billion broadband spending program
S. 713 — Broadband Buildout Accountability Act · Filed by Rick Scott (R-FL) · 7 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 25, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Assistant Secretary of Commerce overseeing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Currently, the BEAD Program is exempt from FOIA disclosure requirements; this bill removes that exemption, allowing the public to request and obtain records about how the federal government is spending billions on broadband infrastructure.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to subject a federal program to existing public-disclosure law. It is a straightforward accountability mechanism with no hidden provisions or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- Disclosure of BEAD Program records may reveal geographic disparities in broadband funding allocation, potentially exposing political or demographic patterns in infrastructure investment.
- Broadband companies and state/local agencies receiving BEAD funds may face increased scrutiny of their applications, contracts, and performance metrics through FOIA requests.
- The Assistant Secretary's internal deliberations, cost-benefit analyses, and funding rationales become discoverable, potentially constraining discretionary decision-making or exposing inconsistencies in program administration.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens gain transparency into how federal broadband funds are allocated and spent, enabling public scrutiny of a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure program. This strengthens democratic accountability by making government decision-making visible to the public and press.
Named in the bill
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Section 60102(o)(2)
Where it stands
7 cosponsors: 7 Republicans.
- Feb 25, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 25, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,320,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 35 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Rick Scott, the sponsor, reported $69,750 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Cox Enterprises Inc. — $1,320,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (377 characters) on Jun 22, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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