WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, Congressman Andrew Clyde (GA-09) secured a commitment from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that cooperatives regulated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), such as Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation (BRMEMC), are exempt from a National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) mandate causing legal and financial barriers to a critical broadband expansion project in Georgia’s Ninth District.
The NTIA awarded $3.8 million in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program funding to Blue Ridge Mountain EMC for connecting 3,700 hard-to-reach households in Northeast Georgia with fiber broadband — which is part of a larger $13.1 million project investment by BRMEMC and its members.
However, on January 12th, the NTIA quietly added new language to the BEAD General Terms and Conditions requiring all electric cooperative subgrantees to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pole attachment rules, rates, and timelines — not just in BEAD-funded areas, but across their entire service footprint. This last-minute rule change created serious legal and financial problems for BRMEMC and cooperatives like it nationwide.
Yet the mandate directly conflicts with Section 224 of the Communications Act, under which Congress explicitly exempted electric cooperatives from FCC pole attachment rules. More critically for BRMEMC, the cooperative is served and regulated by the TVA, which governs pole attachment rates for all 153 TVA-served local power companies using a standardized, valley-wide methodology. In other words, complying with the NTIA mandate would have forced BRMEMC into direct conflict with its own congressionally authorized federal regulator — an impossible position for the cooperative to accept.
Therefore, during the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s recent budget hearing for the Department of Commerce, Rep. Clyde secured a commitment from Secretary Lutnick that Blue Ridge Mountain EMC is exempt from the NTIA’s FCC pole attachment rules.
“Improving and expanding access to reliable, high-speed internet is critically important, especially for families, students, workers, and businesses in Northeast Georgia,” said Clyde. “I commend Blue Ridge Mountain EMC for investing in broadband expansion in our communities, and I thank Secretary Lutnick for providing the commitment and clarity needed for BRMEMC’s project to move forward.”
“We are exceedingly thankful to Congressman Clyde and his staff for their leadership and assistance in securing necessary clarity on this broadband funding issue through his questions to Commerce Secretary Lutnick at last week’s House Appropriations Budget Committee hearing. Thanks to his work, Blue Ridge Mountain EMC looks forward to utilizing BEAD funds to continue its expansion of world-class fiber broadband service in north Georgia,” said Alex King, Director of Fiber, Blue Ridge Mountain EMC.
