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To amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require remaining funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program to be used for deficit reduction.
Summary
The bill amends the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to change how remaining funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program are handled. Instead of making all remaining funds available to eligible entities, the bill requires that only funds designated for specific purposes in final proposals be distributed to eligible entities. Remaining funds that have not been designated for a specific purpose are to be deposited into the general fund of the Treasury for deficit reduction. The bill also includes technical amendments clarifying reallocation procedures for the BEAD Program when applications fail.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Ernst, Joni [R-IA] (R-IA)
4 cosponsors
- Sen. Cruz, Ted [R-TX] (R-TX)
- Sen. Lee, Mike [R-UT] (R-UT)
- Sen. Lummis, Cynthia M. [R-WY] (R-WY)
- Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL] (R-FL)
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Joni Ernst’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- NULL $57,653
- CAPITAL GROUP $40,000
- SOROBAN CAPITAL $13,200
- CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES $7,500
- GOOGLE $6,800
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Joni Ernst → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Nov 20, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. · senate
- Nov 20, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 20, 2025
Ms. Ernst (for herself and Mr. Cruz) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to require remaining funds under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program to be used for deficit reduction.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Recovering Excess Communications Appropriations while Protecting Telecommunications Upgrades, Reinvestment, and Expansion Act” or the “RECAPTURE Act”.
SEC. 2. USE OF REMAINING BEAD FUNDS FOR DEFICIT REDUCTION.
(a) In General.—Section 60102(e)(4) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702(e)(4)) is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (D)(ii)(III), by striking “, shall make available to the eligible entity the remainder of the grant funds allocated to the eligible entity under subsection
(c);” and inserting the following: “, shall, with respect to the remainder of the grant funds allocated to the eligible entity under subsection (c)— “(aa) make available to the eligible entity the portion of those remaining funds that have been designated for a specific purpose in the final proposal; and “(bb) deposit in the general fund of the Treasury, for the sole purpose of deficit reduction, the portion of those remaining funds that have not been designated for a specific purpose in the final proposal;”; and
(2) in subparagraph (E)(ii)(III), by striking “, shall make available to the eligible entity the remainder of the grant funds allocated to the eligible entity under subsection
(c);” and inserting the following: “, shall, with respect to the remainder of the grant funds allocated to the eligible entity under subsection (c)— “(aa) make available to the eligible entity the portion of those remaining funds that have been designated for a specific purpose in the final proposal; and “(bb) deposit in the general fund of the Treasury, for the sole purpose of deficit reduction, the portion of those remaining funds that have not been designated for a specific purpose in the final proposal;”.
(b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.—Section 60102 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (47 U.S.C. 1702) is amended—
(1) in subsection (c)(5)(C)—
(A) by striking clause (ii);
(B) by striking “Reallocation to other eligible entities.—” and all that follows through “The Assistant Secretary” and inserting “Reallocation to other eligible entities due to application failures.— The Assistant Secretary”;
(C) by redesignating subclauses (I) and (II) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively, and adjusting the margins accordingly; and
(D) in clause (ii), as so redesignated, by striking “subclause (I) of this clause” and inserting “clause
(i) of this subparagraph”; and
(2) in subsection (e)(4)(A)(i), in the matter preceding subclause (I), by striking “approvals” and inserting “approves”. <all>
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