The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee Arielle Roth to lead the National Telecommunications and Information Administration as assistant secretary of communications and information. On Wednesday, legislators voted 52-41 in favor of Roth’s appointment.
Table of Contents
Who Is Arielle Roth?
Roth has extensive experience and deep expertise in telecommunications. She currently serves as telecom policy director for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. She also held multiple roles at the Federal Communications Commission, including as a wireline adviser for former commissioner Michael O’Rielly.
In a statement, FCC Chair Brendan Carr congratulated Roth and said the new assistant secretary will play an important role in positioning the United States as a leader in wireless communications.
“After Congress passed President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which restored the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, it has become even more important to have terrific leaders like Arielle at NTIA to help unlock more spectrum for consumer use,” Carr commented. “Arielle and her team will be critical in the work to restore U.S. leadership in wireless, which promotes our economic and national security.”
She holds bachelor’s degrees from the University of Toronto and McGill University.
Arielle Roth’s Criticism of BEAD
Roth will now lead the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment, or BEAD, program, a $42.5 billion initiative to expand high-speed internet access across the country.
In a previous event, she said the program has “all kinds of legal requirements” and deters participation, driving up costs. She pointed out that BEAD has a strong preference for fiber, which goes against the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 provision on tech neutrality.
In June, the NTIA issued revised BEAD program rules to remove preference for end-to-end fiber and, instead, call for broadband services that can deliver speeds of no less than 100/20 Mbps.
Related Articles
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted 26-3 to pass a bill that would appropriate $851.9 billion in discretionary defense funding for fiscal year 2026. Weapons Systems Procurement The committee said Thursday the proposed FY 2026 Defense Appropriations Act would allocate $171.3 billion for weapon systems procurement and $140.5 billion for platform research, development and testing. The measure includes a $280 million increase in funding for F-135 spare engines and an additional $500 million for F-35 sustainment spare parts; an additional $216 million for drone and counter-drone tech capabilities; $4.6 billion more for air and missile defense efforts; and a
NASA wants to team up with industry to develop advanced space technologies for future commercial or government use. The space agency on Wednesday issued an announcement of collaboration opportunity, or ACO, to solicit partnership proposals. Managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate, the ACO gives industry partners access to NASA subject matter expertise, facilities, software and hardware to accelerate and enhance capability development. According to NASA, the ACO will be open for five years and will serve as an umbrella opportunity for topic-specific appendices that would be released every six to 12 months to address evolving needs. For the 2025
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and other government and healthcare technology leaders have committed to delivering a patient-centric digital health ecosystem. At an event hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the White House, over 60 companies pledged to collaborate and deliver results that benefit the public in the first quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, 11 health systems and providers said they will support patient use. Seven electronic health record companies pledged to facilitate data exchange. According to Kennedy, bureaucrats and entrenched interests have made health data inaccessible to patients,