The Divide: Joey Wender on US Treasury's $10B down payment on closing the digital divide

This episode features Joey Wender, director of the capital projects fund at the US Treasury Department. In his role, Wender has been responsible for overseeing $10 billion in federal broadband deployment funds, which the Treasury Department has been steadily awarding to states and territories since 2022.

For a bit of background, the $10 billion capital projects fund was established through the American Rescue Plan Act, passed in March 2021. That legislation preceded the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in November 2021, which created the much larger $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

We first had Wender on The Divide last year to discuss his department's progress with awarding the first $5 billion in capital projects funding. Now, with nearly all $10 billion awarded, Wender joins the podcast again to discuss the status of that funding, which he calls a "down payment" on closing the digital divide.

We talk more about how far that $10 billion will ultimately go toward solving the country's connectivity problems, as well as how his department is collaborating with partners at the NTIA as they get closer to awarding BEAD funds, why losing the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) will have "cascading effects" on all of this – and more.

Here are a few topics we cover in this conversation:

For a lightly edited transcript, click the caption button on the podcast player.