"This is how liberal government works"

The episode opens with a specific, damning number: three years in, only three out of fifty-six state and territorial applicants have made it through the federal process for rural broadband funding. The hosts walk through the fourteen-step bureaucratic pipeline the Biden administration's own broadband bill created, and the repeated, overlapping layers of review and approval become almost comical in their density.

Step one: issue a Notice of Funding Opportunity within 180 days. Step two: states submit a letter of intent. Step three: states can request up to $5 million in planning grants — not broadband construction grants, just planning money. Step four: the NTIA reviews, approves, and awards those planning grants. Step five: states submit a five-year action plan. Step six: the FCC must publish broadband data maps before the NTIA can allocate any funds. Step seven: states get to challenge those maps for accuracy. Step eight: the NTIA must use the challenged maps to make allocation decisions. Step nine: states submit an "initial proposal" — which the host notes is distinct from the five-year action plan they already submitted, meaning at least two separate proposals are required. Step ten: states must create their own maps and allow internal challenges to those maps. Step eleven: the NTIA reviews and approves the results of those chal