Texas broadband director's sworn testimony revealed Gov. Abbott's office directed a BEAD rule change favoring Starlink with upfront grant payments

On June 24, 2026, Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO) Director Bryant Clayton testified before the state Senate's Business and Commerce Committee that a change to how the office disburses Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant funds -- letting low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite broadband providers receive substantially larger upfront payments than other awardees -- came at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott's office. Other BEAD subgrantees were limited to roughly 10% of their grant funds upfront, with the remainder released on a tiered schedule; the changed rule let LEO providers front-load a larger share. Starlink, owned by Elon Musk, is by far the largest LEO broadband provider operating in Texas, with roughly 12 million customers worldwide, and was awarded about $108.8 million to serve nearly 64,000 locations -- the largest number of BEAD-covered locations awarded to any single provider in the state.

Under questioning from state Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, Clayton said "the office of the governor asked us to look at how our proposed structure compared to other states," citing concern that Texas was "out of step with other nearby states." Committee chair state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, said a coalition of non-LEO broadband providers separately asked to be reconsidered for the same favorable terms and were refused; Clayton did not explain why. Gov. Abbott's press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, confirmed on the record that "the Broadband Development Office in the Office of the Comptroller made the decision to adjust the grant disbursement schedule to better align with other states."

The rule change itself has no established calendar date. Clayton later said the disbursement-schedule change was made "one or two days before the grant was awarded," and the state's final BEAD subgrantee contracts, including Starlink's, were announced June 3, 2026 -- placing the change on June 1 or June 2, 2026 -- but no public source narrows it further. The June 24 hearing is the earliest point at which the directive from Abbott's office was disclosed publicly, which is why this entry is dated to that disclosure rather than to the unconfirmed day the change itself was made.

Updates

2026-08-11 — Texas Broadband Development Office paused all BEAD fund disbursements [3]

The Texas Broadband Development Office placed an indefinite hold on all disbursements under the BEAD program, telling subgrantees by email that the pause was effective as of the prior business day and would remain "until further notice," without stating a reason. The pause followed lawmakers' calls for an audit over the favoritism allegations and a separate internal review of the office announced by Texas Comptroller Don Huffines.

2026-08-13 — Reporting said the office's director and a division director had been dismissed [5]

Broadband Breakfast reported that Bryant Clayton, the Broadband Development Office director whose testimony described the disbursement-schedule change, and division director Greg Conte had been "reportedly dismissed" in the days before the disbursement pause was announced. Don Huffines, sworn in as Comptroller on August 1, 2026, had announced a comprehensive internal review of the comptroller's office including the broadband office. Neither departure was confirmed by the comptroller's office, no reason was stated, and the office's own staff page still listed Clayton as director when checked on August 13, 2026.