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Lutnick Testifies at a Senate Appropriations Review of Broadband Deployment Funding, Feb. 10, 2026

February 10, 2026 · CNBC Television · 1:25:26

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What happened

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies on February 10, 2026, at a hearing reviewing broadband deployment funding at the Department of Commerce — the BEAD program — carried live by CNBC Television. Chairman Moran walked through the program’s state as the department presented it: states’ plans approved, dozens of states at the funding stage after the department’s revised guidelines, and the process at “the very, very end,” as Lutnick described the sequence. Senators pressed him on the guardrails meant to assure long-term success rather than short-term benefit, on technology neutrality in how broadband is delivered, and on what happens to unspent BEAD funds — including a proposal, discussed in the hearing, to keep leftover funds within states for locations still unserved after initial deployment.

Senator Shaheen raised New Hampshire’s $196.5 million BEAD allocation, as she stated the figure, and concerns about satellite capacity reserved for homes in areas slated for BEAD-funded service, asking whether states could renegotiate requirements with providers. The hearing’s widest-covered exchange, however, was not about broadband: Senator Van Hollen questioned Lutnick about his past association with Jeffrey Epstein, following the release of Epstein files in which Lutnick’s name appeared. Lutnick testified that he had lunch on Epstein’s island once, for an hour, on a family vacation — with his wife, his four children and nannies, and another couple and their children — and that he left with all of them together, as he stated it. Van Hollen charged that Lutnick had “totally misrepresented” the extent of the relationship, as the senator put it; Lutnick denied any wrongdoing and said he had nothing to hide. The White House press secretary said the same day that Secretary Lutnick remained a very important member of President Trump’s team and that the President fully supported him, as she stated it.

Why it matters

The hearing is two records in one. On broadband, it is the Lutnick Commerce Department’s fullest Senate account of the BEAD program’s endgame — revised guidelines, states at the funding stage, and an open fight over leftover funds — for the rural-broadband mission both parties on the subcommittee claim. On the Epstein questions, it is the Secretary’s first sworn, on-camera account of the 2012 island lunch, given under hostile questioning and carried here with the criticism attributed, exactly as the exchange happened; his voluntary transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee followed from the same controversy later in the year.

Sources: CNBC Television, “Commerce Sec. Lutnick testifies before lawmakers on broadband deployment funding — 2/10/2026” (live carry, Feb. 10, 2026, embedded above; testimony as delivered by Secretary Lutnick and members of the subcommittee). The Forbes Breaking News live carry of the same hearing is recorded in the site index, not separately paged.