Treasury Announces Deadline Extensions Available for Capital Projects Fund Broadband Buildouts

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Relief may be on the way for service providers facing continued economic and regulatory hurdles to complete broadband buildouts supported by the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF). Treasury recently announced that it will consider extension requests of up to six months for such projects, pushing the period of performance deadline as far as June 30, 2027. Treasury imposed a rapid turnaround timeline, with extension requests due by July 31, 2026 from the broadband offices administering CPF programs across the country. Affected service providers, therefore, will need to work quickly with their awarding broadband offices to submit the information necessary to receive extensions and avoid costly CPF project defaults.

The CPF provided approximately $10 billion to states, territories, and tribal governments to fund capital projects enabling work, education, and health monitoring in response to the COVID public health emergency. Broadband infrastructure projects were presumptively eligible for CPF funding, and the original period of performance deadline was December 31, 2026. However, the economic and regulatory landscape for service providers and broadband offices changed drastically over the past few years, creating significant infrastructure deployment barriers and necessitating the new CPF extension process.

To receive Treasury approval, CPF extension requests must:

1. describe project progress to date, including specific spending, construction, or deployment milestones;
2. explain how the project delays are due to extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the service provider or broadband office; and
3. describe how the project will reach substantial completion by no later than June 30, 2027.

Treasury explained that extenuating circumstances justifying an extension may include, but are not limited to, unforeseen permitting or regulatory delays, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, or severe weather events. By contrast, delays attributable to inadequate planning, project management deficiencies, failure to secure financing, or other avoidable causes will not qualify for an extension. Treasury may deny extension requests that do not demonstrate material progress towards “substantial” project completion, which is the date when the project can fulfill its primary operations (i.e., delivering services to end-users).

Treasury will review CPF extension requests on a rolling basis as they are received. At this time, extensions are only available for broadband infrastructure buildouts and are not available for other CPF-supported projects, such as multi-purpose community facility construction. Treasury has not indicated to date that any extensions will be available for broadband infrastructure projects supported by other COVID-related programs it oversees with similar deadlines, such as the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, but that may change as final deployment milestones near.

Broadband providers cannot file CPF extension requests directly with Treasury. Instead, they must coordinate with the particular broadband offices that awarded their CPF grants to submit extension requests on a project-by-project basis. As a result, affected service providers should be on the near-term lookout for further broadband office guidance on the extension request process and any associated interim deadlines. Managing state-specific extension request requirements on an accelerated timeline may pose significant burdens on CPF grantees, particularly on smaller providers lacking in-house compliance personnel. However, the extension process offers much-needed breathing room to ensure CPF broadband infrastructure projects are completed and service providers do not lose critical funding.