The Universal Service Administrative Company reported October 31 that it still expects to have $420 million available from previous E-rate funding years to increase disbursements in future funding years.
The Universal Service Administrative Company reported October 31 that it still expects to have $420 million available from previous E-rate funding years to increase disbursements in future funding years.
In its quarterly report to the Federal Communications Commission, USAC reiterated that it estimated it would have that amount of money available when the FCC sets the size of the funding pool for the 2004 funding year. Under current E-rate program rules, the Schools and Libraries Division is authorized to disburse up to $2.25 billion but can commit up to $2.7 billion. The FCC has specified that in the future it will permit the SLD to make use of additional funds from earlier years that were approved for schools and libraries but never used.
For the 2001 funding year, USAC is still retaining $209.3 million for "potential additional disbursements on committed FRNs," even though the deadline for processing invoices from 2001 passed earlier this year. That is in addition to $159.7 million that has been set aside for "pending appeals and invoice deadline extension requests" for that year. Only 71.6 percent of funding commitments have actually been disbursed for that year; USAC said its projection was based on ultimately disbursing no more than 86 percent of the total that was committed.
The report also provided details indicating that the pace of disbursements has slowed over the past few years. Only 40.9 percent of approved commitments for the 2002 funding year had been disbursed as of September 30, 2003. Last year, USAC reported that as of that date last year, it had disbursed 50.4 percent of approved commitments for the 2001 funding year, the comparable time period. Two years ago, it reported it had disbursed 56.5 percent of approved commitments for the comparable time period. Applicants and vendors have reported that additional reviews at the invoicing stage have slowed down the timetable for receiving discounts. USAC officials have acknowledged that additional reviews are taking place, but say that the bulk of invoices are being processed within a matter of weeks.
The report also contained details of applications from earlier funding years that are still under review. The report said the SLD is still reviewing 1,378 "potentially fundable" applications for the 2002 funding year and 112 for the 2001 funding year. Twenty-six applications from the 2000 funding year remain in the pipeline, including one awaiting a decision by the FCC. One 1999 application is still under review as the result of a recently granted pre-commitment appeal.
