The Schools and Libraries Division announced January 24 that it will release another $46.8 million worth of funding commitments next week in letters to 162 applicants. There was still no change announced in the approved threshold for internal connections commitments.
So far, the SLD has committed $1.7 billion for the funding year that started last July 1. The Federal Communications Commission has authorized it to commit up to $2.7 billion this funding year.
At the quarterly meeting of the Schools and Libraries Committee of the Universal Service Administrative Company earlier this week, the SLD said that it has set as a performance goal to complete its review of all commitments for the 2002 funding year by March 10. Applicants whose funding commitments are not approved until after March 1 would automatically qualify for an extension of the deadline for using their "non-recurring charges" for another year, to September 30, 2004. In the past, the FCC has approved a limited number of waivers of that deadline for applicants who received word on their 2001 commitments between late January and March 1 of last year.
