In a letter to USAC CEO Radha Sekar dated August 18, 2022, US Senator Marsha Blackburn and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote “to ensure that USAC is making certain that every covered E-rate and ECF purchase has safeguards in place to protect children from online harms as required by CIPA.” Citing a survey conducted by the Center for Democracy and Technology, Senator Blackburn and Commissioner Carr asserted that “it appears that a significant percentage of the millions of connected devices recently purchased with federal E-Rate and ECF discounts may not be CIPA-compliant.”
USAC was requested to provide responses to seven questions posed by Senator Blackburn and Commissioner Carr, including providing an “estimate for the percentage of covered purchases that have failed to comply” and “how many laptops… have been purchased with E-Rate discounts between February 2018 and February 2020.” The letter requests USAC’s response by September 2, 2022.
Senator Blackburn and Commissioner Carr’s letter may be viewed here.
