On March 22, 2021, the FCC published in the Federal Register the Public Notice in the matter of Emergency Connectivity Fund for Educational Connections and Devices to Address the Homework Gap During the Pandemic, thus setting the comment deadlines.
Congress established a $7.171 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund (“ECF”) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The Wireline Competition Bureau (“the Bureau”) seeks comment on ways to ensure that the FCC and USAC efficiently and effectively oversee and administer the Emergency Connectivity Fund, as well as how best to measure this performance. The Bureau seeks comment on the following:
- Which schools, libraries, and consortia of schools and libraries should be eligible for ECF funding, including whether those eligible for support under the E-Rate program should also be eligible to receive funding from the ECF, whether there are other entities who do not receive E-Rate support that the FCC should make eligible, and how to ensure that all Tribal schools and libraries are eligible for funding from the ECF;
- What equipment and services are necessary for remote learning and thus should be eligible for funding from the ECF;
- Whether the FCC should limit what locations are eligible to receive funds from the ECF;
- Whether the FCC should require that equipment and services purchased with ECF funding be primarily for educational services;
- The best methods to ensure reasonable support amounts, including whether the FCC should reimburse school and library purchases of eligible equipment and services dating back to January 27, 2020, when the COVID-19 emergency period began to adopt a competitive bidding process for schools and libraries that have not yet purchased services or equipment, how to ensure costs incurred are reasonable, whether to adopt funding caps, and whether the FCC should consider factors such as poverty, rurality, and/or broadband availability;
- The procedural and substantive aspects of the application, including the length of the filing window, additional assessments, the possibility of multiple filing windows, and whether to leverage the current E-Rate forms for the ECF program;
- How to structure the reimbursement process;
- How the equipment should be used during and after the COVID-19 emergency period;
- The applicability of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (“CIPA”);
- Limiting eligibility of recipients to those who have not received funding through other Federal programs (i.e., Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, the CARES Act, or other provisions of the American Rescue Plan), state programs specifically targeted at providing funding for eligible equipment or services, other external sources of funding, or gifts;
- The best methods to prevent waste, fraud, or abuse, including requiring participants to maintain an asset inventory of purchased devices and services, requiring service providers providing monthly services to report and validate usage by funded entities, whether the FCC should apply the E-Rate gift rule to the ECF, and adopting compliance audits for participants;
- The ability of the FCC to impose administrative forfeitures and penalties on participants found to be in violation of the program rules and requirements; and
- The costs and benefits of the Bureau’s proposals.
Comments are due on or before April 5, 2021.
Reply comments are due on or before April 23, 2021.
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