The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) reported today that the Dallas ISD agreed to settle that the district violated the False Claims Act in relation to the E-rate program.

As previously reported, the FCC issued a Public Notice soliciting public comment regarding the draft Eligible Services List for FY2010 on June 2, 2009.  The initial comment period closed on June 23, 2009, and comments were submitted by technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, telecommunications companies, E-rate consultants, and other organizations. 

USAC today announced the dates for and opened registration for some of the day-long applicant training events to be held this fall. The dates for events in the Washington, DC area, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, and Los Angeles have been finalized. Dates training events to be held in Newark, NJ; Portland, OR; and Houston, TX have not yet been finalized.

The Senate Commerce Committee took up on Tuesday the matter of Julius Genachowski's nomination to head the Federal Communications Commission. During the hearings, Genachowski stated his support of the E-rate and other Universal Service Fund program.

The FCC has released a draft version of the Eligible Services List (ESL) for E-rate Funding Year 2010 and has established a timeline for the public to comment of the draft list. The eligibility of most items will not change if the  draft is approved without modification. The items that could change are:

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that former Montcalm Area (Michigan) Intermediate School District superintendent Bradley J. Hansen has been indicted on two charges related to accepting a bribe from a vendor.

USAC informed the FCC this week that Gene Kimmelman has resigned from the USAC Board of Directors.  Mr. Kimmelman's represented Low-income consumers as is from the Consumers Union Washington Office.  His term was to expire on December 31, 2011 and the FCC will seek nominations from stakeholders in the coming weeks to fill this position.

Records recently released from USAC show that nearly half of the SLD's budget for the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 is dedicated to supporting the ongoing audits of applicants which are being performed by third party accounting firms.

This week the SLD notified the Puerto Rico Department of Education that they have been committed nearly $1.2 million for an FY 2006 E-rate application.  The SLD has given them until September 30, 2010 to complete the installation, and until January 28, 2011 to invoice for the approved services.

In its quarterly report to the Federal Communications Commission, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) continues to report that approximately $1 billion in unused funds from previous Funding Years could be used to supplement current and future requests for E-rate discounts.  Based on the FCC's Third Report and Order, the FCC can direct USAC to apply unused funds increase the amount of available funding for a funding year.