Of the $129.5 million committed under the Cybersecurity Pilot, about $38.6 million has actually reached applicants as of September 1, 2026, and 337 of the 570 funded applicants have not yet invoiced a single dollar. The application window has closed, so here is where the money has gone, how fast it is moving, and to whom.
The Money Is Moving
About 30% of committed dollars have been disbursed so far, and 233 applicants, 41% of those funded, have started drawing down.
Disbursement speed varies by category. Advanced/Next-Generation Firewalls move fastest, likely because one-time hardware purchases can be invoiced quickly. Monitoring, Detection, and Response moves slowest, owing in part to being billed as an ongoing subscription.
Rural applicants are disbursing slightly faster than urban ones, 33% versus 29%.
Ten applicants have already crossed the $1 million mark in disbursements, and the ten largest account for just over a third of every dollar disbursed so far. The single largest has drawn about $2.3 million.
The Numbers Behind the Numbers
The $200 million budget is now capped, and it was not fully claimed.
- Funded applicants: 570, across 46 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico
- Funding requests (FRNs) approved: 1,186
- Requested (funded): $138.3 million (69% of budget)
- Committed: $129.5 million (64.7% of budget)
- Denied: 70 requests, $8.4 million
- Canceled: 37 requests, $2.4 million
Roughly half of the $19.6 million that was requested but never committed traces to denied and canceled requests; the rest is downward adjustments on approved ones.
Funding by Category
Vendor Concentration
298 service providers appear in the funded data, but the money is not spread evenly among them. The ten largest hold 42% of all committed dollars, and 230 providers are tied to two applicants or fewer.
Big Cities, Small Communities
The five largest commitments each exceeded $3 million and together hold 12% of all committed dollars. Widen it to the top 25 applicants, under 5% of those funded, and you have 35% of the money. The median applicant’s total commitment, by contrast, was just under $80,000. For a look at what these programs add up to inside one district over a decade, see E-rate, Emergency Connectivity, and Cybersecurity: A District’s Decade of Federal Funding.
Denial Was Rarely the End of It
Size doesn’t guarantee funding: the largest single denial in the pilot was a $4.05 million request. But denial rarely meant exclusion. Of the 50 applicants with a denied request, 34 were funded for others.
Rural Applicants Are a Quarter of the Program
Rural applicants made up 146 of the total, more than a quarter. Their median request was about $58,300, and 53% of them filed just a single request.
Even if you did not participate in the program, the pilot’s numbers so far are worth watching. They’re an early signal of whether this kind of federal funding for cybersecurity actually works, and whether a future round could be worth applying to if one becomes available.
Commitments are only the first half of the process. The money does not move until someone files an invoice, and right now 337 of the 570 funded applicants have not filed one. Some of that is timing, because in most cases equipment has to be delivered and/or services have to be rendered before USAC can be invoiced. But a commitment that is never drawn against is a commitment that eventually goes back. If you are holding one, the invoicing calendar is the thing to put on your desk this month.
Holding a Cybersecurity Pilot commitment you have not invoiced yet? If you have questions about your filing calendar or your next steps, request a consultation with us to find out whether working with one of our Guides is the right fit for your situation.
About the Author: Audra has worked in E-rate for 11 years, finding fulfillment in relieving some of the stress from schools’ and libraries’ overloaded positions by keeping them informed and on task, so they feel supported and assured that all of their E-rate needs are being met. Outside of work, she is a proud wife to a firefighter/EMT and a busy mom of two, Walker and Colbie, and the family loves spending weekends outdoors in Cleveland, TN, whether at a dirt bike race or on their boat on the Hiwassee River.
