The Schools and Libraries Division has issued another $75.7 million worth of E-rate funding commitments for year two, bringing the total committed so far to $1.92 billion and essentially completing the bulk of its work for the funding year that runs from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000.
An SLD spokesman said the agency would now focus on responding to appeals that have been filed on its year-two funding commitments. In addition, because the SLD has not used up all of the $2.25 billion (less administrative expenses) it has available, it will need to decide how it will respond to applications that were filed after the close of the filing window last April 6. Last month, SLD officials indicated they had received about 2,000 applications after the filing window closed.
The Federal Communications Commission has regulations specifying how those applications should be reviewed, but did not have to invoke them last year when the demand for funds exceeded the amount of the funds that were available.
