The Universal Services Administrative Company (USAC) announced today it will resume issuing new Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) within the next two weeks because it has determined how much unobligated cash it has on hand to cover new funding commitments.
The Universal Services Administrative Company (USAC) announced today it will resume issuing new Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) within the next two weeks because it has determined how much unobligated cash it has on hand to cover new funding commitments. When USAC resumes funding, it will follow the prioritization rules that it announced on October 27th:
- First priority will be given to funding commitments from earlier funding years, both commitments that are first-time commitments as well as those that are the result of meritorious appeals. About $443 million worth of funding commitments from 2003 were still pending when the SLD suspended new commitments, and smaller amounts from earlier years.
- Where there is not enough funding available to make new commitments for all the commitments in a funding year, first priority will be given to Priority 1 services over Priority 2.
- Within a Priority group, commitments will be approved based on the date that the SLD completed its review of the application. The SLD said this should encourage applicants to respond promptly to requests for information from its Program Integrity Assurance department. USAC explained that it will make additional commitments as additional funds become available through contributions to the Universal Service Fund and through "deobligation" of previously committed funds (funds that were committed for Priority 1, recurring services, and not invoiced by October 28, 2004).
For funding year 2004, USAC said it expects to issue periodic "waves" of commitments, with at least one "wave" each month, although not committing to any exact timing for these waves.
