USAC School and Libraries Committee Held Quarterly Meeting; FY 2005 Funding Discount Threshold Lower

On April 24th the USAC SL Committee held its quarterly board meeting. It was reported that the FCC approved the SLD funding priority two requests at the 86% discount rate and above. The April 27th wave will reflect this.

Mel Blackwell has now been the Acting Vice President of the School and Libraries Division for 9 months, and stated that he was pleased with the progress of many of his initiatives. He told the Committee:

1. The new PIN system was a "huge hit".
2. Last year 100 applicants used the online Item 21 submission system. This year 14,500 applicants used the system.
3. There is more outreach and training sessions than ever before.
4. Over $7 million special Katrina commitments have been issued.
5. There are over 21,000 E-rate stakeholders receiving the weekly E-rate News Brief.
6. The invoicing process is getting quicker.

KPMG was initially hired in August 2004 to conduct 100 beneficiary audits. To date:

1. 21 are final
2. 33 are in their final draft
3. 34 are in their initial draft
4. 12 are in the post field work stage

USAC will continue to spend resources auditing program beneficiaries to ensure compliance with program rules.