In its Category Two Report and Order, the FCC established a “bridge year” which extended the original Category Two (C2) budget trial period to a total of six years. The Order also provided a 20% budget cap increase to all schools and libraries, regardless of prior year utilization status. When combined with the remaining C2 budget balances at the end of the FY2019 application window, more than $1.5B in new funds will be available in Funding Year 2020:
Urban libraries are in an interesting position. At the end of 2019, they had a balance of $531.1 million in budgets ($403.9 in potential discounts.) In 2020, that number increases to $672.1 million ($512.2 million in potential discounts.) After that, the total budget for FY2021 to FY2026 for those same urban libraries decreases to $563.7 million ($431.9 million in potential discounts.)
