The Schools and Libraries Division continued its efforts to wrap up the 2003 E-rate funding year, announcing February 23 that it is releasing 83 letters, with more than $26.6 million worth of funding commitments, for the 2003 E-rate funding year.
The latest wave for 2003, number 38, will bring the total committed for 2003 to $2.6 billion. About $233 million worth of requests are still pending for 2003. The SLD said it will continue to issue waves for 2003 "until the process is complete," but SLD officials have also been considering at what point they should advise the remaining applicants about the status of their applications.
It is expected that the SLD will not issue additional waves for the 2004 funding year until on or after March 1 to give applicants the advantage of additional time to complete projects involving non-recurring services. Under Federal Communications Commission rules, applicants qualify for an automatic time extension, to September 30, 2006, to complete those kinds of projects when their funding commitment letters are not issued until on or after that date.
