On July 24, USAC Schools & Libraries Committee held its quarterly board meeting. The SLD is continuing to work on issuing pending FY2016 commitments and ensuring that applicants have a better user experience with the E-rate Productivity Portal (EPC) for FY2018. The Board discussed that the SLD will be unable to meet the September 1 deadline of issuing all the FY2017 “workable” Form 471s based on the 2015 E-rate Modernization Order. The SLD is hopeful that the majority of FY2017 commitments can be issued in the October 2017 time frame.
The Board also discussed the following issues:
- The SLD continues to spend resources improving the invoice processing time. The average processing time has reduced from 11.9 days in the 2nd Quarter of 2016 to 8.7 days in the 2nd Quarter of 2017. The SLD will continue to develop procedures to promote “better customer service” when it comes to the invoicing process;
- Committing fiber applications in a timely manner continue to be a high priority for the SLD and it is increasing its resources devoted to this effort. As of June 30, 2017, the SLD committed nearly $131 million in fiber applications;
- The average time to process appeals has increased to 137 days; and the SLD will work toward processing appeals in a more timely fashion;
- The SLD approved the 4th Quarter 2017 Programmatic Budget at $16.65 million;
- The SLD approved 15 USAC Internal Audit Division Beneficiary Audit reports
Note: The information above is not the official minutes from the meeting, but simply notes from Funds For Learning. The official minutes for this meeting, as well as minutes from previous meetings, can be found here.
