Broadband Grant Applicant Database Goes Live
NTIA and RUS unveiled a new searchable database late Wednesday that provides public information on broadband grant applications. The database is intended to provide “a useful tool for the public that will provide transparency” while highlighting the benefits of projects, applicants were told in a recent e-mail. The database is searchable by organization, keywords, project type, program and state. Search results additionally list applicant contact information, project title, grant money requested and a project description. Those who want to protect proprietary information have until Monday to provide a redacted copy of their executive summary.
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Applicants were told to notify NTIA, which is managing the database effort, whether they give permission for their executive summaries to be used as is, or if they plan to send in redacted versions. Applicants were told they could only excise information, but not add or alter information in the executive summary. Responses along with updated summaries must be sent to NTIA by 5 p.m. on Sept. 14, or else the agency will indicate that the particular executive summary information isn’t available when searchers look for it in the database, the agency said. Short descriptions of projects would be posted on the broadbandusa.gov Web site, the e-mail said.
Progress on the database comes as the House Communications Subcommittee holds an oversight hearing on the broadband grant program Thursday. NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling and RUS Director Jonathan Adelstein are to testify, and likely will get questions from lawmakers about timing of grant awards, obstacles facing applicants, and how the agencies will sift through the 2,220 applications to identify projects that make the best use of public funds.
“No doubt the timeline is challenging,” said Internet Innovation Alliance Co-Chair Bruce Mehlman, a former NTIA administrator. “I'd prefer to get mapping done first and then make grants,” said Mehlman. “But they've been handed a timeline by Congress.” Dividing the grant program between two agencies also is a challenge, Mehlman said, but Strickling and Adelstein make a good team, and their ability to work together raises the likelihood of a good end result, he said. “I'm glad I'm not Jonathan Adelstein and Larry Strickling and I'm glad they are,” Mehlman said. The stimulus money is only a first step, he said. “Over the long-term, the nation will need to rely on private investment and private innovation” to keep extending broadband access, deployment and capabilities, he said. “I assume the FCC will look carefully at USF [Universal Service Fund] and other existing mechanisms to continue to bring federal dollars to bear” on the effort.
Congress may also query Adelstein and Strickling about how they intend to comply with audits on the broadband grant programs commenced by the Inspector General offices at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments (CD Sept 9 p1). The audits were planned when the programs were created, and funding was set aside for each agency to devote to the effort, agency officials said. An initial “entrance” meeting to kick off audit efforts took place last week, officials said. “We are working closely with that office,” an RUS spokesman said, referring to Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General.
Lawmakers may also pose questions on the definition of “remote area” in the grant applications rules, which aroused concern at a July 9 hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development. USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Cheryl Cook told the hearing she was aware of members’ concerns raised in public outreach workshops, acknowledging that the definition might be too restrictive. She told the hearing that the agency would decide within two weeks of the hearing whether it would issue any clarifications of that decision. But no changes are forthcoming, said a notice on the broadbandusa.gov Web site. “In fairness to all applicants and to allow any changes to the Broadband Initiative Program to be based on actual experience with the first NOFA [notice of fund availability], Rural Development has deferred any clarifications or modifications until the second NOFA, about which discussions are taking place,” the notice said. “We will continue to consider modifications for the next round, however, we wish to avoid additional delay in the application process by making the change in this first round,” the notice said.
Meanwhile, NTIA was planning to seek help from states as it reviews applications for the first round of the grant program, said one applicant notified about the change. NTIA originally planned to pre-screen all broadband applications, sending to states for review only those that met baseline requirements. Now the agency is planning to ask applicants to forward materials to each targeted state broadband coordinator to help expedite the state review of the application process, a source told us. NTIA could not confirm in time for our deadline whether it had made the policy change.