USF NPRM Cap Deadline Extended a Few Weeks, Not as Long as Education Groups Sought
The deadline to comment on an NPRM to establish new budget caps on the USF is extended by two weeks to July 29, replies Aug. 26, said an FCC Wireline Bureau order Friday in docket 06-122. Dozens of groups asked…
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the agency last month to extend the comment period to Sept. 30, replies to Oct. 30, to allow time for rural schools to participate. The groups, led by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and the National Consumer Law Center, supported an earlier request by the Education and Library Networks Coalition to "extend the comment period for this matter until at least the end of September 2019 to provide ample time for the Commission to hear the opinions of a major constituency of the E-rate program" because in mid-summer, "most school E-rate beneficiaries will not be able to inform the Commission's decisions on creating an overall universal service cap and possibly combining E-Rate and Rural Health Care program under a single cap." SHLB is "grateful that the Commission has extended the comment deadline, as every little bit helps," a spokesperson for SHLB emailed Friday. Advocacy groups and Democratic commissioners have raised concerns about the proposed budget caps, claiming they could pit the interests of schools and libraries against those of rural health facilities (see 1906030059).