ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 10, Number 37 May ?, 2001 In this issue: FCC Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on E-Rate Yesterday the FCC published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), soliciting comments concerning their proposals to change the priority funding method for internal connections for the E-Rate. The Comments on this NPRM are due May 23, 2001 and Reply Comments are due on May 30, 2001. The American Library Association is preparing Comments that will address points one and two of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The ALA's greatest concern with points one and two, the proposal for changing the funding priority, is the FCC's desire to implement the change in Funding Year 4. We hold that making significant and substantive changes to the rules of the program after the applications and recently updated technology plans have been filed is inherently unfair and inappropriate, and we object to implementing this proposal in Year 4. Please review the points below, review the NPRM, and provide the Washington Office with feedback on how the proposed changes to the rules concerning the funding priority for internal connections will impact libraries in your area. Please touch on the impact of the proposed funding change for: ? libraries in your area that applied for E-rate in Year 4 ? future library applicants If possible, please provide your feedback to Saundra Shirley of the ALA Washington Office (sls@alawash.org) by Monday, May 14, 2001, COB. Please also consider filing Comments or Reply Comments or submit a letter to the FCC concerning the NPRM. The FCC's NPRM does three things: 1. Asks for Comments and Reply Comments on the FCC's proposal to permanently change the priority two funding by making ineligible all applicants that received funding for internal connections the previous year. This change would also apply to consortia applicants such that any member(s) of a consortia that received priority two funding the previous year would be ineligible to receive, as part of that consortia, internal connections. The FCC hopes that this change will allow full funding at the 90% level for Year 4, as well as allow some funding of requests below the 90% discount level. 2. Proposes to permanently extend the deadline for implementation of non-recurring services from June 30th to September 30th; and proposes criteria for extending the deadline beyond September 30th. 3. Issues an order to waive and extend the June 30, 2001 deadline to September 30, 2001 for non-recurring services for all Year 3 E-rate recipients. Also allows the voluntary extension of these contracts to the September 30th deadline. The following summarizes the six points on which the FCC seeks Comments/Reply Comments on the NPRM (Read the full NPRM at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov:8835/edocs_public/SilverStream/Pages/edocs.html ). Following each of the points below are concerns that you may wish to consider including in your Comments, Reply Comments, or letter. FCC's NPRM Points for Comments and Library Concerns 1. Comment on whether the FCC should keep the funding priority rules without modification. ALA Concern: Libraries receive a little more than 3% of all E-rate funding and an even smaller percentage of funding for internal connections. While a problem may exist in the priority funding rules, a greater problem exists with the formula for calculating the discount level for libraries - this problem prevents many libraries from reaching a higher discount level. Under the current discount calculation, libraries must use the school district (usually a very diverse economic area) as opposed to the closest elementary school (that often is at the 90% discount level). 2. Comment on a proposal to give funding priority to requests for internal connections by applicants that did not receive funding for internal connections in the previous year. The FCC intends to make this change in Year 4. The proposal is to apply this change to site-specific as well as shared services. That is, each consortia application will be examined to determine which individual sites within the application had not received funding for internal connections the prior funding year -- the individual site would be funded in order of discount. Thus, individual sites that received funding in the prior year would not receive funding in Year 4. ALA Concern: We object to implementation of the FCC's proposal in Year 4. The FCC proposal as it stands will deny internal connections funding for libraries that are eligible, have otherwise "successful" applications for Year 4, but received funding for internal connections in Year 3. It is unclear how many libraries that did not receive funding for internal connections in Year 3 may be able to reach the needed discount level under this proposal. 3. Comment on the FCC's order to waive its rule concerning the deadline of June 30, 2001 for the implementation of non-recurring service and to extend the deadline to September 30, 2001. The deadline is waived for all Year 3 program recipients and the FCC grants a limited exemption from the competitive bidding requirement by allowing libraries and schools to voluntarily extend their contracts for non-recurring services for Funding year 3 to September 30, 2001. 4. Comment on the FCC's proposal to revise the rules relating to the implementation of non-recurring services by permanently changing the deadline from June 30th to September 30th following the close of the funding year. 5. Comment on the FCC proposal to extend the deadline for the implementation of non-recurring services for those not able to meet the September 30th deadline, and that meet one of the four proposed criteria: ? applicants who received their funding commitment decision letter after March 1 of the funding year; ? applicants who were authorized to make service provider or service substitution on or after March 1 of the funding year; ? applicants whose service providers were not able to complete implementation for reasons beyond their control; ? applicants whose funding was delayed due to an investigation for program compliance. The FCC proposes that if one of these criteria is met before March 1, the applicant would have until September 30 of that year to complete implementation. If one of the criteria is satisfied after March 1, the applicants would have until September of the following year to complete implementation. 6. Comment on the FCC proposal to allow contracts for non-recurring services to be voluntarily extended to coincide with the change in the deadline for implementation without applying the competitive bidding requirements. Contracts may not be extended beyond that time (September 30th) without complying with the competitive bidding requirements. Please note that we view the FCC order summarized in point three (waiver of the Year 3 deadline to September 30, 2001) and the proposals in points 4-6 to permanently change the deadline for the implementation of non-recurring services, as positive proposals that will help all program participants. ALA would therefore support the FCC order and proposals relating to permanently extending the deadlines. For more information on this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, please contact Saundra Shirley in the ALA Washington Office at 800.941.8478 or sls@alawash.org. The ALA Washington Office would also appreciate your sharing with us any Comments, Reply Comments, or letters you submit to the FCC on this issue. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll- free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra Shirley. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.