April 27, 2018

Commitments for Funding Years 2018 and 2017

Funding Year 2018. USAC released Funding Year (FY) 2018 Wave 3 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on April 27 and is scheduled to release Wave 4 FCDLs on May 4. As of April 27, FY2018 commitments total over $637 million.

Funding Year 2017. USAC is scheduled to release Wave 52 FCDLs on May 1. As of April 27, FY2017 commitments total just under $2.26 billion.

On the date that FCDLs are issued, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC).

New E-rate Program Disbursement Schedule Starting in May

Because USAC is transferring its banking services for the universal service fund (USF) to the U.S. Treasury, there will be changes to the E-rate Program disbursement schedule. Beginning in May 2018, USAC will accept payments to and distribute funds from the U.S. Treasury. This is not a change to USAC's administration of the USF. Learn more.

For recipients of E-rate Program disbursements, we expect small changes to the disbursement schedule as we align our process. Currently, disbursements are issued twice a week — usually Tuesdays and Fridays. Beginning with May 2018 disbursements, the payment schedule will still be twice a week, but the typical days will shift to Mondays and Wednesdays.

Additionally, to address process differences, shifts in disbursement days will occur at the end of each month, when disbursements that would have occurred at the end of the month under our prior process will be shifted to the beginning of the next calendar month.

May Disbursement Schedule

Below are the disbursement dates for the month of May. We will post a full 2018 E-rate Program disbursement calendar in the near future.

• Monday, May 7
• Wednesday, May 9
• Monday, May 14
• Wednesday, May 16
• Monday, May 21
• Wednesday, May 23
• Tuesday, May 29
• Thursday, May 31

Contact Us

If you have any questions, please email CustomerSupport@usac.org, using the subject line "Treasury."

Disbursement Reminder for the Transition to U.S. Treasury

The last disbursement under the current system will occur on April 27 (today), and the first disbursement from the U.S. Treasury is scheduled for May 7. The first disbursement from the U.S. Treasury will include approved payments that complete the invoice review process during this 10-day transition period.

Budget Resets in the Category Two Budget Tool for Entities Eligible for Hurricane Relief

In the November 9, 2017 SL News Brief, we discussed emergency relief provided under Order FCC 17-139 to certain schools and libraries impacted by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria (Hurricanes). As part of this relief, Directly Impacted Applicants – schools and libraries that are located in counties designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as eligible for individual disaster assistance and that certify that they have incurred substantial damage to E-rate eligible services as a result of one or more of the Hurricanes – could apply for targeted support to replace products and services needed to restore their pre-Hurricane level of functionality.

To allow Directly Impacted Applicants to apply, USAC opened a Second FY2017 Application Window, which closed on Wednesday, December 13, 2017. Directly Impacted Applicants that applied during the Second FY2017 Application Window will have their five-year Category Two budget reset and restarted in FY2017. This means that Category Two commitments received in FY2015, FY2016, or the first FY2017 windows will not be counted against these Category Two budgets.

NOTE: To be designated a Directly Impacted Applicant, an individual school or library must meet the definition provided above. It is possible that some schools in a school district or libraries in a library system will qualify as Directly Impacted Applicants and others will not.

The Category Two Budget tool has been updated with information from Directly Impacted Applicants who were featured on applications certified during the Second FY2017 Application Window.

• A Directly Impacted Applicant that enters its entity number and searches for FY2015 or FY2016 in the tool will see the Category Two budget calculation for the appropriate funding year and the pre-discount cost for all the commitments made for FY2015, FY2016, and the first FY2017 application window.
• A Directly Impacted Applicant that enters its entity number and searches for FY2017 in the tool will see the Category Two budget calculation for FY2017 and the pre-discount cost for all the commitments made for the Second FY2017 Application Window. The tool will also feature a message that the Category Two budget has been reset for FY2017.
• These changes will not affect entities who are not Directly Impacted Applicants.

If Directly Impacted Applicants did not apply in the Second FY2017 Application Window, the five-year budget cycle will begin, and the full budget will be available for their use, in the first year that they request E-rate discounts for Category Two services, either FY2018 or FY2019.