May 22, 2020

TIP OF THE WEEK: For those applicants who intend to certify an FCC Form 486 early – that is, before services have started for Funding Year 2020 – make sure that you can accurately make all of the required certifications. You must also check the Early Filing box on the form.

Commitments for Funding Year (FY) 2020 and FY2019

FY2020. USAC released FY2020 Wave 3 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on May 21. As of May 22, FY2020 commitments total over $766 million.

FY2019. USAC released FY2019 Wave 60 on May 20. As of May 22, FY2019 commitments total over $2.36 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).

Summer Contact Period ("Summer Deferral") Starts Today

USAC processes program forms and requests as promptly as possible in order to issue timely decisions. If information is missing or incomplete, we may request additional information and/or documentation about your form or request. During this time of year, our most common reason for initiating contacts is to obtain more information about your FCC Form 471 in order to complete Program Integrity Assurance (PIA) reviews.

PIA questions are posted in EPC. You will also receive an email from EPC notifying you to respond to the questions. Full- and partial-rights users on the organization's account can see and respond to the PIA questions. If we have questions for you, you can access them in several different ways:

• Click on the hyperlink in the email from EPC.
• Open the Tasks menu from any EPC page and choose the task that has a link to the questions.
• Review the Pending Inquiries grid on your EPC landing page to locate the questions.
• Open the Review Inquiries menu at the top of your certified FCC Form 471.

Starting today, if our first attempt to contact you is on or after May 22, and we do not receive a response to our questions, we will put your application on a deferred status and will continue the review of your application sometime after September 11. This is known as our summer deferral period, which extends from the Friday before Memorial Day (i.e., May 22, 2020) through the Friday following Labor Day (i.e., September 11, 2020). During this period, please note:

• You can always contact us or respond to our pending questions to restart the review of your application if you become available before September 11.
• If PIA has already contacted you and you wish to designate someone to answer questions in your absence, be sure to send your designee's contact information to your PIA reviewer. If PIA has not contacted you and your designee will be checking your messages, be sure that you have provided written authorization for your designee to answer questions about your application.
• If PIA makes contact with someone representing your organization but that person is not in a position to answer PIA questions, they should clearly state to the PIA reviewer that the review of your application should be put on hold until you are available.

If our first attempt to contact you was before May 22, the non-summer deferral PIA review process will continue. Please respond promptly to any PIA requests for information or documentation. While you may continue to receive automated deadline notifications for such information requests, we are mindful of the current impact of COVID-19 and will be flexible if you are non-responsive or send incomplete responses. See the April 3 SL News Brief for more information on the extension of PIA and other response deadlines.