RHC Multi-year Application Order Should Mean Release of More RHC Funding


The Commission on Monday released an order granting relief for multi-year/upfront applicants that otherwise would have had their funding requests reduced by one-third.  The order only affects HCF applicants that applied for multi-year or upfront funding for FY 2018.

Until the Commission made this decision, however, USAC was holding most of the funding requests for FY 2018. Now that the order is released, all HCPs might see more FCLs.

Multi-year/upfront HCF funding requests (FRNs) are capped at $150 million a year.  Due to demand this year, funding commitments for those applications would have been reduced by a third.  That cap does not affect single-year HCF or telecom funding requests.  To avoid that result, the Commission suspended the multi-year commitment rule and allowed USAC to process all funding requests as if they were filed for a single year of funding.  Multi-year requests allow HCPs to receive commitments for multiple years in the first year of the application but the entire request is counted against the cap in the first year.

The Commission also told USAC to designate the underlying contracts as “evergreen;” long-term contracts designated by the administrator as “evergreen” are not required to conduct competitive rebidding during the life of the contract.  If USAC had issued funding commitments earlier in the year with the evergreen designation, those HCPs would have known they did not have to conduct another competitive bidding process.  The Commission also extended the FY 2019 filing window until June 30 but ONLY for those (1) multi-year/upfront applicants that (2) had not yet received funding commitments for FY 2018.
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