It is beginning to look like this may be the first year I can remember in which not a single FCDL (Funding Commitment Decision Letter) will be issued before the start of the funding year. E-Rate Central's News Brief predicts that funding will be approved this week with FCDLs issued next week. Well, next week is already July.
I expected FCDLs this week, so USAC (and the FCC) could avoid the eggy face of having no approved funding at the start of the year.
Why the long delay? PIA was on the ball this year, and there are a lot of applications that completed review months ago. The FCC approved the secret application review procedures back in April. Word from USAC in early June was that they were working on systems issues and awaiting FCC approval to run the wave.
Maybe having systems issues hold up the first wave so long will light a fire under whoever is holding up the overhaul to USAC's creaky codebase. Mel Blackwell promised the upgrade in the 2009 trainings, but none of the promised improvements have been made yet.
Don't hold your breath, though.
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