Feds create controversial bidding portal for E-Rate
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By
Chris Teale
The FCC said the new rules would bring integrity and transparency to the program, but schools and libraries said it is a “solution in search of a problem.”
Schools and libraries wishing to tap federal money to help pay for various connectivity efforts will soon need to apply for funding through a new portal after a Federal Communications Commission vote last week.
The FCC approved various rule changes for its E-Rate program, which helps pay for discounted services, internet access, equipment and maintenance, all to help close the digital divide. Commissioners voted to amend various program rules that they said would “simplify and streamline” some of the processes around the program, and to institute a new portal for the 2028 funding year competitive bidding cycle that begins on July 1, 2027.
In the new portal, prospective service providers would be required to submit bids responding to applicants’ requests for bids, and require those applicants to upload various bidding documentation, including bid evaluations, vendor selection documentation and contracts. The portal will act as a centralized repository, with a consolidated place for information to be provided and stored, and it is meant to reduce the need for applicants to respond to document requests from the FCC and the E-Rate program administrator.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty voted in favor of the changes, while Commissioner Anna Gomez voted in favor of some and against others. Carr said the portal is a “common sense step forward” that complies with an FCC Office of Inspector General recommendation to create an online competitive bid repository. He also cited a 2020 report by the Government Accountability Office that warned that E-Rate participants could misrepresent compliance with bidding rules.
“Today, we finally act on those warnings and the Inspector General’s recommendation,” Carr said in a statement. “We do so bringing much needed transparency to the E-Rate bidding process. Instead of continuing to rely on self-certifications, we can rely on verifiable data. And instead of allowing the bidding process to largely happen in the dark, we are bringing light to the back and forth engagement that happens between providers, participants, and other engaged stakeholders.”
E-Rate and similar programs have come under fire from Carr during his chairmanship of the FCC. Commissioners voted last year to end federal funding for bus-based Wi-Fi connectivity and Wi-Fi hotspot library loan programs. And the FCC’s OIG said in a January report that Lifeline, another program that focuses on connectivity for low-income customers, had some states receiving millions in improper payments from the FCC for subscribers who were actually dead.
Those programs and others are paid for through the Universal Service Fund and administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, which were declared constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court last year after legal challenges.
Other commissioners warned that a new bidding portal for E-Rate could make applying for funds more complicated, and said it must not make the application process harder for them.
“The communities most at risk of being burdened by a more complex filing process are the same ones E-Rate was built to reach,” Gomez said in a statement. “Small rural libraries. Schools in tribal communities. Underfunded districts without dedicated E-Rate staff or the budget to hire consultants. Those advocating for measured restraint made a compelling case, backed by history, that new USAC system builds have not always gone smoothly, and that the consequences of a rocky rollout fall hardest on the smallest and most underresourced participants. We cannot let this process undermine a program that is working.”
Others have derided the new bidding portal as an unnecessary burden, and pointed to a recent GAO report that found that E-Rate was the only program of five reviewed by the agency to have adopted all recommendations and best practices to ensure its program integrity.
"Today's vote represents a solution in search of a problem," Joey Wender, executive director of the SHLB Coalition, a nonprofit that supports connectivity in community anchor institutions like schools and libraries, said in a statement. "[Despite] that strong track record, the FCC chose to impose a sweeping and unnecessary overhaul that will create new burdens for the schools and libraries that depend on this program. We are particularly concerned about the impact on small and rural schools and libraries, who may lack the capacity to manage these new requirements."