Read the Fine Print -- Broadband Stimulus Funds NOT Delayed

Thank goodness for a long weekend. Tara Seals and I have spent the past – what, two weeks? – writing about different aspects of the broadband stimulus. I’m at the “just distribute the darn money!” point. Well, and there’s the apparent rub. I got an e-mail yesterday stating broadband stimulus money won’t start flowing until December, when, the e-mail said, officials promised the first distribution round this summer.

There also are various blogs this week stating the broadband grants have been “quietly delayed” because the Commerce Department, which will distribute broadband stimulus funds through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), plans to award a contract for “grants program support” by June 30.

People, read the fine print. A contract for “grants program support” is not a round of funding for broadband buildouts. It’s a contract for outsourcing, for getting bodies to help determine which of the thousands of grants applications should receive broadband stimulus dollars.

After that, other observers concluded that because NTIA issued a statement saying it will accept grant applications in September, and start handing out money in December, there’s a delay.

That’s not technically true.

What Commerce Department officials said at a March 10 public meeting was they aim to award all grants by Sept. 30, 2010. Before that happens, they will issue three “notices of available funding” – one this summer, one this fall and one next spring. At that point, eligible entities – nonprofits, Indian tribes, universities and even some service providers – will be able to compete for the grants. They cannot actually apply for the grants until the “notice of available funding” is posted. The key term at issue is “notice of available funding.”

So, no, grant money will not flow until the end of the year and as far as I can tell, it was never intended to do so before Decemberish. Once the notices are posted and applications submitted, officials have to decide who gets what. That will take time and lots of efforts, hence the “grants program support.” Some people are taking all of this to mean that distribution of stimulus dollars is being held up.

Of course, it's easy to see why someone would make that assumption. Government-speak is not always easy to decode. To that end, I spoke with an anonymous NTIA source on Thursday who said the first notice of available funding still is expected to be issued in early summer. And I read the official testimony. Combined, these pieces of information lead me to conclude there is no change in the original timeline, there is no delay.

To wit, here’s what Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, associate administrator at NTIA, said at a March 10 Commerce Department/NTIA meeting (italicized emphasis is mine):

“We have to award all the grants by September 30 of 2010, and the grants that we award we need to ensure that they are substantially complete within two years. ... We are expecting to have the first notice of availability of funds out somewhere in the April to June period this year. Our plan is to have three grant rounds. This will allow us, one, to get the stimulus money out as rapidly as possible and to give people who need a chance to spend more time on their application to put the application together. ... The first grant round, again the notice for that we expect to go out, I'm going to give you ranges of times, between April and June of this year. Second round, from October to December of this year. Third round around April or June in 2010. These are all going to be competitive grants based on published selection and evaluation criteria, and the grant application will have to of course provide a detailed description of how you're going to spend the money, and a detailed budget."

Similarly, from Recovery.gov on May 15: (and from checking around on the Web, this is the only such schedule NTIA has published)

Schedule and Milestones

Procurement for Grants Program Assistance Services March – June 2009
Award Contract for Grants Program Support June 2009
Preparation for Initial Solicitation for Proposals April – June 2009
Publish Notice of Funds Availability June 2009
Initial Proposal Processing and Review Sept – Dec. 2009
Initial Grant Awards Made December 2009
Second Solicitation for Proposals Oct – Dec 2009
Third Solicitation for Proposals April – June 2010
All Awards to Be Made September 2010

Source: Recovery.gov

So I have to ask, really? Has any funding timeline really changed? I don’t think so. I think people are misreading and misinterpreting the information.