Congress should clarify tribal libraries’ eligibility for E-rate ...
Congress should clarify tribal libraries’ eligibility for E-rate funding, the GAO said. Reporting on telecom services for native Americans, the GAO said Telecom Act E- rate funding rules exclude tribal libraries in at least 2 states. The Act bases…
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a library’s E-rate eligibility on its having qualified for certain state library funds. But in at least 2 states, tribal libraries aren’t eligible for those state funds, “which has the effect of making these libraries ineligible to apply for E-rate funds,” the GAO said. The GAO said its study came because Congress is eyeing legislation “to establish a grant program to help tribes improve telecommunications services on their lands.” In 2000 about 69% of Native American households on tribal lands in the continental U.S. subscribed to phone service, compared with about 98% nationwide, the study said. Subscribership in Alaskan native villages was slightly higher, 87%, GAO said. GAO wants the FCC to decide what additional data are needed to assess progress toward more subscribership on tribal lands. But the FCC said “it is not the organization best positioned to determine what that data should be,” GAO said. Therefore, Congress should direct the FCC to figure out what data are needed, GAO said.