In the original American Recovery and Reinvestment Act legislation, Congress instructed that NTIA:
may consult a State, the District of Columbia, or territory or possession of the United States with
respect to—
(1) the identification of areas described in subsection (b)(1)
or (2) located in that State; and
(2) the allocation of grant funds within that State for
projects in or affecting the State.
For purposes of succinctness, I will use the term “states” to refer to all entities eligible to provide consultation. In its recent communications, NTIA is maintaining the role of the states but has moved the state consultation process forward to be in parallel with their internal reviews rather than subsequent to their step 1 review. While NTIA originally intended to provide 20 calendar days for the states to make a recommendation, the new process affords approximately 35 calendar days, but this timeline comes with two key additional responsibilities:
- Application Gathering: States must gather the applications and/or other information they will use informulating their recommendations. NTIA has not provided any information beyond that which is already publicly viewable.
- Pre-Screening: To have credible recommendations for specific applications, States must now do their pre-screening for program compliance. Previously states understood that they would receive a list of highly ranked applications.
State input is due by Oct 14 and the two additional requirements above are highly involved. I believe many states are not prepared to run a process as significant as this one in a timeline as tightly compressed as this one. NTIA has put the states in a difficult position by not supplying the applications or any of their evaluation materials gathered over the last month while they have held and reviewed the applications.
It appears to me that the opportunity afforded by NTIA is one where states can choose the level of effort they will apply. I believe that states that exert the due diligence necessary to prepare thoughtful and logical recommendations will have their recommendations more closely considered than those that use simpler processes or political expediencies. The states that do so will demonstrate their leadership at a national level and serve their constituents well by making a compelling case for broadband related investment in their jurisdictions.
Applicants can learn from these recent communications by NTIA as well. My understanding of the process going forward for applicants is as follows:
- NTIA intends to contact initial awardees (what am I calling “Early Decision” applicants that proceed exceptionally well through the evaluation process) Saturday, November 7 and make these awards official that Monday, November 9. Additional awards will occur in December.
- Any applicant contacted for Step 2 Diligence will have 30 days to respond to the Step 2 questions.
- Step 2 applicants will / are being contacted on a rolling basis. I don’t know if they have started Step 2 with anyone yet, but given the timeline above, I believe they will have to contact all applicants eligible for Early Decision for Step 2 Diligence by Oct 7 or so.
In light of the challenges of Round 1 and its slipping timeline, I believe we are unlikely to see more than two rounds of federal stimulus for broadband. Federal politics are going to be important in getting BTOP awards as we have known all along, and NTIA is in the difficult position of developing and administering a program at the same time. With a focus on economic recovery, time is of the essence, but policy items such as the role of a multi-state award in each states’ “quota” of at least one award per state are still unclear.
Let me know if you have questions or have other insights.