The Legislature’s Broadband Access Study Committee is currently getting a primer on the federal e-rate program. E-rate is the largest federal technology funding program, and was initiated in 1998 by the Federal Communications Commission. It supports technology infrastructure for schools and libraries to the tune of $4 billion a year; schools and libraries can receive reimbursements for between 20 and 90 percent of their costs, depending on student eligibility. To date, $123 million in e-rate funds have come to Idaho.

“They are very sensitive to competitive bidding,” Winston E. Himsworth of E-Rate Central, a national consulting firm, who is briefing the legislative committee by phone, told the Idaho lawmakers. “This competitive bidding thing they take seriously, as Idaho has found. It’s got to be fair and open competition. You’ve got to treat all bidders equally. Vendors can’t get involved in that planning process.” The program also has strict bans on gifts that exceed restrictions for other federal procurements.

The program can be “time-consuming, bureaucratic and confusing,” Himsworth said. He noted a series of complicated new rules enacted for the program in 2014, and stressed the importance of timing in the process and all the required forms and submissions.

Idaho could benefit from a major focus on broadband connectivity in the program looking forward, Himsworth said, including President Obama’s “ConnectEd Initiative.” He also recommended more statewide coordination of e-rate use in Idaho, and said funding may be available from e-rate for Pre-K and Head Start.