RUS wants input to improve stimulus application process

The Rural Utility Service is "painfully aware" of problems in the application process for federal broadband stimulus funding, RUS Deputy Administrator Jessica Zufolo told a 2009 FTTH Council Conference & Expo audience, but the agency is hoping feedback from the telecom industry and others will help RUS get it right in the second round of funding, set for next year. Complaints include complexity, confusing terminology and the difficulties in filing applications and supporting maps online as required. Zufolo confirmed earlier reports that the RUS and its partner in stimulus funding, NTIA, are strongly leaning toward collapsing the scheduled second and third rounds of funding into a single second round. The NOFA for the second round will be issued in December, and funding will be issued next summer, she said. Zufolo explained the RUS decision to use its $2.5 billion in funds primarily to subsidize loans and not provide grants, as the agency's best opportunity to make the more efficient use of the federal money and have maximum impact. Because the default rate on RUS loans is less than 1% and the subsidy rate is also low, only about 7%, it costs the government only $72,000 to loan $1 million for rural network development, she said.