Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s Response to Members of Congress Regarding the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I Auction

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel responded to a September 27 letter from Reps Roger Williams (R-TX), Ed Case (D-HI), and David Trone (D-MD) concerning the review process for long-form applications in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Rosenworcel's response highlighted the steps the FCC has taken to "clean up the program before funding was made available to successful bidders" following the issue of some "questionable locations" chosen in the initial funding decisions. "First, following the filing of long-form applications at the start of this year, each applicant was subjected to a careful technical, financial, and legal review," said the letter. "Second, in light of the preliminary commitments made for areas that should never have been eligible for support, the FCC staff sent 197 letters to bidders seeking to remove these areas from funding. As a result of this effort, more than 5,000 census blocks were removed from the program to prevent wasteful spending...Third, every bidder that won a preliminary commitment in the auction was required to secure status as an eligible telecommunications carrier in the state where they intend to receive support...With these clean up measures now underway, FCC staff have been processing all remaining applications as quickly as possible." Rosenworcel concludes her response by stating, "Now that many of the early efforts to resolve outstanding issues with waste, fraud, and abuse are complete, additional funding decisions will be announced shortly, and we are releasing public notices authorizing funds on a rolling basis."