The Federal Communications Commission has officially designated the Universal Service Administrative Corporation (USAC) as the sole and permanent agency to administer telecommunications discounts to schools and libraries, effective January 1, 1999. The independent Schools and Libraries Corporation (SLC), set up in 1997 to review applications for discounts, will become a division of USAC.
The restructuring was first announced in May in response to Congressional concerns about duplicated efforts among SLC, the Rural Health Care Corporation, and USAC's own high-cost/low-support discounts to telco companies. The USAC board is to oversee all three service mechanisms
FCC attorney Sharon Webber said that SLC board chair Kathleen Ouye already serves on the USAC board, as do other board members. "The expectation is that there will be a 10% reduction in administrative costs," Webber told American Libraries. Staff reductions are not anticipated, though some open positions may be frozen.
Posted November 30, 1998.