Impact of Federal Funding Pause on E-rate
January 28, 2025
As you have very likely heard, late yesterday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo directing all federal agencies to pause making obligations or disbursements of all federal financial assistance as of 5:00 p.m. today (1/28/2025). Of immediate concern to me was whether E-rate and other FCC initiatives, such as the Cybersecurity Pilot, would be impacted.
The events unfolded rapidly today. After OMB released the initial memo, Politico published a subsequent 52-page memo from the White House budget office ordering agencies to answer 14 questions by the end of next week for each program that “has funding or activities planned through March 15.” The document included a list of every federal initiative that was impacted by the funding pause, and the Universal Service Fund, including E-rate, and the FCC’s Cybersecurity Pilot, were on the list (pages 49/50).
Later in the day, OMB released a memo with clarifying questions and answers that appeared to narrow the scope of its original memo. The Q and A stated that only certain funding is affected — programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President’s earlier Executive Orders that repeal DEI, the green new deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest. OMB stated: “Any program not implicated by the President’s Executive Orders is not subject to the pause.” However, no action was taken to shorten the original 52-page list.
Then, just before 5:00 p.m. today, a federal judge blocked the funding pause until Monday afternoon. The court will hear arguments on Monday to consider next steps.
Hopefully, by Monday, we will know with more certainty which programs are actual targets of the proposed funding pause and what this will mean for the impacted programs over the next several weeks, should the court allow the pause to continue.
I will keep you posted as we learn more. For now, it’s business as usual. Continue with your FY 2025 procurements, Form 472 BEAR filings, and Form 471 submissions.
— Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
PA E-rate Coordinator
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
717-730-7133