NTIA May Need Outside Help to Manage Broadband Grant Program

NTIA staff held a meeting last week to look for volunteers within the agency to help with the series of public meetings that got underway Monday, and in whatever other ways they can as the process unfolds. An NTIA official said the agency views the grant program as relatively simple, compared to the DTV coupon program, since that required development of new devices that had not been on the market before. The NTIA is most likely to turn to other Commerce Department agencies for assistance, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which both have extensive experience administering grants, rather than to a private consultant, the official said.

The NTIA and RUS could see thousands of applications from just California, estimated Brad Ramsay, general counsel at National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Other local government officials at Tuesday’s summit on the programs estimated there will be many thousands of applications filed. The NTIA reported last week that 2,000 parties, many of them likely applicants, had already sought meetings at the agency.

“Both NTIA and RUS have a monumental job to accomplish in a short time -- the implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the way it produces the greatest broadband bang for every taxpayer buck,” said Robert Atkinson, of the Columbia Institute of Teleinformation. “NTIA and RUS have to adopt rules, develop contracts, solicit proposals, review the proposals select those that best satisfy the goals of the [stimulus law] and the award criteria.”

Another complicating factor, some said, is that the Obama administration still does not have a permanent administrator in place at NTIA. Commerce Secretary nominee and former Washington State Governor Gary Locke still must be confirmed by the Senate.

One former federal official said the DTV coupon program “almost broke” the NTIA. “It’s so all-consuming that it is very hard to have other priorities,” the former official said. The person said there are three models the NTIA could follow to process what is expected to be “phenomenal” number of grant applications. “They could hire a Booz Allen to kind of run it for them. That’s probably the easier model. But when you're brand new in an administration you want to do it [yourself].” The NTIA could also establish block grants to the states, again giving up some control, the source said. “I think they're going to do competitive grants and that’s going to be really, really, really difficult.” In the end, the agency will probably have to turn to an outside contractor to at least aggregate the applications. “NTIA has grant experience, obviously, but on a much smaller scale,” the official said.

“I think it’s going to be very hard,” said a second former official. “They may well have to outsource some of the intake. There’s going to be an awfully lot of purely administrative work, getting themselves organized, trying to set up a system where likes are being compared to likes.” The ultimate policy decisions have to be made inside the NTIA, the person noted. “They're going to have to be making some policy calls, even deciding between apples and apples and apples and oranges. Do you want the apple or do you want the orange? Or you have two oranges and you want the better orange,” the source said. “In the end they've got to do those judgment calls internally. They sure don’t have the resources and they're going to have to hire pretty fast.”

A third former official said the NTIA historically has been more of a think tank than the kind of agency that makes grants. “You have to put the right structure in place to get things done,” the person said. “This is more straightforward. They've had grant programs before … It’s more money but there are people who know how to do it and have done it before.”

“It’s hitting at an unprecedentedly busy time at NTIA because of the DTV transition,” said lawyer Andrew Lipman, who is closely following the program. After a postponement, the transition is in mid-June, when the NTIA is going to be “coming out with its request for comments” and also “putting out its notice for funding,” he said. “NTIA was clearly telegraphing [last] Tuesday that they're going to have to rely heavily on contract people. They may also seek to rely on the FCC. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the FCC’s role here being enhanced.”

RUS Not Hiring

The RUS currently has no plans to expand staff or contact outside work, agency spokesman Jay Fletcher said. The RUS staff has plenty of expertise on grant and loan applications, so the process should be “smooth,” said Tom Amontree of USTelecom, a former communications director for the Agriculture Department, in an interview. The RUS has been “doing this forever,” he said. If RUS does find itself overloaded with applications, a wireline industry official said, it may have the ability to detail people from other government agencies and departments.

The RUS has reviewed grant and loan applications before, but “what is new is the scale of this program,” said e- Copernicus consultant Christopher McLean, a former RUS administrator, in an interview. Not only will RUS be flooded with applications, but the applications could be up to 100 pages each, he said. To minimize the workload, the RUS should aim to streamline the application process, McLean said. Forms should ask short, objective questions and the agency should score them using discrete criteria, said. Installing a new administrator and other political appointees soon is also vital, because policy input is needed early, he said.