You may have received an email from USAC today asking you to update your
existing FCC Form 498. You may also be receiving two copies of this email
as I am sending it to the Networkmaine-ERate list as well as to every
account administrator and Form 471 contact for Maine entities with an
FY2019 Form 471 (if you didn't receive two copies, you should sign up for
the list - it's free!).

The reason for these emails is that all federal agencies  –  including USAC
–  are required to comply with The Digital Accountability and Transparency
Act of 2014, or DATA Act. The DATA Act is the nation’s first open data law
and requires the U.S. federal government to transform its spending
information into open data. The goal of the act is to make information on
federal expenditures more easily accessible by establishing government-wide
standards for identifying entities receiving funds – including recipients
of E-Rate funds.

USAC is taking steps to become compliant and is asking all E-Rate
applicants to modify their existing Form 498 to provide the information
required by the act, which is your organization's business type. In
addition, if you didn't provide a DUNS Number when you first created your
Form 498, you should also take this opportunity to include that number on
your form while you are modifying it.

Although the attached instructions may seem daunting, it should take you
less than five minutes to make this modification to your existing form. You
will not be required to resubmit a voided check or other substantiating
documentation.

In case you are new to the E-Rate program and have not filed any Form 498
yet, instructions are also attached for creating a new form.

Please take the time to modify your Form 498 in EPC at your earliest
convenience.
_________________________________________________

Anne Perloff
Maine State E-Rate Coordinator for Schools
Networkmaine, University of Maine System US:IT

Web: erate.networkmaine.net

Email: [log in to unmask]

Phone: 207-581-3584

Mail:
Networkmaine
5752 Neville Hall, Rm 255
Orono, ME 04469-5752