FCC Cyber Pilot Program Saw Huge Interest but Could Be on Life Support

The FCC received 2,734 applications from schools, libraries and consortia seeking $3.7 billion from its $200 million cybersecurity pilot program, the FCC said Friday. It is reviewing the applications, but the program may not survive the start of the second Trump administration, industry officials warned.

Commissioners approved launching the program 3-2 in June, with Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissenting (see 2406060043). Carr said at the time he supported the thrust of the program but questioned the FCC’s authority to launch the pilot. Simington said, cybersecurity “is a highly laudable use of E-rate funds, but I am concerned that the authority we cite in the item does not support the move we make today."

"The vulnerabilities in the networks we have in our schools and libraries are real -- and growing,” Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday. “The overwhelming response to our pilot program makes clear that the cybersecurity threats impacting school systems are widespread.” The FCC said it received applications from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

The applicant demand is “enormous and is far greater than … imagined,” John Windhausen, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, told us Friday. The huge amount of dollars that school and library applicants requested "backs up what SHLB has pointed out for several years -- cyberthreats to school and library networks are a clear and present danger.”

Windhausen expects the program to survive. "It seems unlikely that the next administration would claw back any funding since the $200 million … is a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed,” he said. Others believe the program could be on the chopping block.

While the pilot "may meet a legitimate need, there’s a good chance it won’t survive a new Trump FCC” given the dissents, said Free State Foundation President Randolph May.

“I don’t think a recomposed FCC will think that the expenditure of E-rate funds on this cybersecurity program, even as a pilot, was contemplated by Congress” as part of USF, May said: “That doesn’t mean that Congress wouldn’t support a program like the one contemplated, or that the Trump FCC would oppose it.”

A Republican-led FCC will likely “hew more closely” to authorizing statutes “on programs like this, as their dissents often stress,” said Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy. Kane is unsure whether the new FCC will roll back these types of programs or just not approve new ones.

Widely seen as the front-runner to be named chair (see 2411060042), Carr “may prefer to push forward on his own agenda rather than spending time fighting about rollbacks of programs where reliance interests may have taken root,” Kane added.

In light of demand, the American Library Association “supports advancing this pilot and quickly expanding the opportunity to address the need,” emailed Megan Janicki, ALA deputy director-strategic initiatives. “Securing libraries and schools against cyberattacks is not a political question but a national imperative,” she said. “All Commissioners agree on the importance of this issue, and we hope the new administration will support this pilot.”

Other industry observers expect massive changes once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

“There’s no making lemonade out of this one,” emailed former Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. “The FCC is entering dark times, from both the standpoints of regulating in the public interest and even surviving a predictable Trump-[Elon] Musk onslaught,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court “only worsens the FCC’s fate,” Copps said: “It’s the worst of times not just for the agency, but for consumers who have depended upon it for a telecom-media environment that serves the needs of what is left of our democracy.”

“Consumer-related initiatives, such as the bulk billing and billing practices proceeding, will likely be dropped, languish, or [be] diluted,” predicted Summit Ridge Group President Armand Musey.

For Kane, “there are lots of nonpartisan things the commission can continue regardless of election fallout.” He noted that many of the more partisan issues, like net neutrality, are already tied up in court.