FCC members encouraged schools and libraries across the country to comment on the agency’s proposed E-rate rules -- and they got their wish. More than 250 comments from school districts, associations and individuals were filed in docket 13-184 on Friday and Monday. Several school districts asked for the program cap to be expanded to $5 billion per year -- more than twice the current cap.

Although presumed incoming Chairman Tom Wheeler could be in place by the Oct. 22 FCC Open Meeting (CD Sept 13 p1), Chairwoman Mignon “Clyburn’s in charge,” FCC Wireline Bureau Chief Julie Veach told an FCBA audience Friday. “All of the bureaus are continuing to press forward on her priorities, and coordinating all of our matters through her office as if we had never heard of the nominees.” Veach spoke to several dozen attorneys at a brownbag lunch at Bingham McCutchen on what the bureau has been focusing on, and where its priorities lie going forward.

FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler is expected to arrive at the agency sometime later this year with an ambitious agenda, but the time he will have in office is limited and several issues loom which could take up much of his first year. Industry and FCC officials told us that then-Chairman Julius Genachowski did Wheeler no favors by staying into May rather than leaving after the end of Barack Obama’s first term as president. Several industry officials who have spoken with Wheeler said he has a big agenda, but is all too aware that he will have limited time as chairman.

Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn offered an impassioned defense of the Lifeline program Thursday, saying it’s crucial to help lift the downtrodden out of poverty. It should be expanded, not limited, she told a New America Foundation audience. Clyburn commended Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., for sponsoring the Broadband Affordability Act, which would require the FCC to expand Lifeline to broadband services (CD April 24 p3).

All three FCC commissioners told Congress the agency’s priorities range from spectrum auctions to the Internet Protocol transition to a forthcoming order to be circulated on rural call completion. They testified Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, in a hearing that ranged well beyond the FY 2014 budget slated for discussion.

The Office of Management and Budget approved new information collection rules that are meant to support the Healthcare Connect Fund, the FCC said in Monday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/17LVs4k). The FCC created the Healthcare Connect Fund in December as a reformed version of the Rural Health Care Program, which had been the smallest of the four USF programs (CD Dec 13 p19). The rules, which took effect Monday, will be valid for three years, the FCC said.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said one of her key focuses in the incentive auction is to make certain that the broadcast TV spectrum resold for wireless broadband won’t all go to a single carrier and that all potential bidders will compete on an equal footing. Spectrum aggregation has been one of the biggest fights waged as the commission considers rules for the auction, pitting AT&T and Verizon Wireless against smaller competitors. Rosenworcel spoke Wednesday during a taping of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, slated to air this weekend.

The National Exchange Carrier Association proposed modifications to the formula used to calculate interstate USF high-cost loop (HCL) expense adjustments for average schedule companies (http://bit.ly/153xRIo). The formula and associated cost per loop values would govern HCL payments in 2014. Annual payments under the proposed formula would total about $13.7 million, payable to 224 average schedule study areas in 2014, NECA said. That’s a decrease of about $300,000, or 2.1 percent, compared to current payments. This portion of USF payouts is small, because average schedule companies generally have costs between 115-150 percent of the capped National Average Cost per Loop, “and thus receive support compensating for only a minor portion of their loop costs,” NECA said.

Telcos have accepted more than $385 million from the FCC to help expand broadband in unserved areas, the commission said Wednesday. “Broadband is no longer a luxury,” said acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn in a statement. “I'm delighted that requests for support in this round have exceeded our expectations.” The commission expects the funding to help connect up to 600,000 homes and small business that lack broadband.

The FCC’s efforts to create an “E-rate 2.0” will give students “the opportunity to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter who they are, where they live, or where they go to school,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Monday at a Senate Communications Subcommittee field hearing in Little Rock, Ark. “We need to protect what we have already done, build on it, and put this program on a course to provide higher speeds and greater opportunities in the days ahead,” she said. The hearing was meant to examine ways to improve broadband, wireless and wireline communications in Arkansas (CD Aug 16 p12). Rosenworcel and Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., were also expected to discuss the importance of affordable Internet access in schools during a meeting later Monday with Cabot, Ark., public school officials. The FCC issued an NPRM on E-rate reforms last month (CD July 22 p1). E-rate 2.0 “must be built on clear capacity goals,” with a requirement that every school have access to 100 Mbps per 1,000 students by the 2015 school year and 1 Gbps per 1,000 students by the end of the decade, Rosenworcel said. Libraries should have capacity on-par with the school capacity requirements, she said. The FCC should phase down the $600 million it spends on “outdated services” like paging and use those funds to fund additional high-capacity broadband, Rosenworcel said. The FCC also needs to simplify the E-rate application process based on input from stakeholders, Rosenworcel said. The NPRM seeks input on whether multi-year applications are feasible, and seeks ways to encourage more use of consortia applications, she said. Verizon has “invested in Arkansas,” including a Verizon Foundation-provided $50,000 grant to the Cotter, Ark., school district to support adapting broadband to support science, technology, engineering and math education, said David Russell, Verizon vice president-external affairs for its South region. AT&T has invested $480 million in Arkansas over the last four years, and is continuing to “build out and deliver these state-of-the-art, cutting-edge broadband technologies to Arkansas customers,” said AT&T Arkansas President Edward Drilling. Representatives from Comcast, Cox Communications and Suddenlink all said they have partnered in Connect2Compete, a program that offers low-cost Internet access to the families of children who participate in the Free School Lunch Program. Comcast’s Internet Essentials broadband adoption program has helped connect 750 eligible Arkansas families to the Internet, said Mike Wilson, Comcast senior director-government affairs. Len Pitcock, Cox director-government affairs for Arkansas, said the government should “focus its efforts in Arkansas and around the country on increasing broadband adoption through existing broadband providers rather than using taxpayer dollars to fund network construction and overbuilds in areas where broadband service is already available.” Suddenlink’s investments have allowed it to increase its broadband download speeds to 50 Mbps and 107 Mbps in Arkansas, said LaDawn Fuhr, Suddenlink manager-community and government relations for the mid-South. Other FCC initiatives will also benefit communications in Arkansas, with the 600 MHz spectrum that will be made available in the FCC’s upcoming incentive auction being “well-suited for rural applications,” Rosenworcel said. “It has great propagation characteristics because it can cover vast distances with limited tower construction.” Recent FCC overhauls to the USF allowed the agency to distribute additional funds from the Connect America Fund for price cap carriers -- and the FCC “should be willing to make further changes when doing so simplifies our rules, does not break our budget, and brings better service and more investment to rural communities -- Arkansas included,” Rosenworcel said. The FCC’s Healthcare Connect Fund will aid in the development of telemedicine, which will “connect rural healthcare institutions,” she said. The Healthcare Connect Fund will allow eligible healthcare providers to apply to receive funding to cover 65 percent of the cost of broadband services or healthcare provider-owned networks.