As discussed in earlier newsletters, funding for the Emergency Connectivity Fund (“ECF”) is coming through the U.S. Treasury through Congressional appropriations, not via the Universal Service Fund (“USF”). This funding source will require an ECF participant to register and receive a Commercial And Government Entity (“CAGE”) Code through the federal System for Award Management (“SAM”) system.
We have found that many E-rate applicants are already registered in SAM for other purposes. Existing registrants should check that their CAGE Codes have not expired and renew their registration as needed; applicants not yet registered in SAM need to apply. Neither process is overly burdensome, but the SAM.gov website was updated last week with additional authentication procedures requiring a little work. With the first ECF application window set to open shortly — perhaps within the month — we recommend checking for active SAM registrations or applying for new ones before the end of June (see warning below).
The first thing you’ll see on the SAM.gov website is the announcement of the recent update stating:
Click on the “OK” button to get to the new SAM Homepage, which includes the following section for registering, renewing, or simply checking registration status.
To proceed with any of these options, you will have to log into the SAM system, assuming that you already have an account established through login.gov — the “public’s one account for government.” If you don’t have a login.gov account, you can register for one via the link on the SAM.gov sign-in page.
For instructions from this point forward, see How do I register a new entity or update an existing entity registration in SAM.gov? These instructions also explain how, if necessary, to replace a SAM Entity Administrator — the equivalent of E-rate’s EPC Account Administrator — if that person is no longer available.
Warning: The argument for starting the SAM registration process as soon as possible is implicit in the following instructions:
Please allow up to 10 business days after submitting your registration for it to become active in SAM. Prior to becoming active, your SAM entity registrations must pass the TIN validation with the IRS and the CAGE validation/assignment with the DLA. The processing time may be longer if either party flags the registration data for manual validation.
If you notice your registration has a status of Submitted for 15 business days or longer, and have not otherwise been contacted by the IRS or DLA to correct or update the necessary information, please contact the Federal Service Desk.
We are hopeful USAC will allow ECF applicants to file without an active CAGE code and allow them to provide a valid code before USAC issues a commitment.