Rural Health Care Outreach
Conference Call Minutes
December 9, 2004

RHCD staff noted that the Senate had passed legislation exempting USAC from the requirements of the Anti-Deficiency Act for one year (until 12/31/2005). For RHC applicants, this means that RHCD can commit funds and issue FCL’s as it has in the past. It was further noted that the RHC Order is on the agenda for the December 15 meeting of the FCC. Our Important Notices section on the RHC home page will summarize the results of this meeting and next month’s meeting will discuss these results in more detail.

RHCD expects to modify its application forms to reflect the new required FCC Registration number and other changes that will result from the RHC Order over the next few months and expects to open the FY 2005 application window in April. Once again, RHC staff requested that applicants send their forms in as quickly as possible for all funding years.