Universal Service Fund — Schools and Libraries — CFDA 32.004

A dense E-Rate file at $6.66 billion

USAspending.gov records $6,664,430,445.19 in obligations under CFDA 32.004. One hundred thirty thousand eight hundred ninety-nine awards produce that stock. A simple average is about $50,900 per award — far smaller than state block grants, which matches a schools-and-libraries support file that posts many discrete funding actions rather than one annual grant per state.

The assistance-listing title is UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND - SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES. CFDA 32.004 is the identifier. High-cost or other universal-service listings, if tagged under other CFDA numbers, are not included in the $6.66 billion. Mixing those codes would invent a combined fund total this packet does not contain.

USAspending.gov records the $6,664,430,445.19 obligation stock for CFDA 32.004 together with 130,899 awards, 10,075 recipients, and 56 states. Keep schools-and-libraries support on 32.004 when quoting these four facts. Outlays remain a separate column.

Ten thousand recipients, not a handful of states

Ten thousand seventy-five recipients share 130,899 awards, or about 13 award records per recipient on average. Splitting $6.66 billion evenly would assign about $661,000 per recipient. Schools, libraries, and consortia are the organizational units this kind of listing usually names; the packet does not list the 10,075. Recipient count is the better organizational headcount than award count.

Fifty-six states in the geographic count show nationwide coding in the USAspending state field, including territories in the coded-jurisdiction set. E-Rate dollars still concentrate where applicant volumes are large. The state count does not flatten those differences. Place-of-performance amounts are on the program table.

Award volume as a data feature

Among the packets in this batch, 32.004 is an outlier on award count: 130,899 rows, in a class with listings that post hundreds of thousands of benefit records. Recurring funding-year actions and modifications generate many award rows. Award count is therefore a weak proxy for “number of schools or libraries helped.” Recipient count (10,075) is the better organizational headcount.

The packet does not report student counts, library cardholders, or megabit speeds. Citing 130,899 as classrooms or connections would be a unit error. A single recipient can hold many funding-year actions; a single connection can sit under other listings. Keep the units straight: dollars, awards, recipients, states.

Obligations versus E-Rate cash

The $6.66 billion is an obligation total from USAspending.gov. Outlays — cash paid against schools-and-libraries awards — are not in the packet. An applicant can show a large obligation stock while invoice payments follow a different calendar. Deobligations and upward adjustments both move the total. A remaining-balance question is an outlay question this extract does not answer.

Use CFDA 32.004 to size the Schools and Libraries listing in the assistance file and to see how many recipients and awards it carries. Do not use it as a broadband-coverage map. Coverage, speed, and applicant-category reports live in other series. This page reports the obligation book tagged 32.004.

What the 32.004 tables omit

The Schools and Libraries hub lists award-backed obligations from USAspending.gov. It is not a classroom inventory, not a library catalog, and not a speed-test archive. Series that never appear as assistance awards will not show up in the $6,664,430,445.19. That omission is definitional rather than a gap in the 130,899 award rows.

Place-of-performance on 56 states is a coding field. Read the program page before treating those cells as equal shares. Recipient dollars, if shown on the hub, are still obligation amounts, not cash already spent on circuits or Wi-Fi.

Where the E-Rate table lives

The Universal Service Fund - Schools and Libraries program page overlays these four facts. The all-programs index ranks 32.004 among other assistance listings. Agency pages show awarding-agency rollups that may include this CFDA among other communications listings. For 32.004 only, start on the program page.

CFDA 32.004’s 130,899 awards spread $6,664,430,445.19 across 10,075 recipients and 56 states. Quote award count as a record count, recipient count as the organizational headcount, and dollars as obligations from USAspending.gov. Mixing those units produces false headlines about classrooms or connections. Source: USAspending.gov assistance awards.

Questions

How much is obligated for E-Rate schools and libraries?

USAspending.gov records $6,664,430,445.19 in obligations for CFDA 32.004. SpendingVault indexes 130,899 awards, 10,075 recipients, and 56 states. The figure is an obligation sum from assistance awards, not an outlay and not a count of classrooms. CFDA 32.004’s $6.66 billion is the USAspending obligation stock.

Why does CFDA 32.004 have so many awards?

The listing shows 130,899 awards against 10,075 recipients. Schools-and-libraries support often posts many funding-year actions and modifications per applicant, which inflates award count relative to recipient count. A simple average is about $50,900 per award. Award count is not a school or library count.

How many recipients appear on the Schools and Libraries listing?

The extract lists 10,075 recipients. Those are organizational recipients on assistance awards tagged 32.004. Geographic coding covers 56 states. The packet does not name the 10,075 or publish connection counts. Recipient dollars are on the program page. USAspending.gov assistance awards on SpendingVault are the source for this obligation stock.

Is $6.66 billion already spent on school and library broadband?

Not necessarily. Obligations are commitments. Outlays are payments. CFDA 32.004’s indexed total is the obligation stock from USAspending.gov. This page does not report invoices paid, remaining balances, or megabit speeds. The $6.66 billion on 130,899 awards is the obligation figure.