Sec.  54.623   Cap.

   (a) Amount of the annual cap. The annual cap on federal universal service
   support for health care providers shall be $400 million per funding year,
   with the following exceptions.

   (b) Funding year. A funding year for purposes of the health care providers
   cap shall be the period July 1 through June 30.

   (c) Requests. Funds shall be available as follows:

   (1) Generally, funds shall be available to eligible health care providers on
   a first-come-first-served basis, with requests accepted beginning on the
   first of January prior to each funding year.

   (2) [Reserved]

   (3) [Reserved]

   (4) The Administrator shall implement a filing period that treats all rural
   health care providers filing within the period as if their applications were
   simultaneously received.

   (d) Annual filing requirement. Health care providers shall file new funding
   requests for each funding year.

   (e) Long term contracts. If health care providers enter into long term
   contracts for eligible services, the Administrator shall only commit funds
   to cover the portion of such a long term contract scheduled to be delivered
   during the funding year for which universal service support is sought.

   (f) Pro-rata reductions. Administrator shall act in accordance with this
   paragraph when a filing period described in paragraph (c) of this section is
   in effect. When a filing period described in paragraph (c) of this section
   closes, Administrator shall calculate the total demand for support submitted
   by all applicants during the filing window. If the total demand exceeds the
   total support available for the funding year, Administrator shall take the
   following steps:

   (1) Administrator shall divide the total funds available for the funding
   year by the total amount of support requested to produce a pro-rata factor.

   (2) Administrator shall calculate the amount of support requested by each
   applicant that has filed during the filing window.

   (3) Administrator shall multiply the pro-rata factor by the total dollar
   amount requested by each applicant. Administrator shall then commit funds to
   each applicant consistent with this calculation.

   [ 62 FR 32948 , June 17, 1997, as amended at  62 FR 56120 , Oct. 29, 1997;  63 FR 2132 , Jan. 13, 1998;  63 FR 3832 , Jan. 27, 1998;  63 FR 43097 , Aug. 12, 1998;
    63 FR 70572 , Dec. 21, 1998;  64 FR 2594 , Jan. 15, 1999;  64 FR 30442 , June 8,
   1999;  70 FR 6373 , Feb. 7, 2005;  71 FR 65750 , Nov. 9, 2006]