§  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]