COVID-19 Relief Legislation Puts FCC Under Telehealth Funding Gun

The FCC was under the gun as soon as the omnibus COVID-19 legislation (HR-133) took effect, grappling with an unusually quick turnaround mandate for telehealth grants. President Donald Trump signed the relief bill Sunday after days of resisting it. The FCC demonstrated with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act telehealth program in March that it's "capable of ramping up a grant program very quickly,” said John Windhausen, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition. “That program went fairly well, although it could have been more transparent,” he said: “Congress has given the FCC much more funding in this COVID relief bill, so it will be a significant challenge. The commission may have to delay some other proceedings to get this funding out the door, but nothing could be more important than helping Americans deal with this health crisis." For telehealth, the law requires the FCC to issue a public notice establishing a 10-day comment period, including on the metrics it should use to evaluate funding applications.