Today:  California Public Purpose Program Budgets, US Senate Oversight Hearing, FCC's O'Rielly on Puerto Rico's Diversion of 911 Fee 

California Public Purpose Program Budgets for 2018-2019 Fiscal Year

At its recent meeting the Public Utilities Commission of California (PUC) approved the budgets for the six state-mandated Telecommunications Public Purpose Programs (PPP) that it administers.  The Fiscal Year 2018-19 budgets for California’s PPP are below:

• California Advanced Services Fund $81,023,000
• California High Cost Fund-A $49,256,000
• California High Cost Fund-B $22,333,000
• California LifeLine Program $389,956,000
• California Teleconnect Fund $128,041,000
• Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program $64,403,000

Final approval of these budgets will be determined when the Budget Act of 2018 is approved by the Legislature and the Governor.  To the extent that appropriations adopted in the Budget Act differ from the FY 2018-19 budget adopted by the PUC, the appropriations adopted in the Budget Act will supersede the budget adopted by the PUC.

US Senate Oversight Hearing

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, announced the committee will hold a hearing titled “Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),” on August 15, 2018.  The hearing will examine policy issues before the Commission and review the FCC’s ongoing duties and activities.   “From efforts to better utilize spectrum powering our wireless economy to expanding rural broadband access, combatting robocalls, and reviewing the media landscape, the FCC and its operations are critically important,” said Thune. “This hearing will offer Senators the opportunity to ask commissioners questions about topics of critical importance to their states and constituents.”  All four FCC Commissioners are expected to attend.

FCC’s O’Rielly On Puerto Rico’s Diversion of 911 Fees

FCC Commissioner  Michael O’Rielly responded to the Communications Workers of America's (CWA) proposal for a local bill to protect Puerto Rico's 9-1-1 fees from being diverted to other purposes by referring the bill to the FCC’s Bureau of Public Safety and the Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau.  In the letter to CWA Local President Luis Benitez Burgos, Commissioner O’Rielly said, in part: “We are in agreement that diverting 9-1-1 fees is an abhorrent practice, and that state and territory emergency personnel must have access to the collected 9-1-1 funds to ensure that all American citizens have access to fully functional, reliable, and modern 9-1-1 services during their critical times of need.  Sadly, Puerto Rico understands the importance of 9-1-1 services and therefore the consequences of 9-1-1 fee diversion all too well, and I have been reassured that Puerto Rico will end its fee diversion practices by 2018.” 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.