The Regulatory Mix - Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Today: U.S. House Hearing on Public Safety, U.S. House Broadband Legislation, FCC Broadband Funding 

U.S. House Hearing On Public Safety

U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr., (D-NJ), Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) announced that #SubCommTech will be holding a hearing with the FCC in the coming weeks to receive an update from the FCC on its investigation into the recent false emergency alert event in Hawaii.  “A reliable and strong communications service can save lives during a disaster, but the public needs to be able to trust that the emergency alert they receive is legitimate. We need to make sure that a mistake like what happened in Hawaii never happens again. The upcoming hearing will be an important opportunity to hear from the commissioners as they continue to investigate the incident,” said Walden, Pallone, Blackburn, and Doyle.  See the Regulatory Mix dated 1/16/18.

U.S. House Broadband Legislation

U.S. House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced three bills that are being introduced by #SubCommTech members as part of the subcommittees’ efforts to reduce the regulatory barriers to broadband infrastructure expansion. 

• The Communications Facilities Deployment on Federal Property Act of 2018, sponsored by Rep. Mimi Walters (R-CA), would amend §6409 of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act (47 USC 1455) to require executive agencies to use common application forms and cost-based application fees for easements, rights-of-way, and lease requests, and master contracts for placement of communications facility installations on federal property;
• The Inventory of Assets for Communications Facilities Act of 2018, sponsored by Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), would require the General Services Administration (GSA) to coordinate with the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to ensure federal agencies include an inventory of assets that can be used to attach or install broadband infrastructure.  The inventory would be available to communications providers, and include a description of assets, their locations, and a point of contact from each agency for more information on a given asset.
• The Streamlining and Expediting Approval for Communications Technologies Act, sponsored by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) would require the Senior Real Property Officer of covered agencies to track, record, and report on specified data on the applications to locate or modify communications facilities on covered, federal assets.  The data would include the number of applications submitted, the number of applications approved or denied (including the reason for any denial), and the amount of time and money spent by an agency reviewing applications. In addition, each agency’s Senior Real Property Officer would be required to report annually to NTIA on its progress, and NTIA would report to Congress.

FCC Broadband Funding

FCC Chairman Pai announced he circulated an order to promote more high-speed broadband deployment in rural areas.  If adopted, it would provide over $500 million in additional funding for cooperatives and small rural carriers.  The order includes “strong new rules” aimed at preventing abuse of the high-cost program.  It also proposes various changes to the high cost program to improve effectiveness and efficiency, including the use of a Tribal Broadband Factor to enable better access on Tribal lands.  Chairman Pai said, in part: “Closing the digital divide is the FCC’s top priority.  A key way to reach this goal in rural America is updating the FCC’s high-cost universal service program to encourage cooperatives and other small, rural carriers to build more online infrastructure… With the $500 million in new funding provided by this order, we’ll boost broadband deployment in rural America and put our high-cost system on a more efficient path, helping to ensure that every American can benefit from the digital revolution.”

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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily 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 a TMI Briefing.