FCC-21-98A1.Pdf

Federal Communications Commission FCC 21-98 Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for ) MD Docket No. 21-190 Fiscal Year 2021 ) ) REPORT AND ORDER AND NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING Adopted: August 25, 2021 Released: August 26, 2021 Comment Date: [30 days after date of publication in the Federal Register] Reply Comment Date: [45 days after date of publication in the Federal Register] By the Commission: Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel and Commissioners Carr and Simington issuing separate statements. TABLE OF CONTENTS Heading Paragraph # I. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................1 II. BACKGROUND.....................................................................................................................................2 III. REPORT AND ORDER..........................................................................................................................6 A. Allocating Full-time Equivalents......................................................................................................7 B. Commercial Mobile Radio Service Regulatory Fees Calculation ..................................................27 C. Direct Broadcast Satellite Fees .......................................................................................................28 D. Full-Service Television Broadcaster Fees ......................................................................................36 1. FY 2021 Regulatory Fees.........................................................................................................36 2. Stations in Puerto Rico .............................................................................................................38 E. Toll-Free Numbers..........................................................................................................................40 F. Submarine Cable Regulatory Fees..................................................................................................42 G. Space Station Regulatory Fees........................................................................................................46 1. NGSO Regulatory Fees–Less Complex and Other ..................................................................46 2. NGSO Regulatory Fees–Satellites Authorized under Multiple Call Signs..............................67 H. Flexibility for Regulatory Payors Due to COVID-19 Pandemic ....................................................69 IV. NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING .........................................................................................73 A. New Regulatory Fee Categories .....................................................................................................73 B. Fees for Small Satellites..................................................................................................................75 V. PROCEDURAL MATTERS.................................................................................................................84 VI. ORDERING CLAUSES......................................................................................................................101 APPENDIX A—LIST OF COMMENTERS APPENDIX B—CALCULATION OF FY 2021 REVENUE REQUIREMENTS AND PRO-RATA FEES APPENDIX C—FY 2021 REGULATORY FEES APPENDIX D—SOURCES OF PAYMENT UNIT ESTIMATES FOR FY 2021 APPENDIX E—FACTORS, MEASUREMENTS, AND CALCULATIONS THAT DETERMINE SIGNAL CONTOURS AND ASSOCIATED POPULATION COVERAGES APPENDIX F—SATELLITE CHARTS FOR FY 2021 REGULATORY FEES Federal Communications Commission FCC 21-98 APPENDIX G—FY 2021 FULL-SERVICE BROADCAST TELEVISION STATIONS, BY CALL SIGN APPENDIX H—FY 2020 REGULATORY FEES APPENDIX I—FINAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANALYSIS APPENDIX J—INITIAL REGULATORY FLEXIBILITY ANALYSIS APPENDIX K—RULE CHANGES I. INTRODUCTION 1. Each year, the Commission must adopt a schedule of regulatory fees for regulatory fee payors, i.e., those entities required to fund the Commission’s activities, which must be collected by the end of September 2021. In this Report and Order, we adopt a schedule in the attached Appendices B and C to collect $374,000,000 in congressionally required regulatory fees for fiscal year (FY) 2021.1 Also, in the attached Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we seek comment on adopting new fee categories and on a methodology for calculating regulatory fees for small satellites for future fiscal years. II. BACKGROUND 2. The Commission is required by Congress to assess regulatory fees each year in an amount that can reasonably be expected to equal the amount of its annual appropriation.2 Regulatory fees recover direct costs, such as salaries and expenses; indirect costs, such as overhead functions; statutorily required tasks that do not directly equate with oversight and regulation of a particular regulatee but instead benefit the Commission and the industry as a whole; and support costs such as rent, utilities and equipment.3 Regulatory fees also cover the costs incurred in regulating entities that are statutorily exempt from paying regulatory fees (i.e., governmental and nonprofit entities, amateur radio operators, and noncommercial radio and television stations),4 de minimis entities,5 and entities whose regulatory fees are waived.6 3. The Commission’s methodology for assessing regulatory fees must “reflect the full-time equivalent number of employees within the bureaus and offices of the Commission, adjusted to take into 1 See 47 U.S.C. §§ 156, 159. The regulatory fee collection is guided by both the statutory authority in sections 156 and 159 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (Communications Act or Act), and the explicit language of each fiscal year’s salaries and expenses appropriation directing the amount to be collected as an offsetting collection. Federal Communications Commission of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Pub. L. No. 116- 260, Div. E, Title V, 134 Stat. 1182 (2020) (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021) (appropriating $374,000,000 to the Commission for salaries and expenses and directing the Commission to collect $374,000,000 in offsetting collections for fiscal year (FY) 2021). Of the $374,000,000 appropriation, Congress directed that “$33,000,000 shall be made available until expended for implementing Title VIII of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 641 et seq.), as added by the Broadband DATA Act (Public Law 116–130).” Id. The Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technology Availability Act, Pub. L. No. 116-130, 134 Stat. 228 (2020) (codified at 47 U.S.C. §§ 641-646) (Broadband DATA Act) contemplated that a future appropriation for implementations costs might be partially offset by regulatory fees. Section 805 of the Broadband DATA Act provides that the Commission “may not use funds from the universal service programs” to pay for any costs associated with the Broadband DATA Act, but the Commission “may recover costs associated with this title under section 9 to the extent provided for in an appropriation Act, as required under subsection (a) of that section.” The Broadband DATA Act is available at https://www.congress.gov/116/plaws/publ130/PLAW-116publ130.pdf. Separately, Congress has appropriated an additional $65 million for Broadband DATA Act implementation, which is not recovered through regulatory fees. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Division N, Title IX, section 906. 2 See 47 U.S.C. § 159(a), (b). 3 See Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2004, Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd 11662, 11666, para. 11 (2004) (FY 2004 Report and Order). 4 47 U.S.C. § 159(e)(1). 5 47 U.S.C. § 159(e)(2). 6 47 U.S.C. § 159a(d); 47 CFR § 1.1166. 2 Federal Communications Commission FCC 21-98 account factors that are reasonably related to the benefits provided to the payor of the fee by the Commission’s activities.”7 The Commission typically assesses the allocation of full-time equivalents (FTEs)8 by first determining the number of direct FTEs in each core bureau (i.e., the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, the Media Bureau, the Wireline Competition Bureau, and the International Bureau) and then attributing all other FCC FTEs as indirect.9 The direct FTEs within each core bureau are then attributed to payor categories based on the nature of the FTE work.10 In section 9 of the Communications Act, Congress prescribed that regulatees bear the FTE burden associated with their oversight and regulation by the relevant core bureaus.11 Because the amount the Commission must collect in an offsetting collection changes each year, fees will typically change each year as a mathematical consequence of the change in amount to be collected in the current year, FTE allocations in the core bureaus, and projected unit estimates.12 Beyond those changed collection requirements, consideration of changes, additions, or deletions to the fee schedule is focused on the Commission’s FTE cost burden related to the regulatory fee category at issue.13 4. The Commission considers the adoption of a new fee category or a change in fee categories only when it develops sufficient basis for making the change and works to ensure that all changes serve the goal of ensuring that the Commissions’ actions in assessing regulatory fees are fair, administrable, and sustainable.14 In 2018, as part of the RAY BAUM’S Act, Congress revised the 7 47 U.S.C. § 159(d). 8 One FTE, a “Full Time Equivalent” or “Full Time

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