This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 09/23/2020 and available online at federalregister.gov/d/2020-19817, and on govinfo.gov 6712-01 FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 1 [MD Docket No. 20-105; FCC 20-120; FRS 17050] Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2020 AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: In this document, the Commission revises its Schedule of Regulatory Fees to recover an amount of $339,000,000 that Congress has required the Commission to collect for fiscal year 2020. Section 9 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, provides for the annual assessment and collection of regulatory fees under sections 9(b)(2) and 9(b)(3), respectively. DATES: Effective [INSERT DATE OF PUBLICATION IN THE FEDERAL REGISTER]. To avoid penalties and interest, regulatory fees should be paid by the due date of September 25, 2020. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Roland Helvajian, Office of Managing Director at (202) 418- 0444. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Report and Order, FCC 20- 120, MD Docket No. 20-105, adopted and released on August 31, 2020. The full text of this document is available for public inspection by downloading the text from the Commission’s web site at http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0906/FCC-17-111A1.pdf. I. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS A. Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis 1. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 (RFA), the Commission has prepared a Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) relating to this Report and Order. The FRFA is located at the end of this document. B. Final Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis 2. This document does not contain new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. In addition, therefore, it does not contain any new or modified information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4). C. Congressional Review Act. 2. The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, concurs that these rules are non-major under the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 804(2). The Commission will send a copy of this Report & Order to Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). 3. In this Report and Order, we adopt a schedule to collect the $339,000,000 in congressionally required regulatory fees for fiscal year (FY) 2020. The regulatory fees for all payors are due in September 2020. In future rulemaking, we will seek comment on regulatory fee subcategories for FY 2021, for nongeostationary orbit (NGSO) satellites, as proposed by several commenters. 4. Earlier this year, in the 2020 Regulatory Fee Reform Order (85 FR 37364 (June 22, 2020)), we adopted several reforms regarding non-U.S. licensed space stations with U.S. market access grants, the apportionment of full time equivalents (FTEs) within the International Bureau for international bearer circuits and satellite issues, the apportionment of FTEs within the Satellite Division of the International Bureau for geostationary orbit (GSO) and NGSO space station regulatory fee, and we adopted a limitation on population counts for certain very high frequency (VHF) television broadcast stations. In the accompanying FY 2020 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) (85 FR 32256 (May 28, 2020)), we sought comment on a proposed fee schedule and also on certain issues for International Bureau and Media Bureau regulatees. Specifically, we sought comment on a schedule of proposed regulatory fees as well as certain issues: adjusting the allocation of international bearer circuit (IBC) fees between submarine cable and terrestrial and satellite IBCs from 87.6%-12.4% to 95%-5%; combining the submarine cable regulatory fee tiers with new tiers for terrestrial and satellite IBCs in a unified tier structure; basing full-power broadcast television fees on the population covered by the station’s contour; and continuing to increase the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) regulatory fees by 12 cents, to 72 cents, per subscriber, per year. In addition, we sought comment on economic effects due to the COVID-19 pandemic on regulatory fee payors. II. REPORT AND ORDER A. Allocating FTEs 5. In the FY 2020 NPRM, the Commission proposed that non-auctions funded FTEs will be classified as direct only if in one of the four core bureaus, i.e., in the Wireline Competition Bureau, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, the Media Bureau, or the International Bureau. The indirect FTEs are from the following bureaus and offices: Enforcement Bureau, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Chairman and Commissioners’ offices, Office of the Managing Director, Office of General Counsel, Office of the Inspector General, Office of Communications Business Opportunities, Office of Engineering and Technology, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Workplace Diversity, Office of Media Relations, Office of Economics and Analytics, and Office of Administrative Law Judges, along with some employees in the Wireline Competition Bureau and the International Bureau that the Commission previously classified as indirect. 6. We will continue to apportion regulatory fees across fee categories based on the number of direct FTEs in each core bureau and the proportionate number of indirect FTEs and to take into account factors that are reasonably related to the payor’s benefits. In sum, there were 311 direct FTEs for FY 2020, distributed among the core bureaus as follows: International Bureau (28), Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (73), Wireline Competition Bureau (94), and the Media Bureau (116). This results in 9.00% of the FTE allocation for International Bureau regulatees; 23.47% of the FTE allocation for Wireless Telecommunications Bureau regulatees; 30.23% of the FTE allocation for Wireline Competition Bureau regulatees; and 37.30% of FTE allocation for Media Bureau regulatees. There are 911 indirect FTEs that are allocated proportionally to the 311 direct FTEs: Enforcement Bureau (181), Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (113), Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (89), part of the International Bureau (56), part of the Wireline Competition Bureau (38), Chairman and Commissioners’ offices (23), Office of the Managing Director (132), Office of General Counsel (70), Office of the Inspector General (45), Office of Communications Business Opportunities (8), Office of Engineering and Technology (72), Office of Legislative Affairs (8), Office of Workforce Diversity (6), Office of Media Relations (14), Office of Economics and Analytics (53), and Office of Administrative Law Judges (3). Allocating these indirect FTEs based on the direct FTE allocations yields an additional 82.0 FTEs attributable to International Bureau regulatees, 213.8 FTEs attributable to Wireless Telecommunications Bureau regulatees, 275.4 FTEs attributable to Wireline Competition Bureau regulatees, and 339.8 FTEs attributable to Media Bureau regulatees. 7. As in prior years, broadcasters have taken issue with the Commission’s practice of allocating costs associated with indirect FTEs in proportion to each core bureau’s direct FTEs. Broadcasters suggest that the methodology should instead consider whether the functions of specific indirect FTEs benefit specific regulatory fee payors. We affirm the findings in our FY 2019 regulatory fee proceeding, where we explained in detail our existing methodology for assessing fees, noted the changes in the statute, and sought comment on what changes to our regulatory fee methodology, if any, were necessary to implement the RAY BAUM’S Act amendments to our regulatory fee authority. After review of the comments received, we determined in the FY 2019 Report and Order (84 FR 50890 (Sept. 26, 2019)) that because the new section 9 closely aligned to how the Commission assessed and collected fees under the prior section 9, we would hew closely to the existing methodology, expressly rejecting any suggestion that the Commission should abandon the step in our process whereby we designate FTEs as either direct or indirect and allocate indirect FTEs in proportion to the direct FTEs in each of the core bureaus. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) also asserts after evaluating the FTE allocations within the bureaus and offices, the Commission failed to also consider other factors that reasonably related to the benefits provided to the payors, particularly the radio industry. But as noted above, it has been the Commission’s longstanding methodology to use direct FTEs as a measure of the benefits provided, and the Commission engages in a fresh review of the FTE allocations each year as part of its annual proceeding. B. Direct Broadcast Satellite Regulatory Fees 8. Direct broadcast satellite service is a nationally distributed subscription service that delivers video and audio programming via satellite to a small parabolic dish antenna at the subscriber’s location. The two DBS providers, AT&T and DISH Network, are multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs). In 2015, the Commission adopted an initial regulatory fee for DBS, as a subcategory in the cable television and internet protocol (IPTV) category. The Commission then