Part 5 of the Keller and Heckman Infrastructure Act Blog Series
This is the fifth in Keller and Heckman’s series of posts pertaining to the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) (“the IIJA” or “the Act”), which was signed into law on November 15, 2021. Our first few posts examined the $42.45 billion
The Treasury Department has issued its Final Rule regarding the use of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) established under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The Final Rule significantly expands ARPA recipients’ flexibility to use the funds for broadband infrastructure projects.
Under the Interim Final Rule, eligible broadband infrastructure investments were limited
Part 4 of the Keller and Heckman Infrastructure Act Series
This is our 4th entry on the major provisions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (“the IIJA” or “the Act”), which allocates $65 billion to support various broadband initiatives. We previously examined the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) Program and
This entry highlights the current rural broadband funding opportunity presented by the $1.15 billion “ReConnect” program administered by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS).[1] Under the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for its third round of Reconnect funding (ReConnect III), the RUS will be awarding loans and grants to construct, improve,
Last week, the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) filed a Petition for Rulemaking; Alternatively, Petition for Notice of Inquiry (Petition) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) asking the Commission to take a more active role in regulating Next Generation 911 (NG911) deployments throughout the country.
In particular, the Petition asks the
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) entered into Consent Decrees with eight Covered 911 Service Providers for failing to timely file their required 911 reliability certification in 2020.
The Rules
As background, the FCC adopted rules in 2013 aimed at improving 911 network reliability. The rules require Covered 911 Service Providers (“Providers”) to
Last week, the House Energy & Commerce Committee released its portion of the Budget Reconciliation Act. This includes a $10 billion appropriation for Next Generation 911 (NG911) grant programs.
A summary of the appropriation is below.
The proposed Section appropriates $10 billion for:
At its Open Meeting on April 22, the FCC adopted a Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on proposed rules changes to 911 outage reporting. The proposed rules aim to help 911 call centers maintain emergency services and inform the public when to use alternatives to calling 911.
Customer Notification
One of the biggest
The transition to the Biden Administration will impact all agencies and departments in the Federal Government. This entry provides insights into the ongoing work at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) during its transition to a new, yet unnamed, Democratic Chair and a majority of Democratic Commissioners.
Most headline actions by the FCC are taken at
In January 2017, newly inaugurated President Trump appointed Commissioner Ajit Pai as the Chairman of the FCC. With a Republican majority, Chairman Pai appointed new FCC leadership and began to make policy changes on issues previously decided by a majority Democratic FCC under Chairman Thomas Wheeler. Given the many issues were decided on party lines
