NARUC Hesitates to Seek Broadband Oversight Clarity
NEW ORLEANS -- The NARUC Telecom Committee won’t vote yet on a proposed resolution to clarify state utility regulators’ authority to oversee networks that come from federal broadband spending. Members decided to wait after members raised concerns at the association’s conference Monday. "I don't think any additional clarity is needed,” said Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades (D). “We have the authority we need. We just fail to use it.”
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Committee members voted unanimously by voice to postpone voting on the broadband resolution until NARUC’s Feb. 12-15 meeting in Washington, D.C. NARUC Telecom Chairman Tremaine Phillips said he plans to propose revisions. NARUC’s Telecom Staff Subcommittee made some minor edits Sunday to a Nov. 1 draft (see 2211010079) in response to suggestions from the California Public Utilities Commission. Phillips, a Michigan PSC member, sponsored the resolution on behalf of Nebraska PSC Commissioner Mary Ritter (R), who wasn’t present Monday.
Congress and the FCC should “ensure that significant federal and state broadband policy objectives and investments are capable of delivering the results promised,” said the draft resolution. Congress or the FCC should “confirm or specify specific” state authority to enforce federal minimum service quality standards for federally subsidized services or infrastructure, it said. States “are uniquely positioned to ensure that the public investments already made, and soon to be made, in broadband service are carried out and maintained as public investment should be,” the draft said.
The proposal gives Rhoades “a lot of heartburn” because she said it advances a false narrative that states don’t already have oversight authority. If a network can’t provide broadband, chances are low it can provide plain old telephone service, which states clearly regulate, said the Nebraska Democrat: The reason people still lack broadband is “not due to a lack of funding,” but “a lack of oversight,” and existing laws or regulatory schemes aren’t the problem, she said. “This is money that we’re responsible for overseeing, and we can attach whatever strings we want to it. The problem is we haven’t been attaching those strings.”
The proposed regulatory scheme would create “inequity in terms of who is receiving protection and who isn’t,” since the protections would be only for federally funded areas, said Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable Commissioner Karen Charles Peterson. Some communities in her state have received or will get federal funding, but others are getting networks without those government dollars, said the former Telecom Committee chair, opposing the proposed resolution.
Ohio PUC Commissioner Daniel Conway doesn’t feel strongly either way, he said. But citing others’ concerns, he suggested holding the item until the February meeting. Incoming NARUC President Michael Caron agreed. It seems like the resolution needs “a little more fleshing out or discussion,” said Caron, a Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority commissioner.
The proposed resolution is “premature,” NCTA Vice President-State Affairs Rick Cimerman told us earlier that morning. State commissioners should give more time for things to play out with the federal infrastructure spending, he said. States will have oversight powers, including through setting milestones when allocating federal infrastructure dollars, though in many states it may be the broadband office -- not the utility commission -- taking the lead, he said.
Several committee members were absent from the meeting, which came on the heels of last week’s election. One absent member was Chris Nelson (R), who won his election to keep his seat on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission (see 2211090066).
NARUC elected Caron as its new president Monday, replacing Virginia State Corporation Commissioner Judith Jagdmann. Also, the association chose North Dakota PSC Chair Julie Fedorchak (R) as first vice president and Georgia PSC Chairman Tricia Pridemore (R) as second vice president.