With Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP attorneys Scott Flick and Lauren Lynch Flick as their legal counsel, a collective of State Broadcasters Associations has respectfully requested that the FCC reassess its proposed FY 2022 regulatory fees.
As the SBAs see it, “The increase in regulatory fees that broadcasters have been assessed for FY2022 almost equals the entire increase in the Commission’s budget over FY2021, yet there is no explanation in the FY2022 [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] as to why.”
The SBAs involved in the comments represent all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
And, as they see it, the lack of an explanation as to the rate increase is an “omission” — one that “greatly handicaps broadcasters in their efforts to navigate the opaque fee-setting process and provide the Commission with answers for how it can comply with its statutory obligation to distribute the regulatory fee burden fairly.”
Upon examination of available information from the FCC’s budget, the SBAs conclusion appears to equal that of the NAB: “The source of the increase is likely the FCC’s broadband work, which the Commission has previously acknowledged does not benefit broadcasters, but for which the Commission appears to be assessing broadcasters in FY2022 regardless.”
And, while the State Associations “appreciate the Commission conducting a rulemaking last year aimed at making its regulatory fee assessment process more fair and in line with RAY BAUM’S Act of 2018, “the Commission has not yet acted on most proposals in that proceeding.”
As such, the SBAs argue that the Commission needs a new tool, “in situations where it declines to create a new fee category, to deal with intersectional work that involves FTEs from non-core and core bureaus working together collaboratively or across bureau
lines for the benefit of the regulatees of only a few of the core bureaus.”
The Flicks, on behalf of the SBAs, continue, “The methodology is so broken that to create a more equitable assessment in FY2021, the Commission had to simply ignore its methodology and manually extract and redistribute the $33 million fee burden created by its Broadband Data Act obligations and place those costs on those that actually benefit from it. Reverting to the Commission’s prior, less equitable approach is indefensible under the [RAY BAUM’S Act].”
To view the SBAs comments in full, please click here:
State Broadcasters Associations 2022 Regulatory Fee Comments
