FCC Needs to Continue to Work with State Commissions in Prison Calling, Rural Call Completion, Clyburn Says
ORLANDO -- The prison calling order and the rural call completion order were FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s most valuable contributions to states as the acting chairwoman, she said during Monday’s NARUC general session moderated by Telecom Committee Chairman John Burke. In her five-month term as acting FCC chairwoman, Clyburn did more than a “few chairs did on a permanent appointment,” said Burke, a Vermont Public Service Board commissioner. Clyburn got her start as a commissioner with the South Carolina Public Service Commission, so it was “not long ago that she was one of us,” said Burke.
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Clyburn said she was emotionally moved by the inmate calling order. “For over a decade, families of the incarcerated said the current regime was unfair,” she said. “We put forward an order that will put some sanity into process, and for [the state commissions] to follow as a model,” she said. The FCC order tackled the interstate calls, and it asked for comments on intrastate calling in an NPRM, said Clyburn. “I'm hoping that just under 40 of you will offer comments,” she said. With 700,000 inmates released every year and 2.7 million children affected, there was “no way that I was going to allow for an unsustainable, unfair regime to exist,” said Clyburn in reference to a question on why FCC acted on reforms 10 years after the initial complaint.
The FCC and the state commissions need to continue to work together with the “collaborative engagement” introduced in NARUC’s resolution on federalism, said Clyburn. (See separate report in this issue.) “The NARUC task force and our technology transition task force need to work together collaboratively because there is no way for us to do this alone,” said Clyburn. The rural call completion order will help to continue this federal-state collaboration, she said. “When rural communities call, they should get an answer, and we need state engagement to continue to do so."
The FCC’s E-rate structure proposal was one of Clyburn’s proudest moments as the acting chairwoman, she said. “We have clearly defined the roles in the E-rate proposal to connect every student and library to the Internet,” she said. The FCC received close to 1,000 submissions in comments for the E-rate response due to the “need to meet the critical needs of these technologies,” said Clyburn.
States have a major role to play in providing information to the FCC, said Clyburn. “You are our eyes and ears in your respective jurisdictions,” she said. “In our orders, we need to include perspectives from industry and the territories, so … 100 percent of your perspective may not be included in the orders.” However, she acknowledged that the states and the FCC need to continue to work together through the Federal-State Joint Boards. Clyburn said there are times when the states and the FCC do not agree. “I am hopeful that when we hit those patches when we do not sync with engagement or decision-making that we can continue to do better,” she said.
Interoperability in the 700 MHz will continue to serve rural communities, Clyburn said. “On July 21, we [at the FCC] sat at a round table and talked it out, and we came up with a voluntary pathway for communities,” said Clyburn. Interoperability will enable more devices to be recognized from other providers in the area, she said. “You will not have to be dependent on two providers to get service,” she said.
Arkansas Public Service Commission Chairwoman Colette Honorable was elected NARUC president. Lisa Polak Edgar, commissioner of the Florida Public Service Commission, was elected first vice president; and Susan Ackerman, chairwoman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission, was elected second vice president.