FCC Seeks Comment on National Lifeline Association Petition for Declaratory Ruling

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a petition for declaratory ruling filed by the National Lifeline Association (NaLA). NaLA requests that the Federal Communications Commission revoke the state of Texas’s National Lifeline Accountability Database opt-out certification approval and other relief. On June 3, NaLA wrote: "For years, the [Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT)], through its Low-Income Discount Administrator (LIDA), has functionally failed to meet the commitments it made to the FCC in its NLAD Opt-Out Certification. The PUCT’s failure to provide an equivalent of the NLAD snapshot report as well as its failures to provide identity or address verification functionality on par with the NLAD have produced dire consequences for the Lifeline-eligible population of Texas and the [eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs)] that provide the vast majority of Lifeline service to them. Combined with enforcement and audit actions taken by the Commission and the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that rely on improper assumptions and assertions about the PUCT’s processes, the current situation has quickly escalated into a combustible turning point that threatens both Texas ETCs and the Lifeline-eligible low-income consumers who desperately need their assistance to stay connected during the COVID-19 public health crisis and the economic and unemployment disaster it spawned." NaLA asks for the following relief:

  1. revoke approval of the PUCT’s NLAD Opt-Out Certification immediately;
  2. terminate enforcement and audit activity based on the false conclusion that the LIDA EOM Report is the equivalent of the NLAD Snapshot Report; and
  3. establish a process for ETCs to submit underpayment recovery claims based on the number of Texas Lifeline subscribers served as of the first day of the following month.

[WC Docket Nos. 11-42, 03-109, 96-45. Comment Date: July 10, 2020 Reply Comment Date: July 27, 2020]


WCB Seeks Comment on NaLA Petition for Declaratory Ruling