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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 1 / Monday, January 4, 2021 / Proposed Rules
thereof will be published in the Federal Register.
10. In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission proposes to streamline the process for private entities to submit information to the Commission about a violation of 47
U.S.C. 227b or 47 U.S.C. 227e. The Commission proposes to create a web portal where private entities can submit robocall violation information that will be monitored and reviewed by the Enforcement Bureau. Additionally, the Commission proposes to define private entity as any individual or entity other than a public entity.
11. The proposed action is authorized pursuant to sections 4i and 4j of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 154i, 154j, and 227, and section 10a of the PalloneThune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, Public Law 116105, 133 Stat.
3274.
12. The RFA directs agencies to provide a description of, and where feasible, an estimate of the number of small entities that may be affected by the proposed rules, if adopted. The RFA
generally defines the term small entity as having the same meaning as the terms small business, small organization, and small governmental jurisdiction. In addition, the term small business has the same meaning as the term small business concern under the Small Business Act. A small business concern is one that: 1 Is independently owned and operated; 2
is not dominant in its field of operations; and 3 satisfies any additional criteria established by the SBA.
13. Small Business, Small Organizations, and Small Governmental Jurisdictions. Our action may, over time, affect small entities that are not easily categorized at present. We therefore describe here, at the outset, three broad groups of small entities that could potentially be directly affected herein.
First, while there are industry specific size standards for small businesses that are used in the RFA, according to data from the SBAs Office of Advocacy, in general a small business is an independent business having fewer than 500 employees. These types of small businesses represent 99.9 percent of all businesses in the United States, which translates to 30.7 million businesses.
14. Next, the type of small entity described as a small organization is generally any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field. The Internal Revenue Service IRS uses a revenue benchmark of
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$50,000 or less to delineate its annual electronic filing requirements for small exempt organizations. Nationwide, for tax year 2018, there were approximately 571,709 small exempt organizations in the U.S. reporting revenues of $50,000
or less according to the registration and tax data for exempt organizations available from the IRS.
15. Finally, the small entity described as a small governmental jurisdiction is defined generally as governments of cities, counties, towns, townships, villages, school districts, or special districts, with a population of less than fifty-thousand. The rules proposed in this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking exclude public entities and therefore do not apply to small governmental jurisdictions.
16. The Commission does not expect the rules proposed in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will impose any new and/or additional reporting or recordkeeping and/or compliance obligations on small entities. The proposed web portal is a completely voluntary process that small entities may use to submit information about robocall or spoofing violations. Small entities are advised to retain copies of their submissions to the Commission as well any supporting documentation should the Bureau wish to follow-up with the complainant for more information.
17. The RFA requires an agency to describe any significant, specifically small business, alternatives that it has considered in reaching its proposed approach, which may include the following four alternatives among others: 1 the establishment of differing compliance or reporting requirements or timetables that take into account the resources available to small entities; 2 the clarification, consolidation, or simplification of compliance and reporting requirements under the rule for such small entities;
3 the use of performance rather than design standards; and 4 the exemption from coverage of the rule, or any part thereof, for such small entities.
18. Congress directed the Commission to streamline the process for private entities to submit information about robocall violations. We determined that creating a web portal would best meet the Congressional mandate while also placing as few burdens as possible on private entities. Furthermore, the use of the portal is entirely voluntary and does not place any additional requirements on small entities. We also considered whether to make changes to the existing Consumer Complaint Center, but we determined that any such changes would be disruptive and
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counterproductive to consumers and small entities. We propose to give maximum flexibility to small entities as they may still continue to submit robocall complaints to the Consumer Complaint Center. This flexibility limits any undue burdens on small entities.
We seek comment on whether we should consider any alternative proposals to reduce the impact on small entities.
19. Initial Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking contains proposed new information collection requirements.
The Commission, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork burdens, invites the general public and the Office of Management and Budget OMB to comment on the information collection requirements contained in this document, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 10413. In addition, pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506c4, we seek specific comment on how we might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
20. Ex Parte PresentationsPermitBut-Disclose. This proceeding shall be treated as a permit-but-disclose proceeding in accordance with the Commissions ex parte rules. Persons making ex parte presentations must file a copy of any written presentation or a memorandum summarizing any oral presentation within two business days after the presentation unless a different deadline applicable to the Sunshine period applies. Persons making oral ex parte presentations are reminded that memoranda summarizing the presentation must 1 list all persons attending or otherwise participating in the meeting at which the ex parte was made, and 2 summarize all data presented and arguments made during the presentation. If the presentation consisted in whole or in part of the presentation of data or arguments already reflected in the presenters written comments, memoranda, or other filing in the proceeding, the presenter may provide citations to such data or arguments in his or her prior comments, memoranda, or other filings specifying the relevant page and/or paragraph numbers where such data or arguments can be found in lieu of summarizing them in the memorandum. Documents shown or given to Commission staff during ex parte meeting are deemed to be written ex parte presentations and must be filed consistent with section 1.1206b of the Commissions rules. In proceedings governed by section 1.49f
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