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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 159 / Friday, August 20, 2021 / Rules and Regulations available to small entities; 2 the clarification, consolidation, or simplification of compliance or reporting requirements under the rule for such small entities; 3 the use of performance, rather than design, standards; and 4 and exemption from coverage of the rule, or any part thereof, for such small entities.
The actions taken by the Commission in the Order were considered to be the least costly and minimally burdensome for small and other entities impacted by the rules. As such, the Commission does not expect the adopted requirements to have a significant economic impact on small entities. Below the Commission discusses actions it took in the Order to minimize any significant economic impact on small entities and some alternatives that were considered.
The rules adopted creating a WEA
National Alert class which adds the FEMA Administrator as an authorized originator of these alerts in addition to the President of the United States, does not create any costs for small entities.
Renaming the existing Presidential Alert class to National Alerts and allowing for use of the existing WEA handling code and other infrastructure already in place for Presidential Alert was the least costly way possible to implement the NDAA21 requirement to ensure that subscribers may not opt out of receiving FEMA Administrator alerts. This change requires few, if any, technical changes to be made to participating CMS
provider networks or the mobile devices of their subscribers. With respect to the amendment requiring participating CMS
provider handset display updates to discontinue the display of Presidential Alert, the Commission provides participating CMS providers flexibility in the approach they use to ensure compliance, allowing the requirement to be satisfied by any approach that ensures that Presidential Alert is not displayed on a users mobile device, either by changing the displayed header or not displaying the header at all. The Commission notes that no commenting party disputed its estimate that these costs would be minimal to the industry.
The Commission also reduces the burden on participating CMS providers by exempting from the requirement any network infrastructure that is technically incapable of meeting this requirement, such as legacy devices or networks that cannot be updated to support this functionality.
With respect to the amendments involving SECCs and State EAS Plan provisions, the Commission declined to adopt recommendations for SECC
membership and/or a model governance structure for SECCs. There are SECCs
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currently operating in all 50 states and all, but 2 territories and each state and territory is different with unique needs that no single framework may fit.
Regarding the requirement for certification by the SECC Chairperson or Vice-Chairperson that the SECC has met in person, via teleconference, or via other methods of conducting virtual meetings at least once in the twelve months prior to submitting the annual updated plan to review and update their State EAS Plan, the Commission does not believe the costs to the SECC
members will be more than de minimis.
The Commission allows for virtual meetings, which lessens the cost and burden of meeting in person. Further, as mentioned in the previous section, the Commission allows the meeting certification to be effectuated by clicking a button on the ARS online menu, which is significantly less burdensome for small entities than having to make some other showing, such as a paper filing.
The amendments the Commission adopted to create a system for false alert reporting by government entities minimize any impact of compliance for small entities and others by virtue of the reporting system being a voluntary reporting process. For government entities that choose to report false alerts, they can do so by simply sending the relevant information to the Commission via email to the FCC Operations Center.
As mentioned above, the Commission declined to require a list of elements that must be reported, which could make the process unduly burdensome and deter government entities from filing false alert reports. The Commission also declined to adopt a definition of what constitutes a false alert which could be too limited and burdensome for reporting government entities. Instead, the Commission offers guidance on the type of information about false alerts that would be meaningful to the Commission, and note that the voluntary reporting process adopted in the Order does not alter the meaning of false alerts that has been applied in other parts of the Commission rules, including 11.45a and b.
With respect to the process for enabling Alert Originators to repeat EAS
alerts for national security, the requirement to repeat EAS messages can be addressed under the Commissions existing rules. The Commission therefore kept the current EAS rules governing alert retransmission intact and added a new 11.44 that clarifies how alert originators can repeat their alert transmissions. The Commissions decision to clarify how alert originators
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can repeat or re-originate EAS alerts does not impose any additional costs, as such repetition has been a function available to alert originators from the inception of the EAS.
Finally, the Commission notes two additional actions it took that minimizes the significant economic impact of the Order on small entities. The Commission declined to adopt a new national security-related originator code or event code in light of the record, which suggests that adding new codes will introduce costs to EAS Participants that are difficult to justify given the complexity and costs associated with their adoption. The Commission also declined to adopt a requirement for implementation of automated repetition of alerts by EAS Participants EAS
devices. To do so would result in substantial burdens that are unnecessary, and the potential disruption and costs associated with implementing automated repeating in EAS devices is likely to be significant and could yield unintended consequences detrimental to EAS
operations.
Paperwork Reduction Act Analysis This document contains modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 PRA, Public Law 10413. It will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget OMB for review under section 3507d of the PRA. OMB, the general public, and other Federal agencies will be invited to comment on the new or modified information collection requirements contained in this proceeding. In addition, the Commission notes that pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506c4, it previously sought specific comment on how the Commission might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees.
Congressional Review Act The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, concurs, that this rule is non-major under the Congressional Review Act, 5
U.S.C. 8042. The Commission will send a copy of this Report and Order to Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to 5
U.S.C. 801a1A.
Ordering Clauses Accordingly, it is ordered, pursuant to sections 1, 2, 4i, 4o, 301, 303r,
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