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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 158 / Thursday, August 19, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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may raise concerns about risks to the national security of the United States and the security and safety of United States persons. The Commission considers here the benefits of protecting against such risks prior to the start of a Commission auction.
Discussion. Given recent developments internationally, the Commission seeks comment on whether the Commission should require an applicant to participate in competitive bidding to certify that its bids do not and will not rely on financial support from any entity that the Commission has designated under section 54.9 of its rules as a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or the communications supply chain.
Could such support implicate the kinds of influence over the applicant that would pose risks to national security?
Or could it distort auction outcomes in ways that would pose risks to national security? What challenges would an applicant have in satisfying such a certification, given potential uncertainties regarding the ultimate origin of financial support? Can the certification be crafted to address these challenges? Do these uncertainties present difficulties for the Commission in enforcing the certification? How can these difficulties be mitigated?
If the Commission adopts a requirement that an applicant certify that its bids do not and will not rely on financial support by an entity designated by the Commission as a national security threat, should the certification be limited to just the entities so designated by the Commission under section 54.9 or be more expansive? What are the challenges with including indirect provision of financing in the certification and how can they be mitigated to ensure it accomplishes its purpose? Should the certification be expanded to include an identified set of related entities, e.g., entities subject to control by an entity designated by the Commission? What entities should such a set include? How does the fungibility of financial resources complicate compliance? How can enforcement challenges be alleviated?
IV. Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended RFA, the Commission has prepared this present Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis IRFA of the possible significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities by the policies and rules proposed in this Notice of Proposed Rule Making
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Notice. 5 U.S.C. 603. The RFA, 5
U.S.C. 601612, has been amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996
SBREFA, Public Law 104121, Title II, 110 Stat. 857 1996. Written public comments are requested on this IRFA.
Comments must be identified as responses to the IRFA and must be filed by the deadlines for comments on the Notice, including this IRFA, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration SBA. 5 U.S.C.
603a. In addition, the Notice and IRFA
or summaries thereof will be published in the Federal Register. 5
U.S.C. 603a.
A. Need for, and Objectives of, the Proposed Rules In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we propose prohibiting the authorization of any equipment on the list of equipment and services Covered List that the Commission maintains pursuant to the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019.
Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act of 2019, Public Law 116
124, 133 Stat. 158 2020 codified as amended at 47 U.S.C. 16011609
Secure Networks Act. The Commissions Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau maintains the list at https www.fcc.gov/
supplychain/coveredlist. Such equipment has been found to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons. We also seek comment on whether and under what circumstances we should revoke any existing authorizations of such covered communications equipment. Finally, we invite comment on whether we should require additional certifications relating to national security from applicants who wish to participate in Commission auctions.
B. Legal Basis The proposed action is taken under authority found in sections 4i, 301, 302, 303, 309j, 312, and 316 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. 154i, 301, 302, 303, 309j, 312 and 316; and 1.411 of the Commissions rules, 47 CFR 1.411.
C. Small Businesses, Small Organizations, and Small Governmental Jurisdictions Our actions, over time, may 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 be directly affected herein. See 5 U.S.C.

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60136. First, while there are industry specific size standards for small businesses that are used in the regulatory flexibility analysis, according to data from the Small Business Administrations SBA Office of Advocacy, in general a small business is an independent business having fewer than 500 employees. See SBA, Office of Advocacy, Whats New With Small Business? https
cdn.advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/
uploads/2019/09/23172859/Whats-NewWith-Small-Business-2019.pdf Sept.
2019. These types of small businesses represent 99.9% of all businesses in the United States, which translates to 30.7
million businesses. Id.
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. 5 U.S.C. 6014. The Internal Revenue Service IRS uses a revenue benchmark of $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. See Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract E.O. BMF, CSV Files by Region, https
www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/
exempt-organizations-business-masterfile-extract-eo-bmf.
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. 5 U.S.C. 6015. U.S.
Census Bureau data from the 2017
Census of Governments see 13 U.S.C.
161 indicate that there were 90,075
local governmental jurisdictions consisting of general purpose governments and special purpose governments in the United States. See U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 Census of GovernmentsOrganization Table 2.
Local Governments by Type and State:
2017 CG1700ORG02. https
www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/econ/
gus/2017-governments.html. Local governmental jurisdictions are made up of general purpose governments county, municipal and town or township and special purpose governments special districts and independent school districts. See also Table 2. CG1700ORG02 Table Notes_
Local Governments by Type and State_
2017. Of this number there were 36,931

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