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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 52 / Friday, March 19, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
183. Scope of proceeding. We also note that this rulemaking proceeding is limited to the directive in the RAY
BAUMS Act to establish cost-based fees for application processing. As such, we did not propose changing the manner in which the Bureaus and Offices process applications. We accordingly decline to address comments that were filed in this docket regarding the substance of application processing, which are outside the scope of this proceeding, but commenters are welcome to refile any such comments in relevant proceedings, or as petitions for rulemaking, as appropriate.
Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis 1. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended, RFA,246 an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis IRFA was incorporated in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this docket. The Commission sought written public comment on the proposals in the Notice, including comment on the IRFA. This present Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis FRFA conforms to the RFA.247

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A. Need for, and Objectives of, the Proposed Rules 2. The Report and Order adopts new cost-based application fees, which replace the prior schedule of fees adopted by Congress over 30 years ago.
The RAY BAUMS Act requires the Commission to establish fees for all applications filed with the Commission based on the cost to process such applications.248 The new fees adopted in this Report and Order are needed to meet the statutory requirement. The objective of this rulemaking is to provide an opportunity to bring this set of fees into the 21st century by lowering fees to account for processing efficiencies where appropriate, adding new fees for applications that were implemented after the original fee schedule was adopted, and eliminating fees for applications that no longer exist.
The new fee schedule will further simplify and streamline an overly complex schedule of fees by consolidating matters overseen by both the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the International Bureau.
We believe that these objectives and the rules we adopt are in the public interest and will benefit both large and small 246 5 U.S.C. 603. The RFA, see 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.
247 5 U.S.C. 603a.
248 47 U.S.C. 158a.

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entities because we are simplifying the schedule of fees and also reducing many of the fees.
3. The Report and Order adopts a methodology to establish the direct costs of processing applications in services in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Media Bureau, Wireline Competition Bureau, Enforcement Bureau, International Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology, and Office of Economic Analysis.
B. Summary of Significant Issues Raised by Public Comments in Response to the IRFA
4. There were no comments filed that specifically addressed the rules and policies proposed in the IRFA.
C. Response to Comments by the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration 5. Pursuant to the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which amended the RFA, the Commission is required to respond to any comments filed by the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration SBA, and to provide a detailed statement of any change made to the proposed rules as a result of those comments.249
6. The Chief Counsel did not file any comments in response to the proposed rules m this proceeding.
D. Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which the Rules Will Apply 7. 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 and policies, if adopted.250 The RFA generally defines the term small entity as having the same meaning as the terms small business, small organization, and small governmental jurisdiction. 251
In addition, the term small business has the same meaning as the term small business concern under the Small Business Act.252 A small business concern is one which: 1 Is 249 5

U.S.C. 604a3.
U.S.C. 603b3.
251 Id. 6016.
252 Id. 6013 incorporating by reference the definition of small-business concern in the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. 632. Pursuant to 5 U.S.C.
6013, the statutory definition of a small business applies unless an agency, after consultation with the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration and after opportunity for public comment, establishes one or more definitions of such term which are appropriate to the activities of the agency and publishes such definitions in the Federal Register.
250 5

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independently owned and operated; 2
is not dominant in its field of operation;
and 3 satisfies any additional criteria established by the SBA.253
8. Small Businesses, Small Organizations, 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.254
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.255
These types of small businesses represent 99.9% of all businesses in the United States, which translates to 30.7
million businesses.256
9. 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. 257 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.258 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.259
253 15

U.S.C. 632.
5 U.S.C. 60136.
255 See SBA, Office of Advocacy, Whats New With Small Business?, https
cdn.advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/
09/23172859/Whats-New-With-Small-Business2019.pdf Sept 2019.
256 Id.
257 5 U.S.C. 6014.
258 The IRS benchmark is similar to the population of less than 50,000 benchmark in 5
U.S.C 6015 that is used to define a small governmental jurisdiction. Therefore, the IRS
benchmark has been used to estimate the number small organizations in this small entity description.
See Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt OrganizationsForm 990N e-Postcard, Who must file, https www.irs.gov/charities-nonprofits/annual-electronic-filing-requirement-forsmall-exempt-organizations-form-990-n-e-postcard.
We note that the IRS data does not provide information on whether a small exempt organization is independently owned and operated or dominant in its field.
259 See Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract E.O. BMF, CSV Files by Region, https www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exemptorganizations-business-master-file-extract-eo-bmf.
The IRS Exempt Organization Business Master File E.O. BMF Extract provides information on all registered tax-exempt/non-profit organizations. The data utilized for purposes of this description was extracted from the IRS E.O. BMF data for Region 1-Northeast Area 76,886, Region 2-Mid-Atlantic 254 See
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