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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 160 / Monday, August 23, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
deemed ineligible for replacement funds may delay their replacement until the required finances are available. Mark Twain Communications Company also supports this action because the costs associated with the replacement of existing networks equipment which in the future is determined to violate the proposed rule imposes a significant and unreasonable financial burden on rural telecommunications companies.
C. Response to Comments by the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration 114. 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.
115. The Chief Counsel did not file any comments in response to this proceeding.

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D. Description and Estimate of the Number of Small Entities to Which the Rules Will Apply 116. 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 rules adopted pursuant to the Third Report and Order. 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 which 1 is independently owned and operated; 2
is not dominant in its field of operation;
and 3 satisfies any additional criteria established by the SBA.
117. Small Businesses, Small Organizations, Small Governmental Jurisdictions. Its actions, over time, may affect small entities that are not easily categorized at present. The Commission therefore describes here, at the outset, three broad groups of small entities that could be directly affected herein. 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. These types of small businesses represent 99.9% of all businesses in the United
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States, which translates to 30.7 million businesses.
118. 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 $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.
119. 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. U.S. Census Bureau data from the 2017 Census of Governments indicate that there were 90,075 local governmental jurisdictions consisting of general purpose governments and special purpose governments in the United States. Of this number there were 36,931 general purpose governments county, municipal and town or township with populations of less than 50,000 and 12,040 special purpose governments independent school districts with enrollment populations of less than 50,000. Accordingly, based on the 2017
U.S. Census of Governments data, the Commission estimates that at least 48,971 entities fall into the category of small governmental jurisdictions.
120. Small entities potentially affected by the rules herein include eligible schools and libraries, eligible rural non-profit and public health care providers, and the eligible service providers offering them services, including telecommunications service providers, internet Service Providers ISPs, and vendors of the services and equipment used for telecommunications and broadband networks.
1. Schools and Libraries 121. As noted, small entity includes non-profit and small government entities. Under the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism, which provides support for elementary and secondary schools and libraries, an elementary school is generally a nonprofit institutional day or residential school, that provides elementary education, as determined under state law. A secondary school is generally defined as a non-profit institutional day or residential school . . . , that
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provides secondary education, as determined under state law, and not offering education beyond grade 12. A
library includes 1 a public library;
2 a public elementary school or secondary school library; 3 an academic library; 4 a research library . . . ; and 5 a private library, but only if the state in which such private library is located determines that the library should be considered a library for the purposes of this definition. For-profit schools and libraries, and schools and libraries with endowments in excess of $50,000,000, are not eligible to receive discounts under the program, nor are libraries whose budgets are not completely separate from any schools.
Certain other statutory definitions apply as well. The SBA has defined for-profit, elementary and secondary schools having $12 million or less in annual receipts, and libraries having $16.5
million or less in annual receipts, as small entities. In funding year 2007, approximately 105,500 schools and 10,950 libraries received funding under the schools and libraries universal service mechanism. Although the Commission is unable to estimate with precision the number of these entities that would qualify as small entities under SBAs size standard, the Commission estimates that fewer than 105,500 schools and 10,950 libraries might be affected annually by its action, under current operation of the program.
2. Healthcare Providers 122. Offices of Physicians except Mental Health Specialists. This U.S.
industry comprises establishments of health practitioners having the degree of M.D. Doctor of Medicine or D.O.
Doctor of Osteopathy primarily engaged in the independent practice of general or specialized medicine except psychiatry or psychoanalysis or surgery. These practitioners operate private or group practices in their own offices e.g., centers, clinics or in the facilities of others, such as hospitals or HMO medical centers. The SBA has created a size standard for this industry, which is annual receipts of $12 million or less. According to 2012 U.S.
Economic Census, 152,468 firms operated throughout the entire year in this industry. Of that number, 147,718
had annual receipts of less than $10
million, while 3,108 firms had annual receipts between $10 million and $24,999,999. Based on this data, the Commission concludes that a majority of firms operating in this industry are small under the applicable size standard.
123. Offices of Physicians, Mental Health Specialists. This U.S. industry
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