Prisoner Advocates: FCC Should Rescind Prison-Calling Deadline Suspension
Groups representing prisoners and their families on Thursday asked the FCC to rescind a Wireline Bureau order delaying some incarcerated people’s communications service (IPCS) deadlines until April 1, 2027. The prisoner advocates told us previously that they were weighing their options following the bureau order (see 2507030024).
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This IPCS docket “was opened to implement the bipartisan Martha Wright-Reed Act, which gave the Commission additional authority to prohibit egregious costs imposed on incarcerated people and their loved ones by ensuring ‘just and reasonable’ rates in the provision of IPCS, and directed the Commission to adopt rules by January 2025,” said an application for review. “Crucially, Congress expressly required the Commission” to promulgate regulations implementing the act within two years of enactment, the groups said.
An order approved a year ago met Congress’ deadline, with the FCC approving rules 5-0 (see 2501280053), the filing said. Since Congress enacted the law and “the Commission adopted the rules (twelve months ago) and granted limited waivers of the video IPCS rules (nine months ago), providers have begun implementing the Commission’s revised regulatory framework,” the groups said. “Requests for relief have been far and few in between.”
The suspension order “contradicts Congress’s directives,” the groups argued. Not only does it “revive four-year-old rate caps and override the express mandate of Congress, it also has the effect of temporarily eliminating intrastate rate caps and video calling caps -- a crucial piece of the mandate Congress gave to the Commission to implement,” they said. “Casting the decision as a ‘waiver’ does not cure the issue. The Bureau is effectively suspending reforms that Congress affirmatively required the Commission to promulgate within 24 months of enactment of the Martha Wright-Reed Act.”
The groups also raised legal concerns, saying the suspension order violates the Administrative Procedure Act because the bureau acted without seeking comment. “With few exceptions, agency actions that do not provide the requisite notice-and-comment opportunity violate the APA as they cannot reflect a reasoned decision.” The order was also arbitrary and capricious because the bureau “failed to provide notice, the decision lacks record support and flatly contradicts previous decisions.” In addition, it “fails to establish ‘good cause’ under the Commission’s waiver rules, further indicating its arbitrary nature,” the filing said.
Opponents of the T-Mobile/UScellular transaction also filed an application for review on Thursday to challenge that order done on delegated authority (see 2507310041).
Representatives of IPCS provider ViaPath, meanwhile, reported on meetings with aides to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty about the bureau order. They discussed the effect “on the IPCS market and the Commission’s planned re-evaluation of its IPCS rules,” the filing said. ViaPath “emphasized the need for the Commission to consider all IPCS-related and ancillary costs as part of its re-evaluation to eliminate the unintended consequences discussed” in the suspension order “and ensure the Commission’s IPCS rules reflect the importance of public safety and security in the IPCS market.”