NCTA, TruConnect Pitch Edits to NARUC EBB Resolutions

NARUC's Telecom Subcommittee advanced three draft resolutions to the full committee for a Tuesday vote at the state regulators' policy summit in Denver. The proposals relate to Broadband Task Force recommendations, the emergency broadband benefit (EBB) and disaster outage reporting (see 2107070053). At Thursday’s virtual meeting, the subcommittee’s staff-level officials declined to vote on proposed amendments by industry to the EBB draft. NCTA suggested removing a clause recommending that Congress, in any EBB extension, “phase out the current partial bypass” of the state eligible telecom carrier designation process. Changing course now could disrupt service for customers whose EBB providers don’t yet have ETC status, said NCTA Vice President-State Affairs Rick Cimerman. TruConnect asked to add clauses urging the FCC to allow Lifeline ETC requests to use an alternative verification process in California, Texas and Oregon for EBB enrollment, and asking Congress to give money to states that haven’t been able to connect Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program databases to the Lifeline national verifier. About 15 states haven’t connected SNAP databases, with most saying it’s because they lack funding to update interfaces, said TruConnect attorney Judson Hill. The full committee could still take up industry’s proposed changes at its business meeting, said Subcommittee Chair Joseph Witmer, counsel to Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Chairman Gladys Brown.