212 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 4, 2022 / Proposed Rules 

(d) If a court or other competent 

authority orders that an NEH employee 

comply with a demand notwithstanding 

a final decision by the General Counsel 

to the contrary, or at any other stage in 

the process, the General Counsel shall 

advise the employee on how to respond 

to such order and may arrange for legal 

representation of the employee. 

§ 1167.6 Office of Inspector General 

employees. 

Notwithstanding the requirements set 

forth in §§ 1167.1 through 1167.5, when 

an employee of the agency’s Office of 

the Inspector General receives a demand 

or request to provide testimony or 

produce official records and 

information, the Inspector General or 

his or her designee shall be responsible 

for performing the functions assigned to 

the General Counsel under this part 

with respect to such demand or request. 

Dated: December 28, 2021. 

Samuel Roth, 

Attorney-Advisor, National Endowment for 

the Humanities. 

[FR Doc. 2021–28468 Filed 1–3–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7536–01–P 

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

47 CFR Part 64 

[WC Docket No. 12–375, DA 21–1583; FR 

ID 64286] 

Wireline Competition Bureau Seeks 

Comment on Revisions to Annual 

Reporting and Certification 

Requirements for Inmate Calling 

Services (ICS) Providers 

AGENCY: Federal Communications 

Commission. 

ACTION: Solicitation of comments. 

SUMMARY: In this document, the 

Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or 

the Bureau) of the Federal 

Communications Commission (FCC or 

the Commission) seeks comment on 

proposed revisions to the instructions 

and templates for the Annual Reports 

and Annual Certifications submitted by 

providers of inmate calling services. 

DATES: Comments are due on or before 

January 12, 2022; and reply comments 

are due on or before January 27. 2022. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, 

identified by WC Docket No. 12–375, by 

any of the following methods: 

• Electronic Filers: Comments may be 

filed electronically using the internet by 

accessing the ECFS: https://

apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/. 

• Paper Filers: Parties who choose to 

file by paper must file an original and 

one copy of each filing. 

• Filings can be sent by commercial 

overnight courier, or by first-class or 

overnight U.S. Postal Service mail. All 

filings must be addressed to the 

Commission’s Secretary, Office of the 

Secretary, Federal Communications 

Commission. 

• Commercial overnight mail (other 

than U.S. Postal Service Express Mail 

and Priority Mail) must be sent to 9050 

Junction Drive, Annapolis Junction, MD 

20701. 

• U.S. Postal Service first-class, 

Express, and Priority mail must be 

addressed to 45 L Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20554. 

• Effective March 19, 2020, and until 

further notice, the Commission no 

longer accepts any hand or messenger 

delivered filings. This is a temporary 

measure taken to help protect the health 

and safety of individuals, and to 

mitigate the transmission of COVID–19. 

See FCC Announces Closure of FCC 

Headquarters Open Window and 

Change in Hand-Delivery Policy, Public 

Notice, DA 20–304 (March 19, 2020). 

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcccloses-headquarters-open-window-andchanges-hand-delivery-policy. 

People with Disabilities: To request 

materials in accessible formats for 

people with disabilities (braille, large 

print, electronic files, audio format), 

send an email to fcc504@fcc.gov or call 

the Consumer & Governmental Affairs 

Bureau at 202–418–0530 (voice), 202– 

418–0432 (TTY). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Minsoo Kim, Pricing Policy Division, 

Wireline Competition Bureau, at (202) 

418–1739 or via email at Minsoo.Kim@

fcc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a 

summary of the Commission’s 

document, Public Notice, DA 21–1583, 

released December 15, 2022. The full 

text of this document is available at 

https://www.fcc.gov/document/wcbseeks-comment-ics-annual-reportingand-certification-revisions. 

Synopsis 

By this document, the Wireline 

Competition Bureau (WCB or the 

Bureau) seeks comment on proposed 

revisions to the instructions and 

templates for the Annual Reports and 

Annual Certifications submitted by 

providers of inmate calling services 

(ICS). The Commission requires ICS 

providers to make these filings to enable 

the Commission to monitor and track 

trends in the ICS marketplace, increase 

provider transparency, and ensure 

compliance with the Commission’s ICS 

rules. 

Pursuant to delegated authority, the 

Bureau created standardized reporting 

templates (FCC Form 2301(a)) for the 

Annual Report and a related 

certification of accuracy (FCC Form 

2301(b)), as well as instructions to guide 

providers through the reporting process. 

The Bureau amended the instructions 

and template for the Annual Report in 

2020 in order to improve the type and 

quality of the information collected. 

In the 2021 ICS Order, the 

Commission revised its ICS rules by 

adopting, inter alia, lower interim rate 

caps for interstate ICS calls, new interim 

rate caps for international ICS calls, and 

a rate cap structure that requires ICS 

providers to differentiate between 

legally mandated and contractually 

required site commissions. The new 

2021 rules necessitate further changes to 

the annual reporting and certification 

templates for which WCB seeks 

comment herein. Pursuant to the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

(PRA), WCB will publish a notice in the 

Federal Register seeking comment on 

the information collection requirements 

for the annual reporting and 

certification requirements in the Public 

Notice. 

I. Overall Structure of the Annual 

Reporting and Certification 

Requirements 

Pursuant to delegated authority, WCB 

proposes to revise the instructions and 

templates for the Annual Reports and 

Certifications to be consistent with the 

Commission’s rules. These revised 

instructions and the associated 

templates, if adopted, will consolidate 

and supplant the instructions and 

templates for earlier iterations of the ICS 

annual reporting and certification 

requirements. WCB also proposes 

improvements based on experience 

reviewing prior Annual Reports, which 

has persuaded us that revised 

instructions would help providers better 

understand the requirements, making 

the submitted reports more useful to the 

Commission and consumers. To that 

end, WCB proposes to adopt both an 

Excel-format template and a Wordformat template for the Annual Reports 

to better separate individual data items 

from narrative responses. For simplicity, 

WCB refers to these respective portions 

of the template as the Word template 

and the Excel template. WCB seeks 

comment on these proposed revisions, 

generally, and on the specific structure, 

content, and format of the proposed 

templates and instructions attached 

hereto. WCB likewise proposes minor 

revisions to the certification form. Are 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 4, 2022 / Proposed Rules 213 

there other changes or additions WCB 

should make to gather better or more 

accurate data or to make the instructions 

more clear? Is there additional 

information or data that WCB should 

require providers to submit to enable 

the Commission to better monitor 

compliance and industry trends, or 

increase transparency to the public? 

Conversely, are there any proposed 

instructions, inquiries, or data fields 

that should be removed because they are 

unnecessary to ensure that providers 

report uniform and accurate data and 

other information or they would reduce 

the burdens on providers in submitting 

this data? 

A. Proposed Instructions for Annual 

Reports 

WCB seeks comment on whether the 

proposed instructions provide sufficient 

guidance to ensure that providers use 

uniform methodologies and report the 

required information in a consistent 

manner. Are there any additional 

changes that would clarify the 

instructions, including the definitions, 

to help increase uniformity across 

providers’ responses? WCB seeks 

comment on all aspects of the proposed 

instructions, including any proposed 

revisions not explicitly addressed in the 

Public Notice. 

Reporting Period. As has been the 

case with prior annual reports, the 

reporting period is the year immediately 

preceding the year during which the 

annual report is due. Thus, the reporting 

period for the next annual reports due 

April 1, 2022 will be January 1, 2021 

through December 31, 2021. The 

Commission’s new interim interstate 

and international ICS rate caps adopted 

in the 2021 ICS Order became effective 

on October 26, 2021. In various places, 

the proposed instructions explain how 

providers may report less detailed 

information for the period between 

January 1, 2021 and October 25, 2021 

than for the period between October 26, 

2021 and December 31, 2021 and going 

forward. 

General Categories of Information 

Requested. The proposed instructions, 

like for prior reports, require providers 

to submit certain types of information 

related to their operations, ICS rates, 

ancillary service charges, site 

commissions, and disability access. Do 

the proposed instructions describe these 

categories of data in sufficient detail? Is 

there additional information or data that 

WCB should require providers to submit 

in any of these categories to enable the 

Commission to better monitor 

compliance and industry trends, or 

increase transparency to the public? Are 

there any changes WCB should make to 

the proposed instructions and templates 

to make them easier for providers to 

understand? 

B. Specific Data and Information 

Inquiries 

Inmate Calling Service Rates. The 

proposed instructions require providers 

to submit intrastate, interstate, and 

international ICS rates across three 

general categories: (i) Highest rates 

charged, (ii) average rates charged, and 

(iii) year-end rates charged at a 

particular facility. Specifically, WCB 

proposes to require the reporting of the 

highest 15-minute rate, highest year-end 

15-minute rate, and average per-minute 

rate. WCB’s current instructions require 

providers to report every single rate 

charged over the reporting period. WCB 

believes the proposed categories will 

significantly reduce the burdens on 

providers, particularly those that 

frequently change their rates. Further, 

because certain providers may charge 

one rate for the initial minute of a call 

and another for each successive minute, 

obtaining information for 15-minute 

calls (a duration that the Commission 

has previously treated as the length of 

a typical call) will help the Commission 

compare rates among providers without 

imposing unwarranted burdens on 

them. With regard to the highest 15- 

minute rate, WCB proposes to require 

providers to break down those rates into 

the first-minute rate and the rate for 

additional minutes, and to further report 

the site commission amounts included 

in those rates. For interstate and 

international rates, WCB adds a fourth 

category, that would require providers 

to identify all rates charged in excess of 

the applicable rate caps. For 

international rates, WCB further 

proposes to require providers to report 

terminating charges they paid to their 

underlying international service 

provider to each destination. Are the 

proposed instructions for reporting 

average international termination 

charges clear? WCB also proposes to 

seek certain narrative information about 

the reported rates, including 

explanations for rates that exceed the 

Commission’s rate caps. 

WCB seeks comment on this rate 

reporting approach. Will seeking rate 

information in these categories provide 

the Commission adequate rate 

information to ensure compliance with 

the Commission’s rules? Are there other 

changes WCB can make to the proposed 

rate reporting structure to make it easier 

for providers to respond, without 

sacrificing any necessary information or 

transparency? That structure is a 

departure from the previous 

requirement that a provider must submit 

every rate charged over the reporting 

period, a step that should significantly 

reduce burdens on providers that 

frequently adjust their rates. WCB 

believes that requiring providers to 

identify and submit information on all 

interstate and international rates that 

exceed the applicable caps will not 

impose an unwarranted burden, as WCB 

expects such violations to be infrequent. 

WCB believes the proposed rate 

reporting structure properly balances 

the need for accurate information on ICS 

rates with the need to avoid imposing 

unwarranted burdens on providers. 

WCB invites comment on this 

assessment. 

Ancillary Service Charges. The 

proposed instructions continue to 

require providers to report a variety of 

information about any ancillary services 

charges they have assessed. WCB 

proposes to require a narrative 

explanation concerning any allocation 

methodology among facilities in a single 

contract, where applicable. Is there any 

additional information WCB should 

seek that would improve the quantity or 

quality of ancillary charge information 

providers are required to submit? 

Site Commissions. The proposed 

instructions seek information 

concerning site commissions on a more 

disaggregated basis than WCB has 

previously required. WCB proposes to 

require providers to report their average 

total monthly site commission payments 

on a facility-by-facility basis and to 

separate those payments between legally 

mandated and contractually prescribed 

site commission payments, consistent 

with the Commission’s rules. WCB also 

proposes to require providers to 

subdivide both types of payments 

between monetary and in-kind 

payments and, within those 

subdivisions, to report the portions of 

the payments that were either fixed or 

variable. How should providers report 

the value of in-kind site commission 

payments? Should WCB, for example, 

require providers to identify the type 

and quantity of in-kind payment (such 

as free or reduced-price equipment) and 

then assign a dollar value to that 

payment? Should WCB instruct 

providers on how to determine the 

dollar value of an in-kind payment and, 

if so, what instructions should WCB 

adopt? 

Disability Access and Related 

Considerations. The proposed 

instructions continue to require 

providers to report a variety of 

information about the provision of ICS 

to incarcerated people with hearing and 

speech disabilities, including any 

Ancillary Service Charges that providers 

have assessed for or in connection with 


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214 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 2 / Tuesday, January 4, 2022 / Proposed Rules 

TTY-based calls. WCB proposes to also 

require a narrative explanation 

concerning any allocation methodology 

used in connection with this 

information, where applicable, and 

WCB seeks comment on this approach. 

Miscellaneous. The proposed 

instructions contain a variety of 

questions seeking basic provider 

information, as well as questions 

seeking narrative information about 

provider operations and facilities. Is 

there additional information the 

Commission should seek that would 

help increase transparency and 

compliance without imposing 

unwarranted burdens on providers? 

II. Procedural Matters 

Filing of Comments and Replies. 

Pursuant to §§ 1.415 and 1.419 of the 

Commission’s rules, 47 CFR 1.415, 

1.419, interested parties may file 

comments and reply comments on or 

before the dates indicated on the first 

page of this document. Comments may 

be filed using the Commission’s 

Electronic Comment Filing System. See 

FCC, Electronic Filing of Documents in 

Rulemaking Proceedings, 63 FR 24121 

(May 1, 1998). 

Comments and reply comments must 

include a short and concise summary of 

the substantive arguments raised in the 

pleading. Comments and reply 

comments must also comply with 

section 1.49 and all other applicable 

sections of the Commission’s rules. 

WCB directs all interested parties to 

include the name of the filing party and 

the date of the filing on each page of 

their comments and reply comments. 

All parties are encouraged to use a table 

of contents, regardless of the length of 

their submission. WCB also strongly 

encourages parties to track the 

organization set forth in the Public 

Notice and the instructions in order to 

facilitate the internal review process. 

Ex Parte Presentations. This 

proceeding shall be treated as a ‘‘permitbut-disclose’’ proceeding in accordance 

with the Commission’s ex parte rules. 

Persons making ex parte presentations 

must file a copy of any written 

presentation or a memorandum 

summarizing any oral presentation 

within two business days after the 

presentation (unless a different deadline 

applicable to the Sunshine period 

applies). Persons making oral ex parte 

presentations are reminded that 

memoranda summarizing the 

presentation must (1) list all persons 

attending or otherwise participating in 

the meeting at which the ex parte 

presentation was made, and (2) 

summarize all data presented and 

arguments made during the 

presentation. If the presentation 

consisted in whole or in part of the 

presentation of data or arguments 

already reflected in the presenter’s 

written comments, memoranda, or other 

filings in the proceeding, the presenter 

may provide citations to such data or 

arguments in the prior comments, 

memoranda, or other filings (specifying 

the relevant page and/or paragraph 

numbers where such data or arguments 

can be found) in lieu of summarizing 

them in the memorandum. Documents 

shown or given to Commission staff 

during ex parte meetings are deemed to 

be written ex parte presentations and 

must be filed consistent with § 1.1206(b) 

of the Commission’s rules. Participants 

in this proceeding should familiarize 

themselves with the Commission’s ex 

parte rules. 

Federal Communications Commission. 

Pamela Arluk, 

Chief, Competition Policy Division, Wireline 

Competition Bureau. 

[FR Doc. 2021–28494 Filed 1–3–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P 


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