Source: http://www.fcc.gov/print/node/22713
Timestamp: 2015-02-01 00:36:18
Document Index: 787255963

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 553', '§ 254', '§ 254', '§ 706', '§ 2342', '§ 402']

of comments, largely adopted the Joint Board’s proposal, see In the Matter of High-Cost Universal Serv. Support, 73 Fed. Reg. 37,882 (July 2, 2008) (to be codified at 47 C.F.R. pts. 32, 36, 54) (the Order). Under the interim cap, annual support for CETCs is capped at the level of support CETCs were eligible to receive in March 2008, subject to two limited exceptions. First, to the extent a CETC files cost data demonstrating its own costs “meet the support threshold in the same manner as the incumbent LEC” in the relevant service area, the CETC is not subject to the interim cap. Id. ¶ 31. Second, the cap does not apply to CETCs serving tribal lands or Alaska Native regions. Id. ¶ 32. The Commission emphasized the cap would remain in place only until it adopted comprehensive, high-cost universal service reform—reform on which the Commission planned to move forward “in an expeditious manner.” Id. ¶ 37.
Petitioners challenge the FCC’s order imposing the interim cap on high-cost support to CETCs. They claim, among other things, the Commission: (1) violated the notice-and-comment requirements of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 553; (2) violated § 254 of the Federal Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 254; and (3) acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of APA § 706(2)(A). We are not persuaded by any of these arguments. Accordingly, having jurisdiction to review the Order pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2342(1) and 47 U.S.C. § 402(a), we deny the petitions for review. A. Rulemaking Challenge We begin with petitioners’ argument that the Commission violated the notice-and-comment requirements Case: 08-1284 Document: 1220280 Filed: 12/11/2009 Page: 8
of the APA. Although the petitioners’ arguments are somewhat confusing, we find them all to be without merit. Petitioners’ first claim seems to be that the Commission jumped the gun. It imposed the same interim emergency cap on two individual carriers seeking license transfers that it later imposed on all wireless carriers in the Order. See ALLTEL Corp. & Atlantis Holdings LCC, 22 F.C.C.R. 19517, 19520–21 (2007); AT&T Inc. & Dobson Commc’ns Corp., 22 F.C.C.R. 20295, 20329 (2007). Neither adjudicatory order imposed any obligations or restrictions on parties, including petitioners, other than those directly involved in the mergers. Because petitioners cannot allege any actual injury fairly traceable to either adjudicatory order, they lack standing to raise, and we lack jurisdiction to consider, their challenges to the Order on this ground. See Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife,504 U.S. 555, 560 (1992). Petitioners make an alternative but equally unconvincing argument that the Commission violated the APA. Petitioners claim the Commission’s imposition of the same interim cap recommended by the Joint Board and adopted by the Commission in the ALLTEL and AT&T adjudications proves the notice-and-comment proceedings “served no purpose,” since they simply “rubber stamped” a rule change the Commission had already adopted and enforced without the benefit of notice and comment. Br. for Pet’rs 31. Although petitioners once again confuse their argument with inapposite claims that the Commission somehow “circumvent[ed] the APA” by adopting the cap as a condition to the two mergers while the rule was still pending, see Reply Br. for Pet’rs 6, it appears their central argument is that the imposition of the cap in the two adjudications demons