On July 27, a draft Office of Managing Director report and order addressing the assessment and collection of regulatory fees for fiscal year 2016 began circulating among the offices of the FCC Commissioners for their votes.

On July 21, according to the FCC’s “circulating items” website, which was not updated last week, a draft Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau item addressing proposed changes in the FCC’s part 90 rules to enable railroad police officers to access public safety interoperability and mutual aid channels began circulating.

In 2014, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) filed a petition for rulemaking asking the FCC to modify the part 90 rules to allow railroad police access to frequencies that are reserved for public safety interoperability (TRDaily, May 19, 2014).

Last year, the FCC adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking that proposed to amend the agency’s part 90 rules to permit railroad police officers to access public safety interoperability and mutual aid channels (TRDaily, Sept. 1, 2015), suggesting a broad definition of railroad police officers included in the Federal Railroad Administration’s rules, rather than the narrower definition that was suggested by NPSTC in accordance with a resolution adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The FCC noted that some parties submitting comments on the NPSTC petition suggested that the narrower definition “is too restrictive, to the extent it does not include part-time railroad police officers or Amtrak police.”

As reported previously (TRDaily,  July 27), a public notice seeking public comment for the agency’s 2016 biennial review of telecommunications regulation has also been submitted to the Commissioners for a vote.  The circulating items page on the FCC website reports that it began circulating on July 21. —Lynn Stanton, lynn.stanton@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily