The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a proposed rule that, if adopted, would represent a significant structural revision of the fruits and vegetables import regulations and would establish a new process for approving certain new commodities for importation into the U.S. APHIS has scheduled four public hearings in May and June 2006 to discuss the proposed changes.

Clear World Communications agreed to pay $290,000 to settle an FCC investigation into failure to pay regulatory fees and contributions to the universal service and Telecom Relay Service funds and to meet numbering administration rules. In a consent decree with the FCC, the long distance company agreed to set up a program to assure employee compliance with FCC rules. Clear World also has paid toward $530,000 toward an obligation of $3.13 million in USF contributions, interest and late charges, according to the consent decree issued Fri.

Network neutrality surfaced throughout a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thurs. ostensibly on video franchising and universal service fund (USF) reform in the draft telecom bill. NCTA Pres. Kyle McSlarrow nervously congratulated Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) on the bill’s language, which calls for an FCC study on net neutrality. Proponents deem that insufficient and want enforcement language beyond current law. Co-Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) isn’t satisfied with the language.

The draft telecom bill (S-2686) was too hard on cities, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Wed. at the first of 2 hearings on it. Acknowledging as “fair criticism” complaints about the bill’s local franchising provisions, Stevens said those parts of the bill were “put in by others.” Stevens said he takes “credit or blame” for the bill’s handling of net neutrality, but wants more Democratic input before revising the bill.

The FCC decided to continue current rules for universal service support to rural companies until it finishes its review of rural funding. The FCC in 2001 had put modified high-cost support rules into effect for 5 years while it considered new rules. June 30 marks the end of the 5 years, but the FCC wasn’t ready to end the review, according to an order issued Tues. The rules adopted 5 years ago called for a modified embedded cost support mechanism.

The FCC denied a Telco Group petition seeking exclusion of international revenue from the base used to calculate payments into the Telecom Relay Service Fund, or at least exclusion of Telco Group’s international revenue from its own contribution base. The FCC rejection of the requests said the TRS fund isn’t limited to supporting domestic relay service, but also is used to fund international relay calls. Telco had argued international revenue should be excluded because it’s excluded from contributions into the universal service fund. The FCC said that’s a different situation because USF money isn’t used for international service.

The Senate Commerce Committee has no immediate plans to mark up an indecency bill that it had previously considered putting on the calendar for this week, Hill sources said. The committee Tues. announced its markup schedule, which didn’t include the bill (S-193), and a spokesman confirmed it wouldn’t be marked up this week.

Communities across the Empire State should look to Philadelphia’s model of offering municipal broadband access to citizens, Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer (D) told the Personal Democracy Forum conference in N.Y.C. Mon. The gubernatorial candidate said the problem “isn’t a lack of resources, it’s a lack of imagination and a lack of leadership.”

Communities across the Empire State should look to Philadelphia’s model of offering municipal broadband access to citizens, N.Y. Attorney Gen. Eliot Spitzer (D) told the Personal Democracy Forum conference in N.Y.C. Mon. The gubernatorial candidate said the problem “isn’t a lack of resources, it’s a lack of imagination and a lack of leadership.”

U.S. colleges could see a “staggering annual increase” in phone fees if the FCC moves to a numbers or connections system for collecting universal service fund contributions, the Keep USF Fair Coalition said Thurs. The group -- which has conducted a long-running campaign against the numbers approach proposed by FCC Chmn. Martin -- said colleges could see an increase of as much as $480 million, which could translate to phone service cuts and higher tuition. The coalition said a study shows that colleges could see their USF fees rise to an average of $82,999 from $8,971 now. The fees, paid by telecom carriers, usually are passed on to customers. Under a numbers approach, carriers would contribute to the USF by paying a per-phone number fee, probably around $1, rather than making contributions based on a percentage of revenue, as in the current system.