The National Association of State 911 Administrators warned the FCC that moving to next-generation 911 will be complicated, in comments on an NPRM commissioners approved 4-0 in June (see 2306080043). The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC is on the right track with the NPRM. Comments were due at the FCC Wednesday in docket 21-479. The notice followed a NASNA petition seeking a rulemaking or notice of inquiry to fully implement NG911 (see 2110190066 and 2201200043).

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday unanimously advanced its version of a FY 2024 federal spending bill that proposes increased annual funding for the FCC and FTC. The House Appropriations Committee voted 34-26 that afternoon to advance the Financial Services Subcommittee's FY24 spending bill, which would decrease funding for both agencies. The House Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies subcommittees plan to mark up their FY24 spending bills Friday with proposals to decrease funding to NTIA and other tech-related Commerce Department agencies and end CPB’s traditional “two-year advance funding status” altogether.

APCO named Melvin Maier its new CEO Friday, replacing Derek Poarch, former FCC Public Safety Bureau chief who has led the group since 2011. Maier was APCO chief technology officer and previously was vice chair of the FirstNet Public Safety Advisory Committee. He's current chair of the Next Generation 9-1-1 Coalition. Maier joined APCO last year, after 32 years in law enforcement, most recently as a captain and chief of public safety communications for the Oakland County, Michigan, Sheriff’s Office. APCO said it did “an exhaustive and competitive nationwide search involving more than 200 applicants.” Poarch will stay on “over the next several months to ensure a smooth transition” and will remain CEO until he leaves. Maier becomes executive director immediately and will add the CEO title when Poarch departs, APCO said. Poarch and his team have grown APCO "in monumental and unprecedented ways," said Angela Batey, APCO president and a public safety instructor in Georgia.

APCO urged the FCC to reject a March petition by the Competitive Carriers Association seeking tweaks to the FCC’s outage reporting rules, approved 4-0 by commissioners last year (see 2211170051). Comments were due Monday (see 2306140057). “Specifically, APCO opposes CCA’s request that the Commission reconsider certain aspects of the 30-minute deadline for originating service providers (OSPs) to make initial notifications to emergency communications centers (ECCs) of outages impacting 9-1-1 service,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 15-80. “CCA’s concerns have been fully considered and rejected” by the FCC “and its Petition fails to present any material error, omission, or reason warranting reconsideration.”

The FCC approved 4-0 NPRMs on expediting the transition to next-generation 911 and giving consumers more choice on the robocalls and robotexts they’ll receive (see 2305180069). Both were approved with limited comments from commissioners.

An Ohio Senate panel supported upgrading to next-generation 911. The Financial Institutions and Technology Committee voted 4-0 Tuesday for SB-50. Ohio’s administrative services department could incur $10.3 million in yearly expenses to develop and maintain the NG-911 network, while counties may have to pay “several hundreds of thousands of dollars” to bring 911 systems into compliance, said a fiscal note: Costs might be fully offset by a NG-911 fee on landline, wireless and other communications services. The bill would replace the current 25-cents monthly wireless 911 fee with a 64-cents charge on communications services including landlines and VoIP. The bill would keep the current charge for prepaid wireless services, which is 0.005 percent of the retail sale price. “Expansion of the NG 9-1-1 fee to include communications services not currently subject to the fee is expected to increase the amount of revenue collected significantly,” the fiscal note said. The current wireless-only 911 charge collected about $25 million yearly on average over the past five years, it said. With the proposed larger and more broadly applied fee, “it is conceivable that revenue … could increase by tens of millions per year.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., threw a wrench in Senate prospects for quickly passing a new proposal from House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., to restore the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through June 30 (HR-3345) before the House Communications Subcommittee unanimously advanced it during a Wednesday markup session. The mandate expired in early March after Rounds objected to Senate leaders' bid to pass a House-cleared bill to extend the mandate through May 19 (HR-1108) by unanimous consent (see 2303090074). Rounds told us Tuesday he still won't allow UC passage of any bill to restore the FCC's remit unless it goes through Sept. 30 to give DOD time to complete a study of its systems on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band.

A proposed Texas House constitutional amendment on creating a state broadband fund will go to the Senate floor, but senators are making changes that would require House agreement. The Senate Finance Committee voted unanimously at a livestreamed hearing Monday on substitutes to HJR-125 and on an accompanying bill (HB-9) that passed the House by wide margins last month (see 2304270056). Substitute text wasn’t immediately available Monday. Sen. Robert Nichols (R) supported the bills but said he wants to work with sponsors on adding language to require a local matching requirement. “People treat money better when they have a little skin in the game,” said Nichols, saying even a 10% local match would help. AT&T supports the proposal to create a "comprehensive funding mechanism that takes a holistic approach,” David Tate, retired vice president-legal affairs, testified at the hearing. State funding now is important, with Texas not due to receive federal money until 2025 from NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program, said Texas Cable Association President Walt Baum. But the Taxpayers Protection Alliance thinks making residents pay for a $5 billion fund is a “waste of money and fiscally irresponsible.” Texas 9-1-1 Alliance Chairman Chip VanSteenberg supports the bill including funding for next-generation 911. The existing 50-cent 911 surcharge on phone bills hasn’t kept up with rising costs, he said.

CTIA urged the FCC to put the onus on covered service providers (CSPs) rather than originating service providers (OSPs) if the agency imposes 988 outage reporting obligations, the subject of a January NPRM (see 2301040056). “As 988 communications are routed centrally to a single, nationwide response point, unlike 911 communications, which are routed to local Public Safety Answering Points, it is unclear how OSPs could provide actionable information about local outages to the nationwide 988 Lifeline or other stakeholders,” CTIA said, in comments posted Tuesday in docket 23-5. AT&T agreed rules “must reflect the fundamental differences in service architecture between 911 and 988.” Competitive Carriers Association members don’t “oppose some level of 988 outage reporting and notification,” but also don’t “support duplicative or potentially confusing efforts,” CCA said: If the FCC imposes a 988 outage notification requirement on OSPs, “in many cases, a 30-minute timeframe would be unreasonable and unrealistic, particularly for OSPs utilizing vendors for 988 solutions. Any 988 outage reporting requirement should enable realistic compliance.” The National Emergency Number Association said the FCC rightly proposes rules based on 911 outage reporting requirements approved last year (see 2211170051). The FCC should also require that PSAPs be alerted of 988 outages, NENA said: “If 988 service is not available to a person having a mental health crisis, and they do not have knowledge of an alternative means such as dedicated online chat services, then they may decide to dial 9-1-1 instead.” The group said the 988 system should plan to eventually migrate to next-generation 911 technologies “as a matter of building a more reliable, equitable life-saving service for people with mental health crises.”

Texas House members showed wide support for creating a state fund for broadband infrastructure this week, voting 137-7 for a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday on its second reading. On Thursday, the Senate received HJR-125 and the House voted 140-8 for companion bill HB-9 on third and final reading. Rural carriers applauded the House for passing the measures, which they said would help fill gaps from the state not fully funding Texas USF. “We will now shift our focus to the Senate where we hope to find similar support,” said Texas Telephone Association (TTA) President Mark Seale.