FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Letter to Congress re: Possible NG911 Funding

As Congress considers whether there is a need to take additional next steps in responding to the health and economic crisis facing our nation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports indicate that some are actively considering another round of economic support. While I will reserve judgment on other communications matters for the time being, one questionable proposal floated for possible inclusion in past rounds was to inject Federal funding into deploying advanced 9-1-I systems in states and territories, better known as Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1). Any effort to do this without appropriate safeguards shotild be a cause for concern, as four states — NY, NJ, RI, and NV — continue to divert critical 9-1-i fees collected from consumers toward other budgetary purposes. I implore each of you to support the existing prohibition in Federal law that prevents certain Federal money from being made available to these states for 9-1-1 systems. To do otherwise would facilitate these states’ diversionary practices and directly harm efforts, such as mine, to protect consumers from paying 9-1-1 fees on their phone bills that ultimately are used for other, unrelated purposes. Unfortunately, diverted fees effectively function as a backdoor tax on lower income consumers.

I believe that if new Federal funding is to be considered by Congress for the necessary upgrades and deployment of NG9-1-, it must prohibit funds from being received by those states or territories that divert 9-1-1 fees. Those Americans needing emergency call center assistance and the wonderful professionals answering those calls deserve no less.