NCLC joined an Application for Review submitted to the Federal Communications Commission seeking the Commission’s review of the Wireline Competition Bureau’s sua sponte decision to suspend the 2024 IPCS Order by delaying for nearly two years the reforms the Commission adopted on a unanimous, bipartisan basis to ensure—pursuant to a bipartisan mandate from Congress—that rates and charges for Incarcerated People’s Communications Services are just and reasonable. NCLC submitted this filing along with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Criminal Justice Reform Clinic of Lewis & Clark Law School, Pennsylvania Prison Society, Prison Policy Initiative, Public Knowledge, Stephen A. Raher, United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, and Worth Rises.
In the filing, we argue that the Bureau’s action is inconsistent with and undermines the Martha Wright-Reed Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Commission’s own rules. Specifically, the Suspension Order, which was issued without any request from any party, plainly circumvents the critical reforms of the Martha Wright-Reed Act and Congress’s directive to ensure rules are in place within a time certain; it violates the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”) because it is arbitrary and capricious, directly contradicting previous findings by the Bureau and the Commission and wholly lacking notice or any record support; and it is ultra vires because the Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau lacks the authority to issue such a decision. For these reasons, we urge the Commission to promptly rescind the Bureau’s Suspension Order and allow the rules to go into effect as adopted by the Commission, thus implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Act as Congress intended.
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