August 2011 Meeting of the FCC Consumer Affairs Committee (Recent NAMAC Blog post)

Published at NAMAC

As a recently appointed Tribal representative on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Consumer Affairs Committee (CAC), I was pleased to attend the committee’s first meeting in Washington on August 17, 2011. As the only Native American on the committee, I will represent rural and underserved Native American populations for the next two years on this committee.

The FCC established the CAC in November 2000 in order make recommendations regarding consumer issues and to encourage the participation and involvement of consumers, including people with disabilities and underserved populations, such as Native Americans and persons living in rural areas, in proceedings before the Commission.

This committee addresses consumer protection issues and education on topics like cramming, slamming, consumer friendly billing, detariffing, bundling of services, Lifeline/Linkup programs, customer service, privacy, and telemarketing abuses.  The committee also addresses accessibility issues for people with disabilities, including telecom relay services, hearing aid compatibility, video description and closed captioning.  Finally, this committee also looks at the impact of new and emerging technologies, including access, availability and convergence of emerging technologies and media.

The committee is made up of thirty-one members, with representation from academia, consumer interest groups, disability groups, tribal/low-income/minority groups, government and industry representation. The CAC meetings are public and take place quarterly, with at least two live pleanary meetings per year in Washington DC.   Subcommittee’s are established and meet regularly, reporting to the larger committee.  The first meeting with new two-year appointee’s to the committee took place at the FCC on August 17, 2011.  This one-day meeting (available on video here), was the first time many of the committee members met. While there were a number of re-appointments (industry folks and disability representation), some of us were new, but still knew each other from other coalitions.  Indeed, the work of several prominent consumer interest groups was well represented, including appointees from MAG-net / Center for Media Justice (Amalia Deloney), Media Literacy Project (Andrea Quijada), Benton Foundation (Cecilia Garcia) and of course Native Public Media.

As the first meeting of our new committee, it was largely informational.  In addition to remarks from the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Michael Copps, there were numerous presentations from the various bureaus in the FCC.  The morning addressed topics included an update from the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, the Office of General Council, an overview of the Need for Speed Notice of Proposed Rulemakeing, an overview of the recently published Samknows Report, a Lifeline/Linkup update,  and a review of Cramming.  A working lunch and the afternoon included a presentation on consumer complaint trends, the Emergency Alert System and an update from the Office of Native Affairs and Policy.  One of the highlights of the day included a visit to the FCC Technology Experience Center, although, I was disappointed when I learned that I had most of the gadgets in the room, I had hoped to see some new items.

While the meeting was informative, it was also redundant. My colleagues and I are very familiar with these offices and topics. All of us are seasoned participants in the FCC process.  What I look forward to is the work on the subcommittee’s, which has yet to take place.  As a Tribal representative to the CAC, I am honored to be a part of this committee and look forward to bringing tribal voices to this process.

Tribal Priority in Radio Station Licensing at the FCC

For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Traci Morris, Native Public Media (520) 891-1851

Adam McMullin, National Congress of American Indians (202) 466-7767

HISTORIC “TRIBAL PRIORITY” INITIATIVE IN licensing of new radio stations PLANNED BY THE FCC

Actions Supported by Tribal governments, Native Public Media and National Congress of American Indians

(Washington, DC; Flagstaff, AZ) – In an unprecedented effort to level the broadcasting playing field for Native Americans,  the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) has proposed the creation of a Tribal Priority that will promote the allocation and licensing of new radio stations to provide coverage for Tribal lands.  Native Public Media (“NPM”) and the National Congress of American Indians (“NCAI”) collaborated to support the proposal through Joint Comments and Reply Comments filed in the FCC’s recent regulatory rulemaking.  They hailed the FCC’s proposal as groundbreaking, long needed and overdue. Native Americans have been largely invisible in the broadcasting industry on all levels ranging from media access to control and ownership of broadcast facilities.

“This is the first time in history that American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages are being prioritized for broadcasting opportunities as sovereign entities.  Of the more than 13,000 radio facilities in this country, fewer than .3 percent belong to the 563 federally recognized Tribes.  Our civil society is made stronger when the voices of Native Americans are included in discourse on-air about the environment, education, politics, and health and the Tribal Priority will strengthen and expand our sorely needed communications network across Indian Country,” said Loris Taylor, Executive Director of Native Public Media.

In June of this year in Niagara Falls, NY, when NCAI hosted Tribal leadership at its Mid-Year conference,  delegates unanimously supported the Tribal Priority in the FCC’s radio licensing procedures via an official emergency resolution.  An NCAI resolution carries with it a national scope and great weight in federal Indian policy matters.  NCAI is the oldest and largest inter-Tribal government representative association in the nation, comprised of American Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages from every corner of Indian Country.

Speaking on behalf of Tribes, Joe Garcia, president of NCAI stated, “The importance of the new opportunity for Tribes to enter the often previously unattainable broadcasting field cannot be understated.  Radio stations that serve Indian Country are relatively few; however, those that do, provide critical connections for local communities in the form of information, dialogue and emergency services. This represents a new tool, in a very familiar technology, for Tribes in nurturing the vibrant cultural strength and health that binds their communities and peoples.”

Although the FCC adopted a Tribal Policy Statement in 2000 recognizing the unique relationship between the government and Tribes, and outlining goals for the provision of telecommunications services, the Tribal Priority is the Commission’s first concrete step to apply this policy to broadcasting services.

According to James Dunstan of Garvey Schubert Barer, attorney for NPM, “It is vital for people to understand that the Tribal Priority is not based on the racial makeup of Indian Tribes, but rather on the unique relationship between the Federal government and Tribes.  At its core, the Tribal Priority recognizes and empowers Tribal sovereignty — it is a political, not a racial classification designed to allow tribal governments to exercise self determination and remove barriers to entry.”

Geoffrey Blackwell Chair of the NCAI Telecom Subcommittee and former FCC Senior Intergovernmental Affairs Attorney states, “This new Tribal Priority in the FCC’s broadcasting licensing process is paramount.  Literally hundreds of Tribes face the economic and market challenges of deploying modern high speed internet while many in their communities suffer an enduring lack of basic telephone service.  The opportunity to provide their own radio broadcasting to their own communities will be a critical development that many in more urban areas take for granted.  Like so many modern technologies that bind our daily health and well being, radio broadcasting is sorely lacking in the rural and remote areas of Indian Country.”

“The most important aspect of the Tribal Priority is that it will improve the quality of life in Indian Country and NCAI compliments Native Public Media on their efforts to assist Tribal nations in deploying broadcasting services and new technologies,” concludes Garcia.

The only organization of its kind, Native Public Media is wholly dedicated to building and advancing Native access to, ownership of, and participation in media.  NPM’s mission is to promote healthy, engaged, independent Native communities by strengthening and expanding Native American media capacity and by empowering a strong, proud Native American voice.  Since its inception, NPM has focused on using media as a tool for advancing economic development, preserving language and culture, promoting health and education, and facilitating engagement by Native Americans with the issues that affect our Tribes and communities.

The NPM and NCAI team on this effort included Geoffrey Blackwell of Chickasaw Nation Industries, James Dunstan and John Crigler of Garvey, Schubert Barer, Megan Troy of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP and Carol Pierson of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

NPM’s Comments and Reply Comments to the FCC are available on Native Public Media’s website at www.nativepublicmedia.org.

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Meeting Indian Country’s Communications Needs Native Public Media and Colorado Law School Address Spectrum Issues in Indian Country

For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Loris Taylor (928) 853-2430

Brad Bernthal (303) 492-0610

Native Public Media and the University of Colorado School of Law’s Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic propose changes in federal spectrum policy to address the needs of Native Americans in a new Paper entitled Spectrum Access in Indian Country.

“Spectrum, like land and water, is a finite resource that is vital and critical to the nation-building efforts of Indian Tribes,” says Loris Taylor (Hopi), Executive Director of Native Public Media.  “Ubiquitous broadband access is essential to communications, health care, education, political engagement and economic stimulation on tribal homelands.  In an increasingly digitalized world, we cannot afford to live without it.”

While over two-thirds of U.S. households now subscribe to broadband, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated in 2006 that broadband penetration on Indian lands is less than 10%.  Native Public Media and the University of Colorado analyze spectrum policy tools which would help address this dramatic broadband gap.  Proposed policy recommendations include relaxed power limitations in unlicensed bands for rural areas as well as certain spectrum exemptions involving the 3650 band in Indian Country.

The research updates issues previously addressed in the Native Networking: Telecommunications and Information Technology in Indian Country, a report published by the Benton Foundation in 1999.

“We are proud to have supported this effort,” said Charles Benton, Chairman and CEO of the Benton Foundation. “Ten years ago we put together a resource for decision makers in tribal communities and policy makers on the state of telecommunications and information technologies in Indian Country. As policymakers plot a course for ensuring that all American have affordable access to high-speed Internet connections, this research should inform a National Broadband Plan that includes Indian Country.”

Colorado Law Associate Clinical Professor Brad Bernthal supervised the project.  “It is imperative to extend broadband access and improve broadband penetration in Indian Country.  The question is how to do it.  This research tackles a critical policy challenge and makes progress on how spectrum policy can be part of the solution to an important problem.”    Bernthal added, “Loris and the team of Native Public Media advisors are terrific.  We look forward to continuing the relationship in the future.”  The work for Native Public Media was spearheaded by University of Colorado graduate students Julie Penner, JD/MBA candidate 2010, and Bhavin Parekh, MS in Telecommunications candidate 2009.

The Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law and Policy Clinic is an academic program supervised by instructors from the University of Colorado School of Law. Student practitioners provide assistance “in the public interest” in order to conduct thoughtful policy analysis and provide unbiased assistance concerning technology issues to regulatory entities, courts, legislatures and standard setting bodies.

Native Public Media’s mission is to expand Native access, ownership and control of media. Enhanced communication capabilities in Indian Country are a critical part of supporting Native nations’ ability to secure their homelands, educate and inform their citizens, and maintain growing economies.  This research is part of a larger policy initiative spearheaded by Native Public Media concerning ways to improve broadband availability and penetration in Indian Country.

Native Public Media policy advisors to the project included Geoffrey Blackwell of Chickasaw Nations Industries, John Crigler of Garvey, Shubert and Barer, Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation and Carol Pierson of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.

The Paper “Spectrum Access in Indian Country” is available on Native Public Media’s website at www.nativepublicmedia.org.