Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations. Existing law establishes the Deaf and Disabled Telecommunications Program Administrative Committee Fund in the State Treasury and provides that moneys in the funds are held in trust and may be expended only to accomplish specified purposes. Existing law establishes the requirements for the deaf and disabled telecommunications program and requires the commission, until January 1, 2020, to establish a rate recovery mechanism through a surcharge not to exceed 12 of 1% uniformly applied to a subscriber's intrastate telephone service, other than one-way radio paging service and universal telephone service, to allow providers of equipment and service pursuant to the program to recover their costs as they are incurred. This bill would extend collection of the surcharge until January 1, 2025. Under existing law, the failure to comply with any part of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because this bill requires action by the commission to implement its requirements, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by extending the operation of a crime. Existing law, until January 1, 2021, requires the commission to report by March 1 of each year on the fiscal status of specified deaf and disabled telecommunications universal service programs. This bill would extend the deaf and disabled telecommunications universal service programs reporting requirements until January 1, 2026. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 2881 of the Public Utilities Code proposed by AB 1514 to be operative only if this bill and AB 1514 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.