BILL ANALYSIS 1
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SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
AB 219 - Utilities and Commerce Committee Hearing Date:
April 24, 2001 A
As Proposed To Be Amended FISCAL/URGENCY
B
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1
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DESCRIPTION
Current law establishes several programs to assist the deaf and
hearing impaired use the telephone. These programs include
providing telecommunications devices, funding a dual-party relay
service, and equipping telephones in public places with proper
equipment. Funding for these programs, which is limited to 0.5%
of all in-state telephone bills, sunseted on January 1, 2001.
This bill extends that sunset for five years.
The author will also offer amendments in committee which permit
these programs to be funded from other existing
telecommunications programs on a temporary basis.
BACKGROUND
The roots of the programs to help the deaf and hearing impaired
use the telephone go back to 1979 when legislation required the
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to implement a
program to distribute specialized telecommunications equipment
to deaf individuals. In 1983, legislation required a statewide
dual-party relay service which permits deaf and hearing impaired
individuals to communicate with others via an operator,
predating the federal requirement for such a program by seven
years. In 1999, the programs in this bill allowed over 400,000
Californians to use specialized telephone devices and carried
over seven million telephone calls through the dual-party relay
service at a cost of $43 million.
AB 2757 (Committee on Utilities & Commerce), which would have
extended the surcharge much as this bill proposes to do, was
passed by the Senate last year 32-0 and by the Assembly 73-3.
However, the bill was vetoed by the Governor due to provisions
unrelated to the surcharge extension.
Though the authority to impose the surcharge has sunset, the
requirements of the program have not. To date, the expenses of
the program have been paid from program reserve funds, which are
expected to be exhausted by July 2001.
Should the authority to impose the surcharge be restored, the
surcharge can only apply prospectively. Given the lag in
billing and the lag between rendering the bill and receiving
cash, even if this bill is enacted at the end of May, cash
probably won't flow into the fund until August. It's for that
reason that the author is proposing to amend the bill to permit
the program to borrow funds to continue its mission
uninterrupted.
COMMENTS
Author's Amendments . The author will propose the following
amendments in committee which permit this fund to borrow funds
from another, larger telecommunications fund administered by the
CPUC:
Notwithstanding subdivision (c) of Section 270 and
subdivision (c) of Section 276, the commission may
authorize the trustor of the California High-Cost
Fund-B Trust to lend to the Deaf Equipment Acquisition
Fund Trust moneys sufficient to cover the costs of the
program as specified in subdivision (a) of Section
278, including all costs specified in subdivision (c)
of Section 278. The amount of any loan(s) authorized
shall not exceed the cost of operating the program for
six months. The authorized loan(s) to the DEAF Trust
shall be repaid with interest, as determined by the
commission, to the California High-Cost Fund-B Trust
from moneys received from the surcharge authorized in
subsection (d) of this section. The commission shall
also establish other terms of the loan. The trustor's
authorization to lend to the DEAF Trust shall be in
effect until January 1, 2002.
These amendments limit the borrowing to six months of operating
costs and require the funds to be repaid with interest. The
authority for borrowing will terminate at the end of this year.
ASSEMBLY VOTES
Assembly Floor (73-1)
Assembly Appropriations Committee (16-0)
Assembly Utilities & Commerce Committee (15-0)
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Author
Support:
California Self Help for Hard of Hearing People
California Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Oppose:
None on file
Randy Chinn
AB 219 Analysis
Hearing Date: April 24, 2001