Cost Recovery
Section 109 of CALEA provides that
the Attorney General may, subject
to the availability of appropriations, agree to pay
telecommunications carriers for all reasonable costs directly
associated with the modifications performed by carriers in
connection with equipment, facilities, and services installed
or deployed on or before January 1, 1995.
The FBI published in the Federal Register on March 20, 1997, the
Cost Recovery Regulations, 28 C.F.R. pt. 100 (1997),
providing for the payment of costs directly associated with CALEA
assistance capability and capacity requirements. The Cost
Recovery Regulations became effective on April 21, 1997.
On April 28, 1998, the FBI published a Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking, 63 Fed. Reg. 23,231 (1998)
proposing to amend the Cost Recovery
Regulations by adding a new section which defines the term
"Significant Upgrade or Major Modification."
The FBI published on December 28, 1999 and again on March 14, 2000, a
Notice of Information collection under review for a
reinstatement and an extension of time for the Cost
Recovery Regulations. The reinstatement and the extension
can be found at 64 Fed. Reg.
72689 (1999) and 65 Fed. Reg.
13792 (2000), respectively.
On
October 5, 2001, a Supplemental
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 66 Fed. Reg. 50,931 (2001)
was published by the FBI. The notice addresses the
implementation of CALEA Section 109 regarding the definitions
of "replaced" and "significantly upgraded or
otherwise undergoes major modification."
The FBI published on July 2, 2003, an information collection
request 68 Fed. Reg. 39597 (2003)
to the Office of Management and Budget for review and approval
of the Cost Recovery Regulations in accordance with the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The proposed information
collection was published to obtain comments from the public
and affected agencies. Then again, on October 16, 2003, the
FBI published 68 Fed.
Reg. 59638 (2003), a 30-day notice of information
collection reply comment period.
On March 2, 2005, the FCC released Public
Notice DA 05-535 Federal-State Joint Board On
Jurisdictional Separations Seeks Comment On CALEA Issues. In
the public notice the Commission has asked that the public
refresh the record on the CALEA issues identified in the
Separations NPRM,
including the questions of whether costs should be
allocated in a new CALEA-specific category or in
previously-existing categories, whether revenues received from
the Attorney General should be allocated in a particular
manner (and if so, how), and whether CALEA-related revenues
could be allocated to the jurisdictions based on relative-use
factors derived from the relative electronic surveillance
requirements of federal, state, and local law enforcement
agencies (LEAs). The Commission has requested that the
Joint Board issue its recommended decision no later than one
year from the release of the Notice, that is, by August 9, 2005.
Telecommunications Carrier Compliance Fund
To facilitate CALEA's implementation, Congress authorized $500
million to be appropriated to reimburse the telecommunications
industry for certain eligible costs associated with
modifications to their networks. On September 30, 1996, the
Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997, Pub. L. No.
104-208, 110 Stat. 3009 (1996), amended CALEA by adding Title
IV which created the Department of Justice Telecommunications
Carrier Compliance Fund (TCCF), 47 U.S.C. 1021, and
appropriated $60 million in initial funding. This
implementation fund is available without fiscal year
limitation to the Attorney General for making payments to
telecommunications carriers, equipment manufacturers, and
providers of telecommunications support services pursuant to
Section 109 of CALEA. Additionally, the Act authorized
agencies with law enforcement and intelligence
responsibilities to transfer unobligated balances into the
TCCF, subject to applicable Congressional reprogramming requirements.
The FBI has implemented a reimbursement strategy that allows
telecommunications carriers to receive CALEA software at no
charge for certain high priority switching platforms. Under
nationwide right-to-use (RTU) license agreements, the
Government pays for the development of CALEA software
solutions for high priority switching platforms. This allows
carriers to receive CALEA software at a nominal charge for
equipment, facilities, or services installed or deployed now
and in the future.
To date, the FBI has signed agreements with AG Communications Systems,
Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel Networks, and Siemens AG
for technical solutions developed to meet the assistance
capability requirements of CALEA. When considered in total,
these agreements result in software solutions being available
for the vast majority of law enforcement's priority,
pre-January 1, 1995 switches.
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The following table illustrates the dollar amounts and timing of
Congressional appropriations and fund transfers from
authorized agencies with law enforcement and intelligence
responsibilities.
|
|
Telecommunications Carrier Compliance Fund Activity |
| ACTIVITY |
AMOUNT |
| FY 1997 Direct Appropriation |
$60,000,000 |
| FY 1997 Department of Justice Working Capital Fund |
$40,000,000 |
| FY 1997 United States Customs Service Transfer |
$1,580,270 |
| FY 1997 United States Postal Inspection Service Transfer |
$1,000,000 |
| FY 2000 Direct Appropriation |
$15,000,000 |
| FY 2000 Supplemental Appropriation |
$181,000,000 |
| FY 2001 Direct Appropriation |
$200,976,876 |
| TOTAL DEPOSITS |
$499,557,146 |
|
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