[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 103 (Tuesday, May 30, 2023)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 34453-34454]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-11417]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 1

[PS Docket No. 22-217; DA 23-392; FR ID 143022]


Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, Mandatory 
Electronic Filing of System Security and Integrity Policies and 
Procedures Documents

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (the 
FCC or Commission), amends a rule to announce mandatory use of the 
CALEA Electronic Filing System (CEFS), which is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/cefs for certain required filings for telecommunications 
providers pursuant to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement 
Act (CALEA).

DATES: Effective June 29, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rosemary Cabral, Attorney Advisor, 
Policy and Licensing Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security 
Bureau, at (202) 418-0662 or [email protected]; or Chris Fedeli, 
Attorney Advisor, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau at 202-
418-1514 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the Commission's Order 
in PS Docket No. 22-217, DA 23-392, adopted and released on May 15, 
2023. The full text of this document is available at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-23-392A1.pdf.

Congressional Review Act

    The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office 
of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB), concurs, that this rule is non-major under the 
Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 804(2). The Commission will send a 
copy of this Order to Congress and the Government Accountability Office 
pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A).

Final Regulatory Flexibility Certification

    Under Section 604(a) of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, the Bureau 
is not required to prepare a final regulatory flexibility analysis 
because the Order does not require notice-and-comment rulemaking. 
Although not required in this particular situation, we are optionally 
including a Final Regulatory Flexibility Certification in this order 
since an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Certification was included in 
the CEFS Announcement Public Notice.

Paperwork Reduction Act

    This document does not adopt or propose new or substantively 
modified information collection(s) subject to the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. In addition, therefore, it does 
not contain any new or modified information collection burden for small 
business concerns with fewer than 25 employees, pursuant to the Small 
Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 
U.S.C. 3506(c)(4). This document may contain non-substantive 
modifications to an approved information collection. Any such 
modifications will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget 
for review pursuant to OMB's non-substantive modification process.

Synopsis

    Section 105 of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement 
Act, 47 U.S.C. 1004, and section 229(b) of the Communications Act, 47 
U.S.C. 229(b), require all covered entities to file System Security and 
Integrity (SSI) Plans with the Federal Communications Commission 
(Commission). The Commission first specified the requirements for 
telecommunications carriers' SSI Plans in 1999. Pursuant to Sec.  
1.20005 of the Commission's rules, all providers subject to CALEA must 
file their SSI Plans prior to commencing service and must re-file a 
complete updated SSI Plan within 90 days following any changes to 
information contained in a previously-filed SSI Plan. All SSI Plans 
must contain all information listed under Sec. Sec.  1.20003 and 
1.20004 of the Commission's rules.
    On June 1, 2022, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau 
(Bureau) announced the launch of CEFS, which allows covered entities to 
file System Security and Integrity Policies and Procedures Documents 
(SSI Plans) confidentially and securely online, eliminating the need 
for paper filing. Filers that seek to file confidentially or to 
preserve the confidentiality of a piece of information in a filing may 
still request such treatment under Sec.  0.459 of the Commission's 
rules. Also, CEFS operates on a platform that links to the Commission 
Registration System (CORES) to reduce the need for filers to re-enter 
basic information that CORES users have already provided to the 
Commission. The new system will allow users to file SSI Plans 
electronically and, once they have electronically filed a plan in CEFS, 
to log back in to CEFS and retrieve and view that filing. CEFS 
encourages timely filings of new SSI Plans and updated SSI Plans and 
reduces the risk of filing errors that require re-submission.
    In the CEFS Announcement Public Notice, the Bureau stated that 
electronic filing of SSI Plans in CEFS would initially be voluntary and 
proposed to make electronic filing mandatory six months later. The six-
month transition period allowed regulated entities time to familiarize 
themselves with CEFS and CORES, if necessary, and obtain FCC Usernames 
and FCC Registration Numbers (FRNs) needed to file in CEFS. The 
transition period also allowed time for internal consideration of any 
further modifications to the new system. In

[[Page 34454]]

response to the CEFS Announcement Public Notice, we received no 
comments regarding the proposal to mandate electronic filing of SSI 
Plans or the timing of the proposed requirement. We received one 
comment from Subsentio, LLC (Subsentio), which serves as a Trusted 
Third Party (TTP) for entities subject to CALEA, requesting that CEFS 
implementation include the ability for TTPs to continue to file SSI 
Plans on behalf of multiple clients.
    On December 12, 2022, the Bureau announced the availability of CEFS 
for voluntary filing of SSI Plans. During this time, the Bureau began 
accepting SSI Plans that were filed in CEFS voluntarily, and 
implementing enhancements to ensure that CEFS is operating effectively 
and efficiently when mandatory electronic filing takes effect.
    Over the past decades, the Commission has made significant progress 
to upgrade and modernize its filing procedures. Given the well-
established benefits of electronic filing, in this Order, we amend our 
rules to require the electronic filing of SSI Plans through the new 
database, CEFS. Specifically, the order amends Sec.  1.20005 to 
announce mandatory use of the CALEA Electronic Filing System (CEFS) to 
file SSI Plans electronically. The new CEFS database will reduce the 
overall burden associated with these filings as well as increase the 
efficiency of our administrative processes significantly.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 1

    Communications common carriers, Reporting and recordkeeping 
requirements, Telecommunications.

Federal Communications Commission.
Lauren Kravetz,
Chief of Staff, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.

Final Rules

    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal 
Communications Commission amends 47 CFR part 1 as follows:

PART 1--PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE

0
1. The authority citation for part 1 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 47 U.S.C. chs. 2, 5, 9, 13; 28 U.S.C. 2461 note, 
unless otherwise noted.


0
2. Amend Sec.  1.20005 by revising paragraph (a) and adding paragraph 
(c) to read as follows:


Sec.  1.20005  Submission of policies and procedures and Commission 
review.

    (a) Each telecommunications carrier shall file with the Commission 
the policies and procedures it uses to comply with the requirements of 
this subpart. These policies and procedures shall be filed before 
commencing service and, thereafter, within 90 days of a carrier's 
merger or divestiture or a carrier's amendment of its existing policies 
and procedures.
* * * * *
    (c) As of June 29, 2023, any filings required by paragraph (a) of 
this section shall be submitted electronically through the Commission's 
CALEA Electronic Filing System (CEFS).

[FR Doc. 2023-11417 Filed 5-26-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P