[arrl-odv:31565] FCC Adopts $35. Application Fee

All, The FCC has adopted its decision in the licensing fees proceeding in record time. For the amateur and similar services, it lowered its proposed fee to $35.00, finding that this was reasonably based on cost. Attached is the portion of the decision that addresses amateur application fees in particular. (Please note that the paragraph and footnote numbers on the excerpt reset, the correction factor is noted in red on the first page; also, the entire 100+ page document was released by the FCC this morning without any page numbers…). The entire documents can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/y7mso3x4 73, Dave K3ZJ David R. Siddall Managing Partner DS Law, PLLC 1629 K St. NW, Ste 300 Washington, DC 20006 direct: +1 202 559 4690 Unauthorized Disclosure Prohibited. This e-mail is intended solely for the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, it is prohibited to disclose, copy, distribute, or use the contents of this email and its attachments. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all electronic and physical copies of the e-mail message and its attachments. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of attorney-client or any other privilege. Thank you.

It is unfortunate but $35 is better than $50. Note that they used one of the comments filed by a club (Sonoma County radio amateurs) to justify the fee. Interesting. That said, it would have the effect of curbing vanity hoarding. 73 Ria N2RJ On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 12:36 PM david davidsiddall-law.com < david@davidsiddall-law.com> wrote:
All,
The FCC has adopted its decision in the licensing fees proceeding in record time. For the amateur and similar services, it lowered its proposed fee to $35.00, finding that this was reasonably based on cost. Attached is the portion of the decision that addresses amateur application fees in particular. (Please note that the paragraph and footnote numbers on the excerpt reset, the correction factor is noted in red on the first page; also, the entire 100+ page document was released by the FCC this morning without any page numbers…).
The entire documents can be viewed here:
73, Dave K3ZJ
*David R. Siddall*
*Managing Partner*
*DS Law, PLLC*
*1629 K St. NW, Ste 300 <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1629+K+St.+NW,+Ste+300+%0D%0A+Washington,+DC+20006?entry=gmail&source=g>*
*Washington, DC 20006 <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1629+K+St.+NW,+Ste+300+%0D%0A+Washington,+DC+20006?entry=gmail&source=g>*
*direct: +1 202 559 4690*
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*Unauthorized Disclosure Prohibited.* This e-mail is intended solely for the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, it is prohibited to disclose, copy, distribute, or use the contents of this email and its attachments. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all electronic and physical copies of the e-mail message and its attachments. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of attorney-client or any other privilege. Thank you.
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Perhaps I missed it but do we have an effective date for this? Do we have any guidance on how this will be collected, as in are our VE teams going to have to collect and process? ?? Mark, HDX On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 9:36 AM david davidsiddall-law.com < david@davidsiddall-law.com> wrote:
All,
The FCC has adopted its decision in the licensing fees proceeding in record time. For the amateur and similar services, it lowered its proposed fee to $35.00, finding that this was reasonably based on cost. Attached is the portion of the decision that addresses amateur application fees in particular. (Please note that the paragraph and footnote numbers on the excerpt reset, the correction factor is noted in red on the first page; also, the entire 100+ page document was released by the FCC this morning without any page numbers…).
The entire documents can be viewed here:
73, Dave K3ZJ
*David R. Siddall*
*Managing Partner*
*DS Law, PLLC*
*1629 K St. NW, Ste 300*
*Washington, DC 20006*
*direct: +1 202 559 4690*
[image: Default Line]
*Unauthorized Disclosure Prohibited.* This e-mail is intended solely for the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, it is prohibited to disclose, copy, distribute, or use the contents of this email and its attachments. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all electronic and physical copies of the e-mail message and its attachments. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of attorney-client or any other privilege. Thank you.
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The effective date has not been established, but will be announced at least 30 days in advance. Most likely it will be more than the standard 30 days after publication of this Report and Order in the Federal Register, however, as the Commission did say: “As the Commission implements the changes to our application fee schedule, we anticipate that OMD, along with the Bureaus and Offices, may be required to update some of our licensing databases, payment instruction guides and/or adjust administrative internal procedures before we may begin accepting the new fees for certain categories of application fee payors. Accordingly, we direct the Office of Managing Director, in consultation with the relevant Offices and Bureaus, to cause a notice to be published in the Federal Register announcing when rule change(s) will become effective, once the relevant databases, guides, and internal procedures have been updated.” 73, Dave From: Mark J Tharp <kb7hdx@gmail.com> Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2020 at 1:31 PM To: "david@davidsiddall-law.com" <david@davidsiddall-law.com> Cc: arrl-odv <arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org> Subject: Re: [arrl-odv:31565] FCC Adopts $35. Application Fee Perhaps I missed it but do we have an effective date for this? Do we have any guidance on how this will be collected, as in are our VE teams going to have to collect and process? ?? Mark, HDX On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 9:36 AM david davidsiddall-law.com<http://davidsiddall-law.com> <david@davidsiddall-law.com<mailto:david@davidsiddall-law.com>> wrote: All, The FCC has adopted its decision in the licensing fees proceeding in record time. For the amateur and similar services, it lowered its proposed fee to $35.00, finding that this was reasonably based on cost. Attached is the portion of the decision that addresses amateur application fees in particular. (Please note that the paragraph and footnote numbers on the excerpt reset, the correction factor is noted in red on the first page; also, the entire 100+ page document was released by the FCC this morning without any page numbers…). The entire documents can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/y7mso3x4 73, Dave K3ZJ David R. Siddall Managing Partner DS Law, PLLC 1629 K St. NW, Ste 300 Washington, DC 20006 direct: +1 202 559 4690 Unauthorized Disclosure Prohibited. This e-mail is intended solely for the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, it is prohibited to disclose, copy, distribute, or use the contents of this email and its attachments. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all electronic and physical copies of the e-mail message and its attachments. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of attorney-client or any other privilege. Thank you. _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv

So far (mind you, it's only been a day) the reaction hasn't been negative at all. Those that have contacted me seem to think that $35 is reasonable compared to $50 and some even thanked the ARRL for vigorously fighting this. But we have to wait until this starts to spread around, and when the inevitable "teh ARRL is an ineffective waste of muh money" youtube videos and social media postings start to pop up. One thing that WILL come up is that RAY BAUM'S Act mandated the fees and we will be asked why we dropped the ball on getting exempted from application fees. I'm quite puzzled and frankly concerned that this "loophole" was used to get around the waiver of regulatory fees for amateur radio by imposing an application fee instead. Also, notice that in this R&O the FCC came straight out and said that amateur radio is not an emergency radio service. I think that this should send an important message to us that our value in emcomm is secondary to what is the core of the amateur radio service. We should be about the radio art, self-training and knowledge including training people to work in STEM careers. Emcomm will be there, but should not override and overwhelm everything we do. It's now in black and white - we are not an emergency radio service and we should not put all of our eggs in that basket. As David M and I had discussed, perhaps we could offer our premium tier members an incentive to soften the blow. Something like a fee credit toward VEC filing for renewal. Make hay, as you will. Ria N2RJ On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 12:36 PM david davidsiddall-law.com < david@davidsiddall-law.com> wrote:
All,
The FCC has adopted its decision in the licensing fees proceeding in record time. For the amateur and similar services, it lowered its proposed fee to $35.00, finding that this was reasonably based on cost. Attached is the portion of the decision that addresses amateur application fees in particular. (Please note that the paragraph and footnote numbers on the excerpt reset, the correction factor is noted in red on the first page; also, the entire 100+ page document was released by the FCC this morning without any page numbers…).
The entire documents can be viewed here:
73, Dave K3ZJ
*David R. Siddall*
*Managing Partner*
*DS Law, PLLC*
*1629 K St. NW, Ste 300*
*Washington, DC 20006*
*direct: +1 202 559 4690*
[image: Default Line]
*Unauthorized Disclosure Prohibited.* This e-mail is intended solely for the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, it is prohibited to disclose, copy, distribute, or use the contents of this email and its attachments. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all electronic and physical copies of the e-mail message and its attachments. Unintended transmission shall not constitute waiver of attorney-client or any other privilege. Thank you.
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participants (3)
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david davidsiddall-law.com
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Mark J Tharp
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rjairam@gmail.com