The National Apartment Association (NAA) has seen recent success in its federal advocacy to discourage the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from pursuing its proposed rulemaking plan to ban bulk billing arrangements. Direct signals from the Commission lean against further regulation of partnership agreements between housing providers and internet service providers (ISPs) at this time. This is a significant shift in both tone and urgency for Commission rulemaking action, driven by President Biden. NAA and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) remain committed to the industry’s advocacy efforts on this matter and will continue to monitor the FCC for future action.
NAA and NMHC engaged in an aggressive, two-pronged approach to our legislative and regulatory advocacy, targeting key congressional decisionmakers while simultaneously amplifying rental housing perspectives directly with FCC staff and commissioners. Most recently, NAA’s President and CEO Bob Pinnegar and NMHC’s President Sharon Wilson Geno led a series of productive meetings with FCC leadership. As NAA and NMHC’s dual efforts continued to unfold, a variety of interested stakeholders including telecommunications providers, national nonprofits focusing on education and digital equity to name a few, were also communicating the impact to average Americans that the proposal would have despite the FCC’s suggestions of pro-competition and pro-consumer effects.
NAA and NMHC argued that the economics of telecommunications infrastructure development relies heavily on bulk billing arrangements to support critical infrastructure investments. Investments that offer access to underserved populations living in urban as well as rural settings close the digital divide. Additionally, the bulk deployment model promotes price competition by reducing entry barriers allowing service providers to compete with larger telecommunications providers. Lastly, bulk billing arrangements are the only scaled market solution in place following the sunsetting of the Affordable Connectivity Program. Restriction of these arrangements produces the exact opposite outcome that the FCC argues it intends.
While the recent signals by Commission decisionmakers are welcome, NAA remains committed to our federal advocacy on telecommunications issues impacting the rental housing industry, including promoting long-term solutions that preserve these operationally important agreements between housing providers and ISPs.
To learn more, please contact Jodie Anderson, Federal Legislative Director, or Joe Riter, NAA’s Senior Manager, Public Policy.