[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2489 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2489
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure just and reasonable
charges for confinement facility communications services, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 13, 2021
Mr. Rush introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure just and reasonable
charges for confinement facility communications services, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice
Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Prison, jails, and other confinement facilities in the
United States have unique telecommunications needs due to
safety and security concerns.
(2) Unjust and unreasonable charges for telephone and
advanced communications services in confinement facilities
negatively impact the safety and security of communities in the
United States by damaging relationships between incarcerated
persons and their support systems, thereby exacerbating
recidivism.
(3) All people in the United States, including anyone who
pays for confinement facility communications services, should
have access to communications services at charges that are just
and reasonable.
(4) Certain markets for confinement facility communications
services are distorted due to reverse competition, in which the
financial interests of the entity making the buying decision
(the confinement facility) are aligned with the seller (the
provider of confinement facility communications services) and
not the consumer (the incarcerated person or a member of his or
her family). This reverse competition occurs because site
commission payments to the confinement facility from the
provider of confinement facility communications services are
the chief criterion many facilities use to select their
provider of confinement facility communications services.
(5) Charges for confinement facility communications
services that have been shown to be unjust and unreasonable are
often a result of site commission payments that far exceed the
costs incurred by the confinement facility in accommodating
these services.
(6) Unjust and unreasonable charges have been assessed for
both audio and video services and for both intrastate and
interstate communications from confinement facilities.
(7) Mrs. Martha Wright-Reed led a campaign for just
communications rates for incarcerated people for over a decade.
(8) Mrs. Wright-Reed was the lead plaintiff in Wright v.
Corrections Corporation of America, CA No. 00-293 (GK) (D.D.C.
2001).
(9) That case ultimately led to the Wright Petition at the
Federal Communications Commission, CC Docket No. 96-128
(November 3, 2003).
(10) As a grandmother, Mrs. Wright-Reed was forced to
choose between purchasing medication and communicating with her
incarcerated grandson.
(11) Mrs. Wright-Reed passed away on January 18, 2015,
before fully realizing her dream of just communications rates
for all people.
SEC. 3. REQUIREMENTS FOR CONFINEMENT FACILITY COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES.
(a) In General.--Section 276 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 276) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(e) Additional Requirements for Confinement Facility
Communications Services.--
``(1) Authority.--
``(A) In general.--All charges, practices,
classifications, and regulations for and in connection
with confinement facility communications services shall
be just and reasonable, and any such charge, practice,
classification, or regulation that is unjust or
unreasonable is declared to be unlawful.
``(B) Rulemaking required.--Not later than 18
months after the date of the enactment of this
subsection, the Commission shall issue rules to adopt,
for the provision of confinement facility
communications services, rates and ancillary service
charges that are just and reasonable, which shall be
the maximum such rates and charges that a provider of
confinement facility communications services may charge
for such services. In determining rates and charges
that are just and reasonable, the Commission shall
adopt such rates and charges based on the average
industry costs of providing such services using data
collected from providers of confinement facility
communications services.
``(C) Biennial review.--Not less frequently than
every 2 years following the issuance of rules under
subparagraph (B), the Commission shall--
``(i) determine whether the rates and
ancillary service charges authorized by the
rules issued under such subparagraph remain
just and reasonable; and
``(ii) if the Commission determines under
clause (i) that any such rate or charge does
not remain just and reasonable, revise such
rules so that such rate or charge is just and
reasonable.
``(2) Interim rate caps.--Until the Commission issues the
rules required by paragraph (1)(B), a provider of confinement
facility communications services may not charge a rate for any
voice service communication using confinement facility
communications services that exceeds the following:
``(A) For debit calling or prepaid calling, $0.04
per minute.
``(B) For collect calling, $0.05 per minute.
``(3) Assessment on per-minute basis.--Except as provided
in paragraph (4), a provider of confinement facility
communications services--
``(A) shall assess all charges for a communication
using such services on a per-minute basis for the
actual duration of the communication, measured from
communication acceptance to termination, rounded up to
the next full minute, except in the case of charges for
services that the confinement facility offers free of
charge or for amounts below the amounts permitted under
this subsection; and
``(B) may not charge a per-communication or per-
connection charge for a communication using such
services.
``(4) Ancillary service charges.--
``(A) General prohibition.--A provider of
confinement facility communications services may not
charge an ancillary service charge other than--
``(i) if the Commission has not yet issued
the rules required by paragraph (1)(B), a
charge listed in subparagraph (B) of this
paragraph; or
``(ii) a charge authorized by the rules
adopted by the Commission under paragraph (1).
``(B) Permitted charges and rates.--If the
Commission has not yet issued the rules required by
paragraph (1)(B), a provider of confinement facility
communications services may not charge a rate for an
ancillary service charge in excess of the following:
``(i) In the case of an automated payment
fee, 2.9 percent of the total charge on which
the fee is assessed.
``(ii) In the case of a fee for single-call
and related services, the exact transaction fee
charged by the third-party provider, with no
markup.
``(iii) In the case of a live agent fee,
$5.95 per use.
``(iv) In the case of a paper bill or
statement fee, $2 per use.
``(v) In the case of a third-party
financial transaction fee, the exact fee, with
no markup, charged by the third party for the
transaction.
``(5) Prohibition on site commissions.--A provider of
confinement facility communications services may not assess a
site commission.
``(6) Relationship to state law.--A State or political
subdivision of a State may not enforce any law, rule,
regulation, standard, or other provision having the force or
effect of law relating to confinement facility communications
services that allows for higher rates or other charges to be
assessed for such services than is permitted under any Federal
law or regulation relating to confinement facility
communications services.
``(7) Definitions.--In this subsection:
``(A) Ancillary service charge.--The term
`ancillary service charge' means any charge a consumer
may be assessed for the setting up or use of a
confinement facility communications service that is not
included in the per-minute charges assessed for
individual communications.
``(B) Automated payment fee.--The term `automated
payment fee' means a credit card payment, debit card
payment, or bill processing fee, including a fee for a
payment made by means of interactive voice response,
the internet, or a kiosk.
``(C) Collect calling.--The term `collect calling'
means an arrangement whereby a credit-qualified party
agrees to pay for charges associated with a
communication made to such party using confinement
facility communications services and originating from
within a confinement facility.
``(D) Confinement facility.--The term `confinement
facility'--
``(i) means a jail or a prison; and
``(ii) includes any juvenile, detention,
work release, or mental health facility that is
used primarily to hold individuals who are--
``(I) awaiting adjudication of
criminal charges or an immigration
matter; or
``(II) serving a sentence for a
criminal conviction.
``(E) Confinement facility communications
service.--The term `confinement facility communications
service' means a service that allows incarcerated
persons to make electronic communications (whether
intrastate, interstate, or international and whether
made using video, audio, or any other communicative
method, including advanced communications services) to
individuals outside the confinement facility, or to
individuals inside the confinement facility, where the
incarcerated person is being held, regardless of the
technology used to deliver the service.
``(F) Consumer.--The term `consumer' means the
party paying a provider of confinement facility
communications services.
``(G) Debit calling.--The term `debit calling'
means a presubscription or comparable service which
allows an incarcerated person, or someone acting on an
incarcerated person's behalf, to fund an account set up
through a provider that can be used to pay for
confinement facility communications services originated
by the incarcerated person.
``(H) Fee for single-call and related services.--
The term `fee for single-call and related services'
means a billing arrangement whereby communications made
by an incarcerated person using collect calling are
billed through a third party on a per-communication
basis, where the recipient does not have an account
with the provider of confinement facility
communications services.
``(I) Incarcerated person.--The term `incarcerated
person' means a person detained at a confinement
facility, regardless of the duration of the detention.
``(J) Jail.--The term `jail'--
``(i) means a facility of a law enforcement
agency of the Federal Government or of a State
or political subdivision of a State that is
used primarily to hold individuals who are--
``(I) awaiting adjudication of
criminal charges;
``(II) post-conviction and
committed to confinement for sentences
of one year or less; or
``(III) post-conviction and
awaiting transfer to another facility;
and
``(ii) includes--
``(I) city, county, or regional
facilities that have contracted with a
private company to manage day-to-day
operations;
``(II) privately-owned and operated
facilities primarily engaged in housing
city, county, or regional incarcerated
persons; and
``(III) facilities used to detain
individuals pursuant to a contract with
U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
``(K) Live agent fee.--The term `live agent fee'
means a fee associated with the optional use of a live
operator to complete a confinement facility
communications service transaction.
``(L) Paper bill or statement fee.--The term `paper
bill or statement fee' means a fee associated with
providing a consumer an optional paper billing
statement.
``(M) Per-communication or per-connection charge.--
The term `per-communication or per-connection charge'
means a one-time fee charged to a consumer at the
initiation of a communication.
``(N) Prepaid calling.--The term `prepaid calling'
means a calling arrangement that allows a consumer to
pay in advance for a specified amount of confinement
facility communications services.
``(O) Prison.--The term `prison'--
``(i) means a facility operated by a State
or Federal agency that is used primarily to
confine individuals convicted of felonies and
sentenced to terms in excess of one year; and
``(ii) includes--
``(I) public and private facilities
that provide outsource housing to State
or Federal agencies such as State
Departments of Correction and the
Federal Bureau of Prisons; and
``(II) facilities that would
otherwise be jails but in which the
majority of incarcerated persons are
post-conviction or are committed to
confinement for sentences of longer
than one year.
``(P) Provider of confinement facility
communications services.--The term `provider of
confinement facility communications services' means any
communications service provider that provides
confinement facility communications services,
regardless of the technology used.
``(Q) Site commission.--The term `site commission'
means any monetary payment, in-kind payment, gift,
exchange of services or goods, fee, technology
allowance, or product that a provider of confinement
facility communications services or an affiliate of a
provider of confinement facility communications
services may pay, give, donate, or otherwise provide
to--
``(i) an entity that operates a confinement
facility;
``(ii) an entity with which the provider of
confinement facility communications services
enters into an agreement to provide confinement
facility communications services;
``(iii) a governmental agency that oversees
a confinement facility;
``(iv) the State or political subdivision
of a State where a confinement facility is
located; or
``(v) an agent or other representative of
an entity described in any of clauses (i)
through (iv).
``(R) Third-party financial transaction fee.--The
term `third-party financial transaction fee' means the
exact fee, with no markup, that a provider of
confinement facility communications services is charged
by a third party to transfer money or process a
financial transaction to facilitate the ability of a
consumer to make an account payment via a third party.
``(S) Voice service.--The term `voice service'--
``(i) means any service that is
interconnected with the public switched
telephone network and that furnishes voice
communications to an end user using resources
from the North American Numbering Plan or any
successor to the North American Numbering Plan
adopted by the Commission under section
251(e)(1); and
``(ii) includes--
``(I) transmissions from a
telephone facsimile machine, computer,
or other device to a telephone
facsimile machine; and
``(II) without limitation, any
service that enables real-time, two-way
voice communications, including any
service that requires internet
protocol-compatible customer premises
equipment (commonly known as `CPE') and
permits out-bound calling, whether or
not the service is one-way or two-way
voice over internet protocol.''.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 276(d) of the Communications Act
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 276(d)) is amended by striking ``inmate telephone
service in correctional institutions'' and inserting ``confinement
facility communications services (as defined in subsection (e)(7))''.
(c) Existing Contracts.--
(1) In general.--In the case of a contract that was entered
into and under which a provider of confinement facility
communications services was providing such services at a
confinement facility on or before the date of the enactment of
this Act--
(A) paragraphs (1) through (5) of subsection (e) of
section 276 of the Communications Act of 1934, as added
by subsection (a) of this section, shall apply to the
provision of confinement facility communications
services by such provider at such facility beginning on
the earlier of--
(i) the date that is 60 days after such
date of enactment; or
(ii) the date of the termination of the
contract; and
(B) the terms of such contract may not be extended
after such date of enactment, whether by exercise of an
option or otherwise.
(2) Definitions.--In this subsection, the terms
``confinement facility'', ``confinement facility communications
service'', and ``provider of confinement facility
communications services'' have the meanings given such terms in
paragraph (7) of subsection (e) of section 276 of the
Communications Act of 1934, as added by subsection (a) of this
section.
SEC. 4. AUTHORITY.
Section 2(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 152(b))
is amended by inserting ``section 276,'' after ``227, inclusive,''.
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