FCC wants to know where did American Samoa’s 911 fees go?

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA —  Because American Samoa didn’t respond to federal questions on the use of 911 fees collected from consumers, the US Federal Communications Commission has requested Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga to provide an explanation.

The FCC’s letter, which the agency made public yesterday on its website, notes that  American Samoa’s 2018 filing report indicates that the territory does not collect the fee from consumers.

The FCC is charged with examining, on an annual basis, whether states and territories are using 911 fees collected from consumers solely for their intended purposes and not diverted for other purposes. To comply with this federal mandate, the FCC  seeks specific information each year from states and territories to compile its annual report to Congress.

For the year 2018, the FCC sent a report to Congress last December, for filing year 2019. Commissioner Michael O’Rielly of the FCC said at the time in a statement that American Samoa “didn’t bother to respond at all...failed to provide any response” to FCC information request and it was the only jurisdiction that didn’t reply.

In his Feb. 3rd letter,  O’Rielly reminded the governor of the FCC’s mandate on reporting to Congress the use of 911 fees collected from consumers. “Inexplicably, your administration failed to respond to our last request for such information and was the only state or territory not to do so for the last reporting cycle,” O’Rielly wrote, adding that it’s his understanding that FCC staff made multiple inquiries with the Lolo Administration to obtain the requisite information prior to filing the final report. He said it’s “disappointing that we did not receive any response to our 2019 request for information” given the fact that American Samoa had responded to requests in the preceding four years.

O’Rielly tells Lolo that American Samoa’s “2018 filing indicated that your jurisdiction does not collect 9-1-1 fees from consumers, meaning that unless this has changed, filing this information with the Commission should not be a difficult or time-consuming process.”

To rectify the situation, O’Rielly requested the governor to provide information on three questions:
• why American Samoa failed to respond to FCC request for information regarding the collection and allocation of 911 fees for 2018;
• steps the territory has taken, if any, to file and provide the FCC with the requested information;
• does American Samoa collect 9-1-1 fees and divert these funds to other functions? If so, how much was diverted in 2018, and for what functions?

“Congress has determined that this information is of critical importance to ensuring a healthy 9-1-1 system,” O’Rielly tells Lolo, adding that the FCC “can only analyze and provide such information if you stand as a willing partner with us in this endeavor.”

He concluded, “I look forward to working with you on this critical issue.”

Copies of the letter were sent to Congresswoman Aumua Amata; US Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt; and Interior Assistant Secretary for International and Insular Affairs, Douglas W. Domenech.