FCC Record, Volume 32, No. 6, Pages 4582 to 5468, May 30 - June 30, 2017 Page: 5,442

                                
Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of                               )
)
Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband  )  WC Docket No. 16-106
and Other Telecommunications Services          )
)
Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of  )   CC Docket No. 96-115
1996: Telecommunications Carriers' Use of     )
Customer Proprietary Network Information and   )
Other Customer Information                     )
ORDER
Adopted: June 26, 2017                                                 Released: June 29, 2017
By the Commission: Chairman Pai issuing a statement; Commissioner Clyburn concurring in part,
dissenting in part, and issuing a statement.
1.     In this Order, we provide guidance that the Commission's rules implementing Section
222 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the Act), for telecommunications carriers that were
in existence prior to the 2016 Privacy Order' are again in effect pursuant to the resolution of disapproval
of that Order under the Congressional Review Act.2 We also dismiss as moot 11 petitions for
reconsideration of the Commission's 2016 Privacy Order.
2.     On October 27, 2016, the Commission adopted the 2016 Privacy Order, which adopted
rules to implement Section 222 of the Act as applied to broadband Internet service providers (ISPs), and
revised the Commission's then-existing rules under Section 222 to harmonize the requirements for all
telecommunications carriers.3 The Commission published a summary of the 2016 Privacy Order in the
Federal Register on December 2, 2016, and thereafter submitted it to Congress pursuant to the
Congressional Review Act. On April 3, 2017, the President signed Pub. Law 115-22,4 which provides
that the rule submitted by the Commission "shall have no force or effect." Because Pub. Law 115-22 was
adopted pursuant to the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C.   801(f) provides that the 2016 Privacy
Order "shall be treated as though [it] had never taken effect."5 As a result, the Commission rules
implementing Section 222 at Part 64, Subpart U that were in effect prior to their amendment by the 2016
Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services, WC Docket No. 16-
106, Report and Order, 31 FCC Rcd 13911 (2016) (2016 Privacy Order).
2 5 U.S.C.   801(a)(1)(A).
3 See generally 2016 Privacy Order, 31 FCC Rcd 13911.
4 Joint Resolution, Pub. L. No. 155-22 (2017) ("Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States ofAmerica in Congress assembled, That Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Federal
Communications Commission relating to 'Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other
Telecommunications Services' (81 Fed. Reg. 87274 (December 2, 2016)), and such rule shall have no force or
effect.").
5 5 U.S.C.   801(f) ("Any rule that takes effect and later is made of no force or effect by enactment of a joint
resolution under section 802 shall be treated as though such rule had never taken effect."); id.   801(b)(1) ("A rule
shall not take effect (or continue), if the Congress enacts a joint resolution of disapproval ... of the rule.").

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Federal Communications Commission

FCC 17-82