Chapter
504
2004 -- H 8527 AS AMENDED
Enacted 07/07/04
A N A C T
RELATING TO PUBLIC UTILITIES
AND CARRIERS -- ADAPTIVE TELEPHONE
EQUIPMENT LOAN PROGRAM
COMMITTEE
Introduced By:
Representatives Lima, Naughton, Cerra, Handy, and Benson
Date
Introduced: May 13, 2004
It is enacted by the General
Assembly as follows:
SECTION
1. Sections 39-23-1 and 39-23-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 39-23
entitled "Adaptive Telephone
Equipment Loan Program Committee" are hereby amended to read
as follows:
39-23-1.
Committee -- Composition. -- There is hereby created within the
department of
human services a permanent committee to be known as the adaptive
telephone equipment loan
program committee. This committee
shall advise on the program and shall consist of fifteen (15)
members, one of whom shall be from
the house of representatives, to be appointed by the
speaker; one of whom shall be from
the senate to be appointed by the president of the senate; one
of whom shall be a representative
of the telephone company, to be appointed by its chief
executive officer; one of whom
shall be a representative of the public utilities commission, to be
appointed by the chairperson of the
public utilities commission; and eleven (11) of whom shall be
appointed by the governor as
follows: seven (7) consumers, including at least one from each of
the following communities: the hard
of hearing or deaf community, the speech impaired
community, and the neuromuscular
impaired community; one professional member who shall be
an audiologist, physician or speech
pathologist and three (3) members of the general public.
39-23-2.
Duties. -- The duties of the committee shall include but not be limited
to
advising on the implementation of
the telecommunications device for the impaired distribution
program authorized by section 39-2-5
39-1-42(a)(ii), and providing periodic review of activities,
policies, regulations, procedures,
programs, and operation of the program.
SECTION
2. Section 39-23-5 of the General Laws in Chapter 39-23 entitled "Adaptive
Telephone Equipment Loan Program
Committee" is hereby repealed.
39-23-5.
Confidentiality required. -- Each person, firm or corporation providing
or
operating any telecommunication
device for the hearing impaired -- telephone relay program in
accordance with the provisions
of section 39-2-5, shall insure the confidentiality of any
conversation relayed between any
hearing impaired user and any other person.
SECTION
3. Section 39-1-42 of the General Laws in Chapter 39-1 entitled "Public
Utilities Commission" is
hereby amended to read as follows:
39-1-42.
Dual party telephone relay service for deaf, hearing impaired and speech
impaired persons. – Access to telephone information services for persons
with disabilities. -
- (a) The public utilities commission shall establish,
administer and promote an information
accessibility service that
includes:
(i)
a statewide dual party telephone relay service and, through the
competitive bidding
process, contract for the
administration and operation of such a relay system for utilization of the
telecommunications network by deaf,
hard of hearing impaired and speech impaired persons.;
(ii)
the adaptive telephone equipment loan program capable of servicing the needs of
persons who are deaf, hard of
hearing, severely speech impaired, or those with neuromuscular
impairments for use with a
single party telephone line, to any subscriber who is certified as deaf,
hard of hearing, severely speech
impaired, or with neuromuscular impairments by a licensed
physician, audiologist, speech
pathologist, or a qualified state agency, pursuant to chapter 39-23;
and
(iii)
a telephone access to the text of newspaper programs to residents who are
blind,
deaf/blind, visually impaired,
or reading impaired with a single party telephone line.
(b)
The commission shall establish, by rule or regulation, an appropriate funding
mechanism to recover the costs of
providing this service from the general body of rate payers.
each residence and business
telephone access line or trunk in the state, including PBX trunks and
centrex equivalent trunks and
each service line or trunk, and upon each user interface number or
extension number or similarly
identifiable line, trunk, or path to or from a digital network.
Notwithstanding the foregoing,
there shall not be any additional funding mechanism used to
charge each residence and business
telephone access line or truck in the state, including PBX
trunks and centrex equivalent
trunks and each service line or trunk, or upon each user interface
number or extension number or
similarly identifiable line, trunk or path to or from a digital
network, to recover the costs of
providing the services outlined in (a)(i), (ii) or (a)(iii) above.
(c)
The commission, with the assistance of the state commission on the deaf and hard
of
hearing impaired, shall also
develop the appropriate rules, regulations and service standards
necessary to implement the
provisions of this subsection (a)(i) of this section. At a
minimum,
however, the commission shall
require, under the terms of the contract, that the relay service
provider:
(1)
Offer its relay services seven (7) days a week, twenty-four (24) hours a day,
including holidays;
(2)
Hire only qualified salaried operators with deaf language skills; and
(3)
Maintain the confidentiality of all communications.
(d) The
dual party telephone relay service shall be implemented within nine (9) months
from June 18, 1991.
(e)
The commission shall collect from the telecommunications service providers the
amounts of the surcharge
collected from their subscribers and remit to the department of human
services an additional ten
thousand dollars ($10,000) annually commencing in fiscal year 2005
for the adaptive telephone
equipment loan program and forty thousand dollars ($40,000) to the
Department of Human Services for
the establishment of a new telephone access to the text of
newspaper programs. The
surcharge referenced hereunder shall be generated from existing
funding mechanisms and shall not
be generated as a result of any new funding mechanisms
charged to each residence and
business telephone access line or trunk in the state, including PBX
trunks and centrex equivalent
trunks and each service line or trunk, or upon each user interface
number or extension number or
similarly identifiable line, trunk or path to or from a digital
network.
SECTION
4. Section 39-2-5 of the General Laws in Chapter 39-2 entitled "Duties of
Utilities and Carriers" is
hereby amended to read as follows:
39-2-5.
Exceptions to anti-discrimination provisions. -- The provisions of
sections 39-
2-2 -- 39-2-4 shall be subject to
the following exceptions:
(1)
A public utility may issue or give free transportation or service to its
employees and
their families, its officers,
agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys at law, and to the officers,
agents, and employees, and their
families of any other public utility.
(2)
With the approval of the division any public utility may give free
transportation or
service, upon such conditions as
the public utility may impose, or grant special rates therefor to
the state, to any town, or city, or
to any water or fire district, and to the officers thereof, for public
purposes, and also to any special
class or classes of persons, not otherwise referred to in this
section, in cases where the same
shall seem to the division just and reasonable, or required in the
interests of the public, and not
unjustly discriminatory.
(3)
With the approval of the division any public utility operating a railroad or
street
railway may furnish to the
publishers of newspapers and magazines, and to their employees,
passenger transportation in return
for advertising in the newspapers or magazines at full rates.
(4)
With the approval of the division any public utility may exchange its service
for the
service of any other public utility
furnishing a different class of service.
(5)
Nothing in this section nor any other provision of the law shall be construed
to
prohibit the giving by any public
utility, free or reduced rate service to an elderly person as
defined by the division.
(6)
Any motor carrier of persons, as defined in chapter 13 of this title, may elect
to file a
tariff providing for a rate reduction
of twenty-five percent (25%) below its one-way fare tariff
applying to any person who is
sixty-five (65) years of age or older and any person assisting and
traveling with a blind passenger
who is not required to pay any fare pursuant to the provisions of
section 39-2-13 for bus rides
between the hours of ten o'clock (10:00) a.m. and three o'clock
(3:00) p.m. of each day. In such
event the reduced fare shall be paid in part by the passenger and
in part by the state. That part of
the reduced fare payable by the state shall be one half (1/2) of the
reduced fare adjusted upward to end
in the nearest zero (0) or five cents (.05), and that part
payable by the passenger shall be
the balance of the reduced fare. Payments by the state under
this section shall be paid monthly
under procedures agreed upon by the department of
transportation and the carrier.
(7) Nothing
in this section nor any other provision of the law shall be construed to
prohibit the commission from
designing and implementing a program to provide a
telecommunications device
capable of servicing the needs of the deaf, severely hearing impaired,
severely speech impaired, or
those suffering from neuromuscular damage or disease for use with
a single party telephone line,
at no additional charge to the basic exchange rate, to any subscriber
who is certified as deaf,
severely hearing impaired, severely speech impaired, or suffering from
neuromuscular damage or disease
by a licensed physician, audiologist, speech pathologist, or a
qualified state agency. The
commission shall establish a funding mechanism whereby the
regulated telephone utilities
will impose a monthly surcharge on residential, nonbusiness
subscribers until seven hundred
and fifty thousand dollars ($750,000) to fund the adaptive
telephone equipment loan program
is realized. This program shall be phased in by the
commission over a four (4) year
period ending June 30, 1987.
(8)
Any person, firm, or corporation or any officer, agent, servant, or employee
thereof
who shall violate the provisions of
subsection (7) by fraudulently obtaining a telecommunications
device shall, upon conviction, be
fined not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500) or be
imprisoned for a term not exceeding
one year.
(9)
(i) Nothing in this section nor any other provision of the general laws shall
be
construed to prohibit the
commission from taking actions to enable the state to participate in a
federal communications commission
telephone lifeline program. The commission may set a
subscriber funded monthly residence
basic exchange lifeline telephone service credit in an
amount not to exceed the federal
subscriber line access charge or the monthly basic service
charge, whichever is less, for those
persons who receive supplemental social security income
(SSI), aid to families with
dependent children (AFDC), general public assistance (GPA), aid from
the Rhode Island medical assistance
program, or food stamps issued pursuant to the Food Stamp
Act of 1964 as amended (public law
88-525 and amendments made thereto, 7 U.S.C. section
2011 et seq.), assistance from the
low-income home energy assistance program (LIHEAP) as
administered by the department of
administration, division of planning, and effective April 1,
1993, assistance from the Rhode
Island pharmaceutical assistance program administered by the
department of elderly affairs. The
public utilities commission may promulgate regulations to
implement this section. The
department of human services and the department of administration,
division of planning shall certify
subscriber eligibility for the programs in accordance with public
utilities commission and federal
communications commission guidelines.
(ii)
The department of human services shall report monthly to the governor and to
the
house of representatives fiscal
advisor the number of persons newly eligible for the lifeline
telephone service credit hereunder
solely by virtue of their eligibility to receive food stamp
assistance and the department of
administration, division of planning shall, also, report monthly
to the governor and to the house of
representatives fiscal advisor the number of persons newly
eligible for the lifeline telephone
service credit hereunder solely by virtue of their participation in
the low-income home energy
assistance program (LIHEAP).
(10)
Nothing in this section nor any other provision of the general laws shall be
construed to prohibit any public
utility with the approval of the commission, from forgiving
arrearages of any person in
accordance with the terms of a percentage of income payment plan
administered by the governor's
office of energy assistance for low-income households who are
eligible to receive funds under the
federal low income home energy assistance program.
(11)
Nothing in this section or any other provision of the law shall be construed to
prohibit any utility company from
cutting, disconnecting, or removing mains, poles, wires,
conduits, or fixtures free of charge
to nonprofit housing development corporations prior to
moving a building to be used as
affordable housing for at least a ten (10) year period.
(12)
Nothing in this section nor any other provision of the general laws shall be
construed to prohibit any
telecommunications provider with the approval of the commission,
from offering any person, firm or
corporation a reduced rate, provided such rate covers all costs.
SECTION
5. Chapter 40-9 of the General Laws entitled "Services for People who are
Blind or Visually Impaired"
is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section:
40-9-10.1.
Telephone access to information programs. – (a) The department of
human
services shall establish,
administer and promote an adaptive telephone equipment loan program.
The department of human services
with the assistance of the states adaptive telephone equipment
loan program committee,
established pursuant to section 39-23-1, shall also develop the
appropriate rules, regulations and
service standards necessary to implement the provisions of this
subsection.
(b)
The department of human services shall establish, administer and promote a
program
to provide telephone access to
the text of newspaper programs to residents who are blind,
deaf/blind, visually impaired,
or reading impaired with a single party telephone line. The
department of human services
with the assistance of the governor’s advisory council for the blind
shall also develop the
appropriate rules, regulations and service standards necessary to implement
the provisions of this
subsection.
SECTION
6. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC03384
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