What Happened?

If you are deaf or hard of hearing and place calls through video relay service, or you call someone in prison, the companies that connect you now face new federal video relay service rules on reporting and registration. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put the rules into effect Nov. 5, according to a Legis1 review of the agency's Federal Register notice. ​

Why Does it Matter to Me?

If you rely on relay calls, the paperwork behind them now covers 165,408 respondents, the FCC estimates. They include businesses, nonprofits, households and governments.

The FCC counts 1,764,771 responses a year, about 11 for each respondent. It puts the total burden at 282,770 hours a year, or roughly 1.7 hours each, at a cost of $279,363 a year, about $1.69 each.

The FCC says registration helps make sure only eligible users reach the service, prevents waste, fraud and abuse, and protects the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund. It says the program "enables access to the nation's telephone network by persons with hearing and speech disabilities."

Both Sides, Now

The FCC says the purpose is "to ensure the accessibility of communications service for incarcerated people." Opponents of added requirements point to a different concern: more paperwork could make accessible relay services harder for providers and facilities to offer.

In March 2020, a federal court ordered Colorado's corrections department to provide videophones for deaf and hard-of-hearing prisoners, Prison Legal News reported. In 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit considered a deaf prisoner's claim in *Heyer v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons* that he lacked videophone access.

The FCC acted under the Communications Act. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not run an information collection without a valid control number from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB gave final approval, which let the rules take effect.

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