Chapter 378
2004 -- S 2687
AS AMENDED
Enacted 07/03/04
A N A C T
RELATING
TO PUBLIC UTILITIES AND CARRIERS -- ADAPTIVE TELEPHONE
EQUIPMENT
LOAN PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Introduced
By: Senators Roberts, Perry, and Tassoni
Date
Introduced: February 11, 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Equipment Loan Program Committee" is hereby repealed.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 newspapers program 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 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,
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
newspapers program. 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 newspapers program 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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LC01664
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