FCC Fees for Ship Station Licenses FY2018

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jimh
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FCC Fees for Ship Station Licenses FY2018

Postby jimh » Wed Jun 13, 2018 1:24 pm

Executive summary: a new FCC Ship Station License for Part 80 will cost $220 and have a ten-year term.

Details: the Federal Communications Commission made notice of the following regulatory fees for FY2018 in

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-18-65A1.pdf

The document says, in part:

...II. BACKGROUND
2. The Commission is required by Congress to assess regulatory fees each year in an amount that can reasonably be expected to equal the amount of its appropriation. Regulatory fees, mandated by Congress, are collected “to recover the costs of … enforcement activities, policy and rulemaking activities, user information services, and international activities.” Regulatory fees are to “be derived by determining the full-time equivalent number of employees performing” these activities, “adjusted to take into account factors that are reasonably related to the benefits provided to the payer of the fee by the Commission’s activities ….” Regulatory fees recover direct costs, such as salary and expenses; indirect costs, such as overhead functions; and support costs, such as rent, utilities, and equipment. Regulatory fees also cover the costs incurred in regulating entities that are statutorily exempt from paying regulatory fees, entities whose regulatory fees are waived, and entities providing services for which we do not assess regulatory fees. Specifically, we propose to collect $322,035,000 in regulatory fees for FY 2018, as detailed in the proposed fee schedules in Appendix BB


In Appendix B the regulatory fee for a ship station license is mentioned as being $15 per year. Since ship station licenses are normally issued for ten years, the regulatory fee (to be paid in advance at the time of application) will be $150. (Cf. page 23 of above linked document.)

The FCC also collects administrative or application processing fees. The administrative fees are subject to annual review. The fees in effect now date from 2016 and are detailed in another on-line document:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-349023A1.pdf

The FCC notes (emphasis added):

The Federal Communications Commission's authority to impose and collect fees is mandated by Congress. In Section 8 of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1989 (Title III, Section 3001 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (Public Law 101-239), Section 8, revising 47 U.S.C. 158), Congress authorized the FCC to impose and collect application processing fees and directed the Commission to prescribe charges for certain types of application processing or authorization services it provides to communications entities over which it has jurisdiction. Application processing fees are deposited in the U.S. Treasury and are not available to the Commission.


For most boaters, the applicable fee will be related to "Part 80 Ship Radio Service." The fees appear on page 18 of the above-linked document:

Part 80 Ship Radio Service
The instructions that follow are for filing applications. Select the purpose of filing and follow the instructions below:
New, Renewal or Renewal/Modification
    • FCC 605
    • FCC 159
    • Application Payment/Fee Type Code: PASM - $70.00 Fee AND
    Regulatory Payment/Fee Type Code: PASR - $150.00 Fee...