Appendix A to Part 64 - Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) System for National Security Emergency Preparedness (NSEP)
47:3.0.1.1.11.34.15.9.2 : Appendix A
Appendix A to Part 64 - Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP)
System for National Security Emergency Preparedness (NSEP) 1.
Purpose and Authority
a. This appendix establishes policies and procedures and assigns
responsibilities for the National Security Emergency Preparedness
(NSEP) Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) System. The NSEP
TSP System authorizes priority treatment to certain domestic
telecommunications services (including portions of U.S.
international telecommunication services provided by U.S. service
vendors) for which provisioning or restoration priority (RP) levels
are requested, assigned, and approved in accordance with this
appendix.
b. This appendix is issued pursuant to sections 1, 4(i), 201
through 205 and 303(r) of the Communications Act of 1934, as
amended, 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), 201 through 205 and 303(r). These
sections grant to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the
authority over the assignment and approval of priorities for
provisioning and restoration of common carrier-provided
telecommunications services. Under section 706 of the
Communications Act, this authority may be superseded, and expanded
to include non-common carrier telecommunication services, by the
war emergency powers of the President of the United States. This
appendix provides the Commission's Order to telecommunication
service vendors and users to comply with policies and procedures
establishing the NSEP TSP System, until such policies and
procedures are superseded by the President's war emergency powers.
This appendix is intended to be read in conjunction with
regulations and procedures that the Executive Office of the
President issues (1) to implement responsibilities assigned in
section 6(b) of this appendix, or (2) for use in the event this
appendix is superseded by the President's war emergency powers.
c. Together, this appendix and the regulations and procedures
issued by the Executive Office of the President establish one
uniform system of priorities for provisioning and restoration of
NSEP telecommunication services both before and after invocation of
the President's war emergency powers. In order that government and
industry resources may be used effectively under all conditions, a
single set of rules, regulations, and procedures is necessary, and
they must be applied on a day-to-day basis to all NSEP services so
that the priorities they establish can be implemented at once when
the need arises.
* In sections 2(a)(2) and 2(b)(2) of Executive Order No. 12472,
“Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness
Telecommunications Functions” April 3, 1984 (49 FR 13471 (1984)),
the President assigned to the Director, Office of Science and
Technology Policy, certain NSEP telecommunication resource
management responsibilities. The term “Executive Office of the
President” as used in this appendix refers to the official or
organization designated by the President to act on his behalf.
2. Applicability and Revocation
a. This appendix applies to NSEP telecommunications
services:
(1) For which initial or revised priority level assignments are
requested pursuant to section 8 of this appendix.
(2) Which were assigned restoration priorities under the
provision of FCC Order 80-581; 81 FCC 2d 441 (1980); 47 CFR part
64, appendix A, “Priority System for the Restoration of Common
Carrier Provided Intercity Private Line Services”; and are being
resubmitted for priority level assignments pursuant to section 10
of this appendix. (Such services will retain assigned restoration
priorities until a resubmission for a TSP assignment is completed
or until the existing RP rules are terminated.)
b. FCC Order 80-581 will continue to apply to all other
intercity, private line circuits assigned restoration priorities
thereunder until the fully operating capability date of this
appendix, 30 months after the initial operating capability date
referred to in subsection d of this section.
c. In addition, FCC Order, “Precedence System for Public
Correspondence Services Provided by the Communications Common
Carriers” (34 FR 17292 (1969)); (47 CFR part 64, appendix B), is
revoked as of the effective date of this appendix.
d. The initial operating capability (IOC) date for NSEP TSP will
be nine months after release in the Federal Register of the FCC's
order following review of procedures submitted by the Executive
Office of the President. On this IOC date requests for priority
assignments generally will be accepted only by the Executive Office
of the President.
3. Definitions
As used in this part:
a. Assignment means the designation of priority level(s)
for a defined NSEP telecommunications service for a specified time
period.
b. Audit means a quality assurance review in response to
identified problems.
c. Government refers to the Federal government or any
foreign, state, county, municipal or other local government agency
or organization. Specific qualifications will be supplied whenever
reference to a particular level of government is intended (e.g.,
“Federal government”, “state government”). “Foreign government”
means any sovereign empire, kingdom, state, or independent
political community, including foreign diplomatic and consular
establishments and coalitions or associations of governments (e.g.,
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Southeast Asian Treaty
Organization (SEATO), Organization of American States (OAS), and
government agencies or organization (e.g., Pan American Union,
International Postal Union, and International Monetary Fund)).
d. National Communications System (NCS) refers to that
organization established by the President in Executive Order No.
12472, “Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness
Telecommunications Functions,” April 3, 1984, 49 FR 13471
(1984).
e. National Coordinating Center (NCC) refers to the joint
telecommunications industry-Federal government operation
established by the National Communications System to assist in the
initiation, coordination, restoration, and reconstitution of NSEP
telecommunication services or facilities.
f. National Security Emergency Preparedness (NSEP)
telecommunications services, or “NSEP services,” means
telecommunication services which are used to maintain a state of
readiness or to respond to and manage any event or crisis (local,
national, or international), which causes or could cause injury or
harm to the population, damage to or loss of property, or degrades
or threatens the NSEP posture of the United States. These services
fall into two specific categories, Emergency NSEP and Essential
NSEP, and are assigned priority levels pursuant to section 9 of
this appendix.
g. NSEP treatment refers to the provisioning of a
telecommunication service before others based on the provisioning
priority level assigned by the Executive Office of the
President.
h. Priority action means assignment, revision,
revocation, or revalidation by the Executive Office of the
President of a priority level associated with an NSEP
telecommunications service.
i. Priority level means the level that may be assigned to
an NSEP telecommunications service specifying the order in which
provisioning or restoration of the service is to occur relative to
other NSEP and/or non-NSEP telecommunication services. Priority
levels authorized by this appendix are designated (highest to
lowest) “E,” “1,” “2,” “3,” “4,” and “5,” for provisioning and “1,”
“2,” “3,” “4,” and “5,” for restoration.
j. Priority level assignment means the priority level(s)
designated for the provisioning and/or restoration of a particular
NSEP telecommunications service under section 9 of this
appendix.
k. Private NSEP telecommunications services include
non-common carrier telecommunications services including private
line, virtual private line, and private switched network
services.
l. Provisioning means the act of supplying
telecommunications service to a user, including all associated
transmission, wiring and equipment. As used herein, “provisioning”
and “initiation” are synonymous and include altering the state of
an existing priority service or capability.
m. Public switched NSEP telecommunications services
include those NSEP telecommunications services utilizing public
switched networks. Such services may include both interexchange and
intraexchange network facilities (e.g., switching systems,
interoffice trunks and subscriber loops).
n. Reconciliation means the comparison of NSEP service
information and the resolution of identified discrepancies.
o. Restoration means the repair or returning to service
of one or more telecommunication services that have experienced a
service outage or are unusable for any reason, including a damaged
or impaired telecommunications facility. Such repair or returning
to service may be done by patching, rerouting, substitution of
component parts or pathways, and other means, as determined
necessary by a service vendor.
p. Revalidation means the rejustification by a service
user of a priority level assignment. This may result in extension
by the Executive Office of the President of the expiration date
associated with the priority level assignment.
q. Revision means the change of priority level assignment
for an NSEP telecommunications service. This includes any extension
of an existing priority level assignment to an expanded NSEP
service.
r. Revocation means the elimination of a priority level
assignment when it is no longer valid. All priority level
assignments for an NSEP service are revoked upon service
termination.
s. Service identification refers to the information
uniquely identifying an NSEP telecommunications service to the
service vendor and/or service user.
t. Service user refers to any individual or organization
(including a service vendor) supported by a telecommunications
service for which a priority level has been requested or assigned
pursuant to section 8 or 9 of this appendix.
u. Service vendor refers to any person, association,
partnership, corporation, organization, or other entity (including
common carriers and government organizations) that offers to supply
any telecommunications equipment, facilities, or services
(including customer premises equipment and wiring) or combination
thereof. The term includes resale carriers, prime contractors,
subcontractors, and interconnecting carriers.
v. Spare circuits or services refers to those not being
used or contracted for by any customer.
w. Telecommunication services means the transmission,
emission, or reception of signals, signs, writing, images, sounds,
or intelligence of any nature, by wire, cable, satellite, fiber
optics, laser, radio, visual or other electronic, electric,
electromagnetic, or acoustically coupled means, or any combination
thereof. The term can include necessary telecommunication
facilities.
x. Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) system user
refers to any individual, organization, or activity that interacts
with the NSEP TSP System.
4. Scope
a. Domestic NSEP services. The NSEP TSP System and
procedures established by this appendix authorize priority
treatment to the following domestic telecommunication services
(including portions of U.S. international telecommunication
services provided by U.S. vendors) for which provisioning or
restoration priority levels are requested, assigned, and approved
in accordance with this appendix:
(1) Common carrier services which are:
(a) Interstate or foreign telecommunications services,
(b) Intrastate telecommunication services inseparable from
interstate or foreign telecommunications services, and intrastate
telecommunication services to which priority levels are assigned
pursuant to section 9 of this appendix.
Note:
Initially, the NSEP TSP System's applicability to public
switched services is limited to (a) provisioning of such services
(e.g., business, centrex, cellular, foreign exchange, Wide Area
Telephone Service (WATS) and other services that the selected
vendor is able to provision) and (b) restoration of services that
the selected vendor is able to restore.
(2) Services which are provided by government and/or non-common
carriers and are interconnected to common carrier services assigned
a priority level pursuant to section 9 of this appendix.
b. Control services and orderwires. The NSEP TSP System
and procedures established by this appendix are not applicable to
authorize priority treatment to control services or orderwires
owned by a service vendor and needed for provisioning, restoration,
or maintenance of other services owned by that service vendor. Such
control services and orderwires shall have priority provisioning
and restoration over all other telecommunication services
(including NSEP services) and shall be exempt from preemption.
However, the NSEP TSP System and procedures established by this
appendix are applicable to control services or orderwires leased by
a service vendor.
c. Other services. The NSEP TSP System may apply, at the
discretion of and upon special arrangements by the NSEP TSP System
users involved, to authorize priority treatment to the following
telecommunication services:
(1) Government or non-common carrier services which are not
connected to common carrier provided services assigned a priority
level pursuant to section 9 of this appendix.
(2) Portions of U.S. international services which are provided
by foreign correspondents. (U.S. telecommunication service vendors
are encouraged to ensure that relevant operating arrangements are
consistent to the maximum extent practicable with the NSEP TSP
System. If such arrangements do not exist, U.S. telecommunication
service vendors should handle service provisioning and/or
restoration in accordance with any system acceptable to their
foreign correspondents which comes closest to meeting the
procedures established in this appendix.)
5. Policy
The NSEP TSP System is the regulatory, administrative, and
operational system authorizing and providing for priority
treatment, i.e., provisioning and restoration, of NSEP
telecommunication services. As such, it establishes the framework
for telecommunication service vendors to provision, restore, or
otherwise act on a priority basis to ensure effective NSEP
telecommunication services. The NSEP TSP System allows the
assignment of priority levels to any NSEP service across three time
periods, or stress conditions: Peacetime/Crisis/Mobilizations,
Attack/War, and Post-Attack/Recovery. Although priority levels
normally will be assigned by the Executive Office of the President
and retained by service vendors only for the current time period,
they may be preassigned for the other two time periods at the
request of service users who are able to identify and justify in
advance, their wartime or post-attack NSEP telecommunication
requirements. Absent such preassigned priority levels for the
Attack/War and Post-Attack/Recovery periods, priority level
assignments for the Peacetime/Crisis/Mobilization period will
remain in effect. At all times, priority level assignments will be
subject to revision by the FCC or (on an interim basis) the
Executive Office of the President, based upon changing NSEP needs.
No other system of telecommunication service priorities which
conflicts with the NSEP TSP System is authorized.
6. Responsibilities
a. The FCC will:
(1) Provide regulatory oversight of implementation of the NSEP
TSP System.
(2) Enforce NSEP TSP System rules and regulations, which are
contained in this appendix.
(3) Act as final authority for approval, revision, or
disapproval of priority actions by the Executive Office of the
President and adjudicate disputes regarding either priority actions
or denials of requests for priority actions by the Executive Office
of the President, until superseded by the President's war emergency
powers under section 706 of the Communications Act.
(4) Function (on a discretionary basis) as a sponsoring Federal
organization. (See section 6(c) below.)
b. The Executive Office of the President will:
(1) During exercise of the President's war emergency powers
under section 706 of the Communications Act, act as the final
approval authority for priority actions or denials of requests for
priority actions, adjudicating any disputes.
(2) Until the exercise of the President's war emergency powers,
administer the NSEP TSP System which includes:
(a) Receiving, processing, and evaluating requests for priority
actions from service users, or sponsoring Federal government
organizations on behalf of service users (e.g., Department of State
or Defense on behalf of foreign governments, Federal Emergency
Management Agency on behalf of state and local governments, and any
Federal organization on behalf of private industry entities).
Action on such requests will be completed within 30 days of
receipt.
(b) Assigning, revising, revalidating, or revoking priority
levels as necessary or upon request of service users concerned, and
denying requests for priority actions as necessary, using the
categories and criteria specified in section 12 of this appendix.
Action on such requests will be completed within 30 days of
receipt.
(c) Maintaining data on priority level assignments.
(d) Periodically forwarding to the FCC lists of priority actions
by the Executive Office of the President for review and
approval.
(e) Periodically initiating reconciliation.
(f) Testing and evaluating the NSEP TSP System for
effectiveness.
(g) Conducting audits as necessary. Any Telecommunications
Service Priority (TSP) System user may request the Executive Office
of the President to conduct an audit.
(h) Issuing, subject to review by the FCC, regulations and
procedures supplemental to and consistent with this appendix
regarding operation and use of the NSEP TSP System.
(i) Serving as a centralized point-of-contact for collecting and
disseminating to all interested parties (consistent with
requirements for treatment of classified and proprietary material)
information concerning use and abuse of the NSEP TSP System.
(j) Establishing and assisting a TSP System Oversight Committee
to identify and review any problems developing in the system and
recommend actions to correct them or prevent recurrence. In
addition to representatives of the Executive Office of the
President, representatives from private industry (including
telecommunication service vendors), state and local governments,
the FCC, and other organizations may be appointed to that
Committee.
(k) Reporting at least quarterly to the FCC and TSP System
Oversight Committee, together with any recommendations for action,
the operational status of and trends in the NSEP TSP System,
including:
(i) Numbers of requests processed for the various priority
actions, and the priority levels assigned.
(ii) Relative percentages of services assigned to each priority
level under each NSEP category and subcategory.
(iii) Any apparent serious misassignment or abuse of priority
level assignments.
(iv) Any existing or developing problem.
(l) Submitting semi-annually to the FCC and TSP System Oversight
Committee a summary report identifying the time and event
associated with each invocation of NSEP treatment under section
9(c) of this appendix, whether the NSEP service requirement was
adequately handled, and whether any additional charges were
incurred. These reports will be due by April 30th for the preceding
July through December and by October 31 for the preceding January
through June time periods.
(m) All reports submitted to the FCC should be directed to
Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, Washington, DC
20554.
(3) Function (on a discretionary basis) as a sponsoring Federal
organization. (See section 6(c) below.)
c. Sponsoring Federal organizations will:
(1) Review and decide whether to sponsor foreign, state, and
local government and private industry (including telecommunication
service vendors) requests for priority actions. Federal
organizations will forward sponsored requests with recommendations
for disposition to the Executive Office of the President.
Recommendations will be based on the categories and criteria in
section 12 of this appendix.
(2) Forward notification of priority actions or denials of
requests for priority actions from the Executive Office of the
President to the requesting foreign, state, and local government
and private industry entities.
(3) Cooperate with the Executive Office of the President during
reconciliation, revalidation, and audits.
(4) Comply with any regulations and procedures supplemental to
and consistent with this appendix which are issued by the Executive
Office of the President.
d. Service users will:
(1) Identify services requiring priority level assignments and
request and justify priority level assignments in accordance with
this appendix and any supplemental regulations and procedures
issued by the Executive Office of the President that are consistent
with this appendix.
(2) Request and justify revalidation of all priority level
assignments at least every three years.
(3) For services assigned priority levels, ensure (through
contractual means or otherwise) availability of customer premises
equipment and wiring necessary for end-to-end service operation by
the service due date, and continued operation; and, for such
services in the Emergency NSEP category, by the time that vendors
are prepared to provide the services. Additionally, designate the
organization responsible for the service on an end-to-end
basis.
(4) Be prepared to accept services assigned priority levels by
the service due dates or, for services in the Emergency NSEP
category, when they are available.
(5) Pay vendors any authorized costs associated with services
that are assigned priority levels.
(6) Report to vendors any failed or unusable services that are
assigned priority levels.
(7) Designate a 24-hour point-of-contact for matters concerning
each request for priority action and apprise the Executive Office
of the President thereof.
(8) Upon termination of services that are assigned priority
levels, or circumstances warranting revisions in priority level
assignment (e.g., expansion of service), request and justify
revocation or revision.
(9) When NSEP treatment is invoked under section 9(c) of this
appendix, within 90 days following provisioning of the service
involved, forward to the National Coordinating Center (see section
3(e) of this appendix) complete information identifying the time
and event associated with the invocation and regarding whether the
NSEP service requirement was adequately handled and whether any
additional charges were incurred.
(10) Cooperate with the Executive Office of the President during
reconciliation, revalidation, and audits.
(11) Comply with any regulations and procedures supplemental to
and consistent with this appendix that are issued by the Executive
Office of the President.
e. Non-federal service users, in addition to responsibilities
prescribed above in section 6(d), will obtain a sponsoring Federal
organization for all requests for priority actions. If unable to
find a sponsoring Federal organization, a non-federal service user
may submit its request, which must include documentation of
attempts made to obtain a sponsor and reasons given by the sponsor
for its refusal, directly to the Executive Office of the
President.
f. Service vendors will:
(1) When NSEP treatment is invoked by service users, provision
NSEP telecommunication services before non-NSEP services, based on
priority level assignments made by the Executive Office of the
President. Provisioning will require service vendors to:
(a) Allocate resources to ensure best efforts to provide NSEP
services by the time required. When limited resources constrain
response capability, vendors will address conflicts for resources
by:
(i) Providing NSEP services in order of provisioning priority
level assignment (i.e., “E”, “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, or
“5”);
(ii) Providing Emergency NSEP services (i.e., those
assigned provisioning priority level “E”) in order of receipt of
the service requests;
(iii) Providing Essential NSEP services (i.e., those
assigned priority levels “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, or “5”) that have the
same provisioning priority level in order of service due dates;
and
(iv) Referring any conflicts which cannot be resolved (to the
mutual satisfaction of servicer vendors and users) to the Executive
Office of the President for resolution.
(b) Comply with NSEP service requests by:
(i) Allocating resources necessary to provide Emergency NSEP
services as soon as possible, dispatching outside normal business
hours when necessary;
(ii) Ensuring best efforts to meet requested service dates for
Essential NSEP services, negotiating a mutually (customer and
vendor) acceptable service due date when the requested service due
date cannot be met; and
(iii) Seeking National Coordinating Center (NCC) assistance as
authorized under the NCC Charter (see section 1.3, NCC Charter,
dated October 9, 1985).
(2) Restore NSEP telecommunications services which suffer
outage, or are reported as unusable or otherwise in need of
restoration, before non-NSEP services, based on restoration
priority level assignments. (Note: For broadband or multiple
service facilities, restoration is permitted even though it might
result in restoration of services assigned no or lower priority
levels along with, or sometimes ahead of, some higher priority
level services.) Restoration will require service vendors to
restore NSEP services in order of restoration priority level
assignment (i.e., “1”, “2”, “3”, “4”, or “5”) by:
(a) Allocating available resources to restore NSEP services as
quickly as practicable, dispatching outside normal business hours
to restore services assigned priority levels “1”, “2”, and “3” when
necessary, and services assigned priority level “4” and “5” when
the next business day is more than 24 hours away;
(b) Restoring NSEP services assigned the same restoration
priority level based upon which can be first restored. (However,
restoration actions in progress should not normally be interrupted
to restore another NSEP service assigned the same restoration
priority level);
(c) Patching and/or rerouting NSEP services assigned restoration
priority levels from “1” through “5,” when use of patching and/or
rerouting will hasten restoration;
(d) Seeking National Coordinating Center (NCC) assistance
authorized under the NCC Charter; and
(e) Referring any conflicts which cannot be resolved (to the
mutual satisfaction of service vendors and users) to the Executive
Office of the President for resolution.
(3) Respond to provisioning requests of customers and/or other
service vendors, and to restoration priority level assignments when
an NSEP service suffers an outage or is reported as unusable,
by:
(a) Ensuring that vendor personnel understand their
responsibilities to handle NSEP provisioning requests and to
restore NSEP service; and
(b) Providing a 24-hour point-of-contact for receiving
provisioning requests for Emergency NSEP services and reports of
NSEP service outages or unusability.
(c) Seek verification from an authorized entity if legitimacy of
a priority level assignment or provisioning request for an NSEP
service is in doubt. However, processing of Emergency NSEP service
requests will not be delayed for verification purposes.
(4) Cooperate with other service vendors involved in
provisioning or restoring a portion of an NSEP service by honoring
provisioning or restoration priority level assignments, or requests
for assistance to provision or restore NSEP services, as detailed
in sections 6(f)(1), (2), and (3) above.
(5) All service vendors, including resale carriers, are required
to ensure that service vendors supplying underlying facilities are
provided information necessary to implement priority treatment of
facilities that support NSEP services.
(6) Preempt, when necessary, existing services to provide an
NSEP service as authorized in section 7 of this appendix.
(7) Assist in ensuring that priority level assignments of NSEP
services are accurately identified “end-to-end” by:
(a) Seeking verification from an authorized Federal government
entity if the legitimacy of the restoration priority level
assignment is in doubt;
(b) Providing to subcontractors and/or interconnecting carriers
the restoration priority level assigned to a service;
(c) Supplying, to the Executive Office of the President, when
acting as a prime contractor to a service user, confirmation
information regarding NSEP service completion for that portion of
the service they have contracted to supply;
(d) Supplying, to the Executive Office of the President, NSEP
service information for the purpose of reconciliation.
(e) Cooperating with the Executive Office of the President
during reconciliation.
(f) Periodically initiating reconciliation with their
subcontractors and arranging for subsequent subcontractors to
cooperate in the reconciliation process.
(8) Receive compensation for costs authorized through tariffs or
contracts by:
(a) Provisions contained in properly filed state or Federal
tariffs; or
(b) Provisions of properly negotiated contracts where the
carrier is not required to file tariffs.
(9) Provision or restore only the portions of services for which
they have agreed to be responsible (i.e., have contracted to
supply), unless the President's war emergency powers under section
706 of the Communications Act are in effect.
(10) Cooperate with the Executive Office of the President during
audits.
(11) Comply with any regulations or procedures supplemental to
and consistent with this appendix that are issued by the Executive
Office of the President and reviewed by the FCC.
(12) Insure that at all times a reasonable number of public
switched network services are made available for public use.
(13) Not disclose information concerning NSEP services they
provide to those not having a need-to-know or might use the
information for competitive advantage.
7. Preemption of Existing Services
When necessary to provision or restore NSEP services, service
vendors may preempt services they provide as specified below.
“User” as used in this Section means any user of a
telecommunications service, including both NSEP and non-NSEP
services. Prior consent by a preempted user is not required.
a. The sequence in which existing services may be preempted to
provision NSEP services assigned a provisioning priority level “E”
or restore NSEP services assigned a restoration priority level from
“1” through “5”:
(1) Non-NSEP services: If suitable spare services are not
available, then, based on the considerations in this appendix and
the service vendor's best judgment, non-NSEP services will be
preempted. After ensuring a sufficient number of public switched
services are available for public use, based on the service
vendor's best judgment, such services may be used to satisfy a
requirement for provisioning or restoring NSEP services.
(2) NSEP services: If no suitable spare or non-NSEP services are
available, then existing NSEP services may be preempted to
provision or restore NSEP services with higher priority level
assignments. When this is necessary, NSEP services will be selected
for preemption in the inverse order of priority level
assignment.
(3) Service vendors who are preempting services will ensure
their best effort to notify the service user of the preempted
service and state the reason for and estimated duration of the
preemption.
b. Service vendors may, based on their best judgment, determine
the sequence in which existing services may be preempted to
provision NSEP services assigned a provisioning priority of “1”
through “5”. Preemption is not subject to the consent of the user
whose service will be preempted.
8. Requests for Priority Assignments.
All service users are required to submit requests for priority
actions through the Executive Office of the President in the format
and following the procedures prescribed by that Office.
9. Assignment, Approval, Use, and Invocation of Priority Levels
a. Assignment and approval of priority levels. Priority
level assignments will be based upon the categories and criteria
specified in section 12 of this appendix. A priority level
assignment made by the Executive Office of the President will serve
as that Office's recommendation to the FCC. Until the President's
war emergency powers are invoked, priority level assignments must
be approved by the FCC. However, service vendors are ordered to
implement any priority level assignments that are pending FCC
approval.
After invocation of the President's war emergency powers, these
requirements may be superseded by other procedures issued by the
Executive Office of the President.
b. Use of Priority Level Assignments.
(1) All provisioning and restoration priority level assignments
for services in the Emergency NSEP category will be included in
initial service orders to vendors. Provisioning priority level
assignments for Essential NSEP services, however, will not usually
be included in initial service orders to vendors. NSEP treatment
for Essential NSEP services will be invoked and provisioning
priority level assignments will be conveyed to service vendors only
if the vendors cannot meet needed service dates through the normal
provisioning process.
(2) Any revision or revocation of either provisioning or
restoration priority level assignments will also be transmitted to
vendors.
(3) Service vendors shall accept priority levels and/or
revisions only after assignment by the Executive Office of the
President.
Note:
Service vendors acting as prime contractors will accept assigned
NSEP priority levels only when they are accompanied by the
Executive Office of the President designated service
identification, i.e., TSP Authorization Code. However,
service vendors are authorized to accept priority levels and/or
revisions from users and contracting activities before assignment
by the Executive Office of the President when service vendor, user,
and contracting activities are unable to communicate with either
the Executive Office of the President or the FCC. Processing of
Emergency NSEP service requests will not be delayed for
verification purposes.
c. Invocation of NSEP treatment. To invoke NSEP treatment
for the priority provisioning of an NSEP telecommunications
service, an authorized Federal official either within, or acting on
behalf of, the service user's organization must make a written or
oral declaration to concerned service vendor(s) and the Executive
Office of the President that NSEP treatment is being invoked.
Authorized Federal officials include the head or director of a
Federal agency, commander of a unified/specified military command,
chief of a military service, or commander of a major military
command; the delegates of any of the foregoing; or any other
officials as specified in supplemental regulations or procedures
issued by the Executive Office of the President. The authority to
invoke NSEP treatment may be delegated only to a general or flag
officer of a military service, civilian employee of equivalent
grade (e.g., Senior Executive Service member), Federal Coordinating
Officer or Federal Emergency Communications Coordinator/Manager, or
any other such officials specified in supplemental regulations or
procedures issued by the Executive Office of the President.
Delegates must be designated as such in writing, and written or
oral invocations must be accomplished, in accordance with
supplemental regulations or procedures issued by the Executive
Office of the President.
10. Resubmission of Circuits Presently Assigned Restoration
Priorities
All circuits assigned restoration priorities must be reviewed
for eligibility for initial restoration priority level assignment
under the provisions of this appendix. Circuits currently assigned
restoration priorities, and for which restoration priority level
assignments are requested under section 8 of this appendix, will be
resubmitted to the Executive Office of the President. To resubmit
such circuits, service users will comply with applicable provisions
of section 6(d) of this appendix.
11. Appeal
Service users or sponsoring Federal organizations may appeal any
priority level assignment, denial, revision, revocation, approval,
or disapproval to the Executive Office of the President within 30
days of notification to the service user. The appellant must use
the form or format required by the Executive Office of the
President and must serve the FCC with a copy of its appeal. The
Executive Office of the President will act on the appeal within 90
days of receipt. Service users and sponsoring Federal organizations
may only then appeal directly to the FCC. Such FCC appeal must be
filed within 30 days of notification of the Executive Office of the
President's decision on appeal. Additionally, the Executive Office
of the President may appeal any FCC revisions, approvals, or
disapprovals to the FCC. All appeals to the FCC must be submitted
using the form or format required. The party filing its appeal with
the FCC must include factual details supporting its claim and must
serve a copy on the Executive Office of the President and any other
party directly involved. Such party may file a response within 20
days, and replies may be filed within 10 days thereafter. The
Commission will not issue public notices of such submissions. The
Commission will provide notice of its decision to the parties of
record. Any appeals to the Executive Office of the President that
include a claim of new information that has not been presented
before for consideration may be submitted at any time.
12. NSEP TSP System Categories, Criteria, and Priority Levels
a. General. NSEP TSP System categories and criteria, and
permissible priority level assignments, are defined and explained
below.
(1) The Essential NSEP category has four subcategories: National
Security Leadership; National Security Posture and U.S. Population
Attack Warning; Public Health, Safety, and Maintenance of Law and
Order; and Public Welfare and Maintenance of National Economic
Posture. Each subcategory has its own criteria. Criteria are also
shown for the Emergency NSEP category, which has no
sub-categories.
(2) Priority levels of “1,” “2,” “3,” “4,” and “5” may be
assigned for provisioning and/or restoration of Essential NSEP
telecommunication services. However, for Emergency NSEP
telecommunications services, a priority level “E” is assigned for
provisioning. A restoration priority level from “1” through “5” may
be assigned if an Emergency NSEP service also qualifies for such a
restoration priority level under the Essential NSEP category.
(3) The NSEP TSP System allows the assignment of priority levels
to any NSEP telecommunications service across three time periods,
or stress conditions: Peacetime/Crisis/Mobilization, Attack/War,
and Post-Attack/Recovery. Priority levels will normally be assigned
only for the first time period. These assigned priority levels will
apply through the onset of any attack, but it is expected that they
would later be revised by surviving authorized telecommunication
resource managers within the Executive Office of the President
based upon specific facts and circumstances arising during the
Attack/War and Post-Attack/Recovery time periods.
(4) Service users may, for their own internal use, assign
subpriorities to their services assigned priority levels. Receipt
of and response to any such subpriorities is optional for service
vendors.
(5) The following paragraphs provide a detailed explanation of
the categories, subcategories, criteria, and priority level
assignments, beginning with the Emergency NSEP category.
b. Emergency NSEP. Telecommunications services in the
Emergency NSEP category are those new services so critical as to be
required to be provisioned at the earliest possible time, without
regard to the costs of obtaining them.
(1) Criteria. To qualify under the Emergency NSEP
category, the service must meet criteria directly supporting or
resulting from at least one of the following NSEP functions:
(a) Federal government activity responding to a Presidentially
declared disaster or emergency as defined in the Disaster Relief
Act (42 U.S.C. 5122).
(b) State or local government activity responding to a
Presidentially declared disaster or emergency.
(c) Response to a state of crisis declared by the National
Command Authorities (e.g., exercise of Presidential war emergency
powers under section 706 of the Communications Act.)
(d) Efforts to protect endangered U.S. personnel or
property.
(e) Response to an enemy or terrorist action, civil disturbance,
natural disaster, or any other unpredictable occurrence that has
damaged facilities whose uninterrupted operation is critical to
NSEP or the management of other ongoing crises.
(f) Certification by the head or director of a Federal agency,
commander of a unified/specified command, chief of a military
service, or commander of a major military command, that the
telecommunications service is so critical to protection of life and
property or to NSEP that it must be provided immediately.
(g) A request from an official authorized pursuant to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (50 U.S.C. 1801 et
seq. and 18 U.S.C. 2511, 2518, 2519).
(2) Priority Level Assignment.
(a) Services qualifying under the Emergency NSEP category are
assigned priority level “E” for provisioning.
(b) After 30 days, assignments of provisioning priority level
“E” for Emergency NSEP services are automatically revoked unless
extended for another 30-day period. A notice of any such revocation
will be sent to service vendors.
(c) For restoration, Emergency NSEP services may be assigned
priority levels under the provisions applicable to Essential NSEP
services (see section 12(c)). Emergency NSEP services not otherwise
qualifying for restoration priority level assignment as Essential
NSEP may be assigned a restoration priority level “5” for a 30-day
period. Such 30-day restoration priority level assignments will be
revoked automatically unless extended for another 30-day period. A
notice of any such revocation will be sent to service vendors.
c. Essential NSEP. Telecommunication services in the
Essential NSEP category are those required to be provisioned by due
dates specified by service users, or restored promptly, normally
without regard to associated overtime or expediting costs. They may
be assigned priority level of “1,” “2,” “3,” “4,” or “5” for both
provisioning and restoration, depending upon the nature and urgency
of the supported function, the impact of lack of service or of
service interruption upon the supported function, and, for priority
access to public switched services, the user's level of
responsibility. Priority level assignments will be valid for no
more than three years unless revalidated. To be categorized as
Essential NSEP, a telecommunications service must qualify under one
of the four following subcategories: National Security Leadership;
National Security Posture and U.S. Population Attack Warning;
Public Health, Safety and Maintenance of Law and Order; or Public
Welfare and Maintenance of National Economic Posture. (Note Under
emergency circumstances, Essential NSEP telecommunication services
may be recategorized as Emergency NSEP and assigned a priority
level “E” for provisioning.)
(1) National security leadership. This subcategory will
be strictly limited to only those telecommunication services
essential to national survival if nuclear attack threatens or
occurs, and critical orderwire and control services necessary to
ensure the rapid and efficient provisioning or restoration of other
NSEP telecommunication services. Services in this subcategory are
those for which a service interruption of even a few minutes would
have serious adverse impact upon the supported NSEP function.
(a) Criteria. To qualify under this subcategory, a
service must be at least one of the following:
(i) Critical orderwire, or control service, supporting other
NSEP functions.
(ii) Presidential communications service critical to continuity
of government and national leadership during crisis situations.
(iii) National Command Authority communications service for
military command and control critical to national survival.
(iv) Intelligence communications service critical to warning of
potentially catastrophic attack.
(v) Communications service supporting the conduct of diplomatic
negotiations critical to arresting or limiting hostilities.
(b) Priority level assignment. Services under this
subcategory will normally be assigned priority level “1” for
provisioning and restoration during the Peace/Crisis/Mobilization
time period.
(2) National security posture and U.S. population attack
warning. This subcategory covers those minimum additional
telecommunication services essential to maintaining an optimum
defense, diplomatic, or continuity-of-government postures before,
during, and after crises situations. Such situations are those
ranging from national emergencies to international crises,
including nuclear attack. Services in this subcategory are those
for which a service interruption ranging from a few minutes to one
day would have serious adverse impact upon the supported NSEP
function.
(a) Criteria. To qualify under this subcategory, a
service must support at least one of the following NSEP
functions:
(i) Threat assessment and attack warning.
(ii) Conduct of diplomacy.
(iii) Collection, processing, and dissemination of
intelligence.
(iv) Command and control of military forces.
(v) Military mobilization.
(vi) Continuity of Federal government before, during, and after
crises situations.
(vii) Continuity of state and local government functions
supporting the Federal government during and after national
emergencies.
(viii) Recovery of critical national functions after crises
situations.
(ix) National space operations.
(b) Priority level assignment. Services under this
subcategory will normally be assigned priority level “2,” “3,” “4,”
or “5” for provisioning and restoration during
Peacetime/Crisis/Mobilization.
(3) Public health, safety, and maintenance of law and
order. This subcategory covers the minimum number of
telecommunication services necessary for giving civil alert to the
U.S. population and maintaining law and order and the health and
safety of the U.S. population in times of any national, regional,
or serious local emergency. These services are those for which a
service interruption ranging from a few minutes to one day would
have serious adverse impact upon the supported NSEP functions.
(a) Criteria. To qualify under this subcategory, a
service must support at least one of the following NSEP
functions:
(i) Population warning (other than attack warning).
(ii) Law enforcement.
(iii) Continuity of critical state and local government
functions (other than support of the Federal government during and
after national emergencies).
(vi) Hospitals and distributions of medical supplies.
(v) Critical logistic functions and public utility services.
(vi) Civil air traffic control.
(vii) Military assistance to civil authorities.
(viii) Defense and protection of critical industrial
facilities.
(ix) Critical weather services.
(x) Transportation to accomplish the foregoing NSEP
functions.
(b) Priority level assignment. Service under this
subcategory will normally be assigned priority levels “3,” “4,” or
“5” for provisioning and restoration during
Peacetime/Crisis/Mobilization.
(4) Public welfare and maintenance of national economic
posture. This subcategory covers the minimum number of
telecommunications services necessary for maintaining the public
welfare and national economic posture during any national or
regional emergency. These services are those for which a service
interruption ranging from a few minutes to one day would have
serious adverse impact upon the supported NSEP function.
(a) Criteria. To qualify under this subcategory, a
service must support at least one of the following NSEP
functions:
(i) Distribution of food and other essential supplies.
(ii) Maintenance of national monetary, credit, and financial
systems.
(iii) Maintenance of price, wage, rent, and salary
stabilization, and consumer rationing programs.
(iv) Control of production and distribution of strategic
materials and energy supplies.
(v) Prevention and control of environmental hazards or
damage.
(vi) Transportation to accomplish the foregoing NSEP
functions.
(b) Priority level assignment. Services under this
subcategory will normally be assigned priority levels “4” or “5”
for provisioning and restoration during
Peacetime/Crisis/Mobilization.
d. Limitations. Priority levels will be assigned only to
the minimum number of telecommunication services required to
support an NSEP function. Priority levels will not normally be
assigned to backup services on a continuing basis, absent
additional justification, e.g., a service user specifies a
requirement for physically diverse routing or contracts for
additional continuity-of-service features. The Executive Office of
the President may also establish limitations upon the relative
numbers of services which may be assigned any restoration priority
level. These limitations will not take precedence over laws or
executive orders. Such limitations shall not be exceeded absent
waiver by the Executive Office of the President.
e. Non-NSEP services. Telecommunication services in the
non-NSEP category will be those which do not meet the criteria for
either Emergency NSEP or Essential NSEP.
[53 FR 47536, Nov. 23, 1988; 54 FR 152, Jan. 4, 1989; 54 FR 1471,
Jan. 13, 1989, as amended at 67 FR 13229, Mar. 21, 2002; 71 FR
69038, Nov. 29, 2006]