Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI
Re:	Reform of Certain Part 61 Tariff Rules, WC Docket No. 18-276; Petitions for Limited Waiver of 61.74(a), WC Docket No. 17-308.
In the 1999 movie Office Space, Peter Gibbons, played by Ron Livingston, is stuck in a soul-crushing job at an inefficient tech company.  His circumstance is most memorably illustrated by the number of times he’s badgered by management for incorrectly filing mindless paperwork called TPS Reports. Office Space Movie Clip – “Did You Get the Memo?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLUidiYm0w.  
  
We don’t have TPS Reports here at the FCC, but we do require carriers to file needless paperwork called the “short form TRP.”  Under our current rules, price cap carriers must submit certain supporting information—known as a “short form tariff review plan,” or TRP—90 days before their annual access charge filings are effective.  But early submission of this information is no longer necessary given the ease of reviewing electronic filings and the decrease in the complexity of annual access charge filings over time.  So, in today’s Order, we eliminate the short form TRP filing requirement.
We also amend decades-old rules that ban cross-referencing between tariffs.  Today’s amendments allow a carrier to cross-reference its own tariffs and those of its affiliates.  Such cross-references were difficult to follow when these often-massive tariffs were filed in paper form, but they can now be easily accessed electronically by clicking on a hyperlink.
In short, when it comes to eliminating outdated rules, this Commission has gotten the memo.  For their great work in bringing our tariff filing rules into the digital age, I’d like to thank Irina Asoskov, Susan Bahr, Robin Cohn, Amy Goodman, Lisa Hone, Kris Monteith, and Gil Strobel of the Wireline Competition Bureau; Dick Kwiatkowski of the Office of Economics and Analytics; and Valerie Hill, Rick Mallen, and Bill Richardson of the Office of General Counsel.

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