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 Under section 706 of the Communications Act, this authority may be superseded, and expanded to include non-common carrier telecommunication services, by the war emergency powers of the President of the United States.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users to comply with policies and procedures establishing the NSEP TSP System, until such policies and procedures are superseded by the President's war emergency powers.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to implement responsibilities assigned in section 6(b) of this appendix, or (2) for use in the event this appendix is superseded by the President's war emergency powers.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.

(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.

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]