President Joe Biden on Monday released a $5.8 trillion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. In the 156-page plan, the FCC requests $390 million in budget authority from regulatory fee offsetting collections. This request represents an increase of $16 million or 4.3 percent from the FY 2022 annualized Continuing Resolution (CR) level of $374 million.
The Commission requests $132,231,000 in budget authority for the spectrum auctions program. This represents a decrease of $2,264,000 or 1.7 percent from the FY 2022 annualized CR level of $134.5 million. As of January 31, 2022, the Commission’s spectrum auctions program has generated over $233 billion for government use; at the same time, the total cost of the auctions program has been less than $2.3 billion or 1 percent of the total auctions’ revenue.
The agency wants to hire more people. “In creating a lean, accountable, and efficient Commission that works for the American people,” the FCC says it requests 1,600 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) funded by budget authority from regulatory fee offsetting collections, spectrum auctions program, and other budget authorities provided by President and Congress. This FTE level is an increase of 128 from the FY 2022 estimated level of 1,472.
The budget request includes more than a half-billion additional dollars in direct broadband aid, as well as billions in discretionary spending billed as, in part, a complement to the $65 billion already allocated for closing the digital divide in the Infrastructure Law. The additional, direct funding is in the form of a proposed $600 million in additional spending on the USDA’s ReConnect program, supplementing an original $1.15 billion in federal loans and grants to deploy broadband in rural areas, reports NextTV.
The Commerce Department, which is distributing the bulk of the $65 billion broadband infrastructure spending, will get $11.7 billion in discretionary funding to “complement major investments in broadband Internet access and climate resilience.”
There is also $25 million in direct funding for rural telecom cooperatives to refinance their Rural Utilities Service debt and upgrade broadband facilities. The budget provides for $28.5 billion for USDA, which the budget says is meant to “complement” broadband deployment funding in the Infrastructure Law, as well as conservation and forest management.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the president’s budget proposal is only a recommendation to Congress about how it should appropriate funds for the upcoming fiscal year. Lawmakers are supposed to pass a budget resolution outlining expected spending by April 15, and then have until October 1 to approve a final budget or a stopgap measure extending funding at current levels, notes Forbes.
Congress failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year by the end of last September, forcing lawmakers to pass a series of temporary measures to avoid a government shutdown until lawmakers finally struck a deal and passed a measure this month. With an evenly split Senate and moderate Democrats hesitant over heightened spending, it’s unclear how much of Biden’s proposal can ultimately clear Congress.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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