Monday's release of President Donald Trump's FY 2020 $4.7 trillion federal budget proposal provided a limited picture of its potential impact on telecom and tech-centric federal agencies, with the FTC the only of those entities to release budget justification documents. The White House said it won't release an appendix of its full budget proposal figures until March 18. The FCC and Commerce Department didn't release their proposals. The administration is proposing $312.3 million in funding for the FTC, up from the almost $310 million it proposed in FY 2019 and the similar amount allocated in the federal spending law Trump signed last month (see 1902150055). The FTC's budget would keep staffing level from FY 2019 at 1,140 full-time equivalents. The agency plans to keep its division of labor unchanged, too, with 612 employees working in jobs aimed at consumer protection activities and 528 in competition-related roles. DOJ said it's allocating $166.8 million of its $29.2 billion proposed FY 2020 budget for the Antitrust Division and proposes increasing the division's staffing level by 39 positions. The White House's budget proposal again mentioned a perennial proposal to introduce a spectrum license user fee, which it estimates would generate about $4 billion revenue through 2029. FCC-administered spectrum auctions could generate $6.6 billion revenue through 2029, the White House said. The Trump administration also outlined infrastructure-related aspects of its budget proposal, which include $200 billion in funding for rural broadband and other non-transportation sectors.
Chairman Ajit Pai called the FCC's USF rate floor policy "crazy" philosophically, and cited plans for remedial actions. The idea that government forces rural telco phone rates up to reflect a national average, or lose high-cost USF support, doesn't make sense, he said in Q&A with NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield webcast from a rural telecom show in New Orleans. He hopes to "move with dispatch" to get fellow commissioners to agree with him on near-term relief and a longer-term solution. He recently criticized the rate floor and told lawmakers he planned to seek action in coming months (see 1901310036). Separately, Pai said he's seeking a "balance" on broadband performance testing that holds USF-backed providers accountable for their data-speed commitments while streamlining the process as much as possible to ease industry burdens. He said the FCC is focused on coordinating with the Agriculture and Commerce departments on broadband infrastructure efforts to ensure "we speak with one voice" so parties "aren't running over each other" and "we get the most bang for our buck." He said the commission wants to encourage more rural fiber deployment to feed nascent 5G wireless systems, which he believes have much potential in rural areas, though he recognized the business plan is difficult. It's important to create small geographic license sizes in spectrum auctions to "incentivize" bidding by small as well as big providers, he said: "Stay tuned." He spoke enthusiastically about the opportunities broadband can create in rural America through remote healthcare and other applications, noting when he was growing up in rural Kansas, his doctor father used to drive 45 miles to visit patients. His overall focus remains on ensuring every American is "empowered" in the digital age: "That requires broadband."
NTIA posted comments Wednesday on the national spectrum strategy, many of them released by those who wrote them during the prolonged federal shutdown (see 1901230028 and 1901250040). Apple and Facebook were among additional companies offering advice. Comments are here.
Pointing to electronic systems and databases not fully accessible during the partial federal shutdown, the FCC is again extending filing deadlines, said a public notice Tuesday (see 1901290014). Filings due Jan. 3-7 remain due Jan. 30. Now, those due Jan. 8-Feb. 7 aren't due until Feb. 8. Responsive pleadings to filings with new deadlines get an extension of the same amount of time after the comment deadline. Any transaction shot clocks that froze Jan. 2 when the agency closed restarted Tuesday. Universal licensing system applications and notifications due Jan. 3-Feb. 8 now have a Feb. 8 deadline. ULS filings held during the shutdown and afterward will be considered received as of Tuesday. The large number of ULS filings received during the shutdown will be entered in batches over weeks, with a Jan. 29 receipt date. Written provider responses to informal consumer complaints filed via the complaint center that became due during the shutdown now are due Wednesday. Online public inspection quarterly filings due Jan. 10, and all non-quarterly filings required for a station’s online public inspection Jan. 3-28, now must be submitted by Feb. 11. Filings during the shutdown must be resubmitted to the proper online public inspection file site. The FCC said it can't waive statutory deadlines but won't consider itself open for the filing of documents with statutory deadlines -- other than filings related to spectrum auctions -- until Wednesday. Special temporary authorities that would have expired Jan. 3-29 are extended until Feb. 8. Fee and other payments that can be made only through the fee filer system and due Jan. 3-Feb. 7 are extended by the same schedule as regulatory filings. Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee membership nominations to BDAC@fcc.gov are needed by Feb. 4. The tower construction notification system, electronic Section 106 system and antenna structure registration system resume Jan. 30. Related deadlines and tribal review timelines are tolled Jan. 3-30. Tribal nations have 30 days to review an application uploaded to the E-106 system. The PN supersedes earlier guidance. A separate PN said the Media Bureau will set new deadlines on NAB/NCTA's election cycle notification proposal in the Federal Register. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai got positive reactions for moving next month's meeting to Feb. 14, the day before the next shutdown would occur if there's no new budget, and making the tentative agenda the same as originally planned for this Wednesday (see 1901290031).
The full federal government got back to work Monday, after a prolonged partial shutdown that shuttered the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other agencies overseeing communications policy. Incoming FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks will be sworn in Wednesday by Chairman Ajit Pai in an eighth-floor conference room and will participate in the commissioners’ meeting that follows, said industry officials. President Donald Trump signed off Friday on a continuing resolution to reopen the FCC and other shuttered agencies through Feb. 15, after the House passed the measure as expected (see 1901240016).
Despite relatively low bids in the first U.S. high-band spectrum auction ended Thursday (see 1901240034), it was a success, regulators and industry officials said. The next step is the start of the 24 GHz auction, which the FCC will announce this week. It plans an auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands later in the year. “This will allow Americans to see even faster, more competitive, & next-gen broadband services,” Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted Friday.
Winning the race to 5G will require “substantial additional terrestrial spectrum” and a “clearly defined schedule” for making that spectrum available, CTIA commented to NTIA on the national spectrum policy. Despite a government shutdown, which includes most of NTIA, CTIA and others released comments. Most appeared to follow past arguments. The filings are unlikely to be posted online until government reopens, industry officials said.
The FCC will continue to make key systems available to the public, even as staff are sent home starting mid-day Thursday, said a detailed announcement (see 1901020043). Many, including staff, feared systems would be taken offline as they were in 2013 (see 1812280021). Staff held an all-hands meeting Wednesday afternoon to be briefed on the details before release of the public notice, agency and industry officials said.
The FCC’s first high-band spectrum auction, for the 28 GHz band, had $690 million in provisionally winning bids when it closed for the holidays. It was still unclear whether it will reopen Thursday, an issue expected to be addressed in the FCC’s Wednesday shutdown public notice. Industry analysts said the numbers so far, though far lower than some previous spectrum auctions, aren’t surprising. The AWS-3 auction ended in 2015 at a record $44.9 billion and the 600 MHz TV incentive auction two years later at $20 billion.
The FCC electronic comment filing system, electronic document management system, Daily Digest, universal licensing system and network outage reporting system will remain up during the partial government and agency shutdown, said a public notice Wednesday. Shot clocks on deals will be paused, though some incentive auction activities will continue, the PN said. Comment deadlines also will be paused.