House Passes FY20 Appropriations Bills Funding FCC, FTC, Commerce, CPB

The House passed both FY 2020 federal appropriations “minibus” bills (HR-1158 and HR-1865) Tuesday, taking another step toward averting a government shutdown and funding the FCC, FTC and other agencies through June 30. The Senate must vote before the bills head to President Donald Trump. The House voted 280-138 to pass HR-1158, which allocates $339 million to the FCC and its Office of General Counsel and $331 million to the FTC. The FCC figure is on par with Congress' allocation to the commission in the FY 2019 spending bill but up from the $335.6 million the administration proposed for FY 2020 (see 1903180063). The FTC figure is exactly halfway between the House-proposed funding level of $349.7 million and the Senate Appropriations Committee-cleared level of $312.3 million. HR-1158 also allocates $40.4 million for NTIA, $1.03 billion for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and $3.45 billion for the Patent and Trademark Office. The NTIA funding figure is $2 million below what House and Senate appropriators originally allocated, while the PTO figure is on par with what lawmakers originally envisioned. The House voted 297-120 for HR-1865, which includes Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization language (see 1912160061) drawn from the House Commerce Committee’s Television Viewer Protection Act (HR-5035) and a modified version of the House Judiciary Committee-cleared Satellite Television Community Protection and Promotion Act (HR-5140). HR-1865 also allocates $465 million to CPB beginning in FY 2022 and $659.5 million to the Rural Utilities Service. The CPB figure is $20 million above what it received in annual funding over the past 10 years but $30 million below the amount the House originally allocated, as sought by America’s Public Television Stations (see 1903190033). “While we have appreciated steady funding through 10 years of budgetary austerity, we have been under increasing pressure to do more with less in recent years,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler. “Technology, viewer habits and our public service missions have changed dramatically during this time, and this increase in funding to $465 million will enable local public television stations to educate more children, protect more lives and property, and equip more well-informed citizens.”