Senate Appropriations Advances FY 2024 FCC, FTC Funding Hikes; House Panel Sets Cuts

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday unanimously advanced its version of a FY 2024 federal spending bill that proposes increased annual funding for the FCC and FTC. The House Appropriations Committee voted 34-26 that afternoon to advance the Financial Services Subcommittee's FY24 spending bill, which would decrease funding for both agencies. The House Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science and Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies subcommittees plan to mark up their FY24 spending bills Friday with proposals to decrease funding to NTIA and other tech-related Commerce Department agencies and end CPB’s traditional “two-year advance funding status” altogether.

The Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee’s bill would increase the FCC’s funding to more than $410.7 million, including almost $12.7 million for its independent Office of Inspector General. That’s in line with what President Joe Biden proposed in March (see 2303130070) and a 5% increase from the amount Congress approved for the FCC in December as part of the FY 2023 omnibus appropriations package. The measure’s final text wasn’t available Thursday afternoon. The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee’s bill seeks almost $382 million for the FCC, 7% less than Senate Appropriations proposes and a 2% decrease from FY23.

House Appropriations’ report on the Financial Services bill seeks a raft of FCC briefings and reports on a range of telecom policy issues. It would direct the FCC to brief the committee within 90 days of the measure’s enactment on its “approach to resolving filed challenges to the National Broadband Map, any ongoing accuracy issues with the [map] and plans for ensuring future accuracy.” It calls for the FCC to brief the committee “on the status of Chinese technology and equipment eligible for removal and replacement under the commission’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program, “including information on the number of at-risk networks, the number of grant requests outstanding, and key security vulnerabilities the FCC has identified through the program.”

Senate Appropriations seeks $450 million for the FTC in FY24, more than 23% less than the $590 million Biden requested. That spending level is more than 4% above what the FTC got for FY23. House Appropriations Financial Services proposes $376.5 million for the FTC, a 12% decrease from FY23 (see 2212210077). The House panel’s report “cautions” the FTC against using the Hart-Scott-Rodino Improvements Act, aimed at preventing anti-competitive behavior, “in a way that was not intended by Congress.” It also calls for the commission to include “in the budget a description of each enforcement action brought using an administrative or judicial process for ‘unfair or deceptive acts or practices’ under FTC Act Section 5(a) authority.

“This bill makes it harder to enforce the law by imposing significant cuts on key regulatory agencies,” including the FCC and FTC, said House Appropriations Financial Services ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “We will quibble about these numbers, but the bill represents an adequate level of funding, given our fiscal constraints,” said subpanel Chairman Steve Womack, R-Ark. “The pursuit of a job-killing, burdensome and unnecessary regulatory agenda only serves to further bloat a federal bureaucracy that has become too big, too intrusive, and counter-intuitive to limited government. We move in that direction with this bill.”

House Appropriations’ LHHS bill would require CPB to “compete with other programs in the bill for annual funding,” the panel said in a summary. The bill text didn’t make clear what that process would be. LHHS’ markup of the measure will begin at 10 a.m. Friday. Biden sought $575 million for FY 2025, a 7% increase from FY23. The House-side Republican Study Committee proposed in June zeroing out CPB funding (see 2306150063). Then-President Donald Trump repeatedly tried to end CPB funding (see 2002100056).

House Appropriations CJS proposes $54 million for NTIA, an almost 13% decrease from FY23 and a more than 50% drop from what Biden sought. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would get more than $1.47 billion, a more than 9% decrease from FY23 and a 13% drop from the administration’s proposal. The Patent Office would get almost $4.2 billion, a 1% decrease from FY23 but level with Biden. The DOJ Antitrust Division would get more than $192.7 million, a 14% drop from FY23 and more than 40% less than what the administration proposed. The CJS markup will begin at 9 a.m. Friday. Senate Appropriations voted 28-1 Thursday to approve its CJS Subcommittee measure, but a summary offered few specific funding levels and bill text wasn’t available that afternoon.