House Appropriations Debates FY25 FCC-FTC Funding Bill With Anti-Net Neutrality Rider

The House Appropriations Committee continued debating Thursday afternoon the Financial Services Subcommittee’s FY 2025 funding bill, which increases the FCC’s annual allocation to $416 million and decreases the FTC’s annual funding to $388.7 million (see 2406050067). Communications policy lobbyists said panel Democrats might attempt removing riders from the measure that bar the FCC from using funding for implementing its net neutrality and digital discrimination orders, but they hadn’t sought votes on such amendments at our deadline.

House Appropriations Financial Services Chairman Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, specifically mentioned the riders, saying they would bar the commission “from regulating broadband rates.” Panel Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the funding bill ensures “agencies are focused on their core mission” and would “constrain bureaucratic overreach and provide critical oversight over the executive branch.” House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., countered that the bill’s policy riders “put forth by the majority are unacceptable.”

DeLauro and House Appropriations Financial Services ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md., criticized committee Republicans for cutting the FTC’s annual funding. The proposed $388.7 million the FTC would receive under the FY25 measure would be a more than 8% decrease from its FY 2024 allocation and more than 27% less than President Joe Biden proposed in March (see 2403110056). “We urge Congress to reject” reduced funding, which would hinder the agency from “protecting Americans from corporate price gouging and scammers,” DeLauro said.

House Appropriations’ proposed report on the Financial Services funding bill notes funding concerns with the expired affordable connectivity program and Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. A rip-and-replace briefing, due within 60 days of the funding bill’s enactment, would focus on “the status of Chinese technology and equipment eligible for” removal, “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.” The report notes House Appropriations “is aware” of ACP’s expiration and wants a briefing “on existing programs to ensure that low-income Americans stay connected.”

The Rules Committee didn’t allow a floor vote earlier this week on a proposed amendment from Reps. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., and Mike Carey, R-Ohio, to the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-8070) that mirrors an earlier bipartisan Senate proposal allocating ACP and rip-and-replace funding (see 2406100045). The panel also didn’t allow floor consideration of a proposal, led by Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., directing the Federal Emergency Management Agency head to “clarify and document the responsibilities and decision-making process” for the Integrated Public Alert Warning System “to deliver tsunami alerts to the Emergency Alert System.”

The House Appropriations report notes interest in a range of other FCC initiatives, including the 5G Fund. The committee is “concerned that the [5G Fund’s] current budget … will not be sufficient to support nationwide 5G services” and “directs the FCC to allocate sufficient resources in the Universal Service Fund (USF) to establish a greater 5G Fund budget needed to preserve and expand mobile 5G connectivity nationwide and update the 5G Fund framework to reflect changes in technology and service since the FCC established the” program. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., praised House Appropriations for recognizing the importance of ensuring 5G service in underserved and “rural communities like mine to ensure that they can thrive today and into the future.”