White House Opposes FCC Budget Cuts

The White House said Monday it strongly opposed passage in the House of an appropriations bill that would, among other things, reduce the FCC's budget.

In a statement of Administration policy on H.R 5016, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, the White House said that it strongly objected to the FCC funding cuts, which would be $53 million below its request and a $17 million cut from its 2014 allocation.

"This funding level would undermine efforts at the FCC to modernize information technology systems, better map and analyze spectrum usage to free up more bandwidth for commercial use, and continue needed reforms to the Universal Service Fund," the White House said.

"Further, the legislation includes ideological and political provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation," the White House said, and signaled the President would veto the bill in its current form.

The bill is scheduled to get floor time Tuesday (July 15) for debate and amendments and could be voted on this week.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.