Budget Politics May Imperil NTIA Funding for BTOP Oversight
NTIA must soon convince a Congress concerned about federal spending to pay millions of dollars so the agency can conduct oversight of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. In December, the lame-duck Congress passed a continuing resolution increasing NTIA’s budget by about $20 million to $40.6 million, in part to pay for BTOP oversight. The resolution expires March 4. With one month to go and the GOP-controlled House looking for budget cuts, some fiscal conservatives are looking at NTIA.
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NTIA confirmed that it has met with House Republican appropriators about the funding issue. “NTIA’s programs help catalyze innovation, preserve America’s technology leadership and spur economic growth,” said Anna Gomez, deputy assistant secretary for communications and information. “We will continue to work with Congress to ensure sufficient funding for our activities, including efforts to identify the spectrum needed for wireless broadband, international negotiations to advance America’s interests in the rapidly growing Internet economy, and oversight of $4 billion in broadband expansion projects."
The House Appropriations Committee “is looking at all federal programs for potential cuts, everything is on the table, and no program or project will be exempt from scrutiny,” a House GOP aide said. “The intention is to make judicious and responsible decisions to significantly reduce non-security discretionary spending, while continuing to meet obligations to essential and necessary government operations."
House Republicans and President Barack Obama may be as much as $80 billion apart on desired government funding through the end of fiscal year 2011, said David Taylor, managing partner of Capitol Solutions. In the State of the Union address, Obama proposed freezing non-security discretionary funding, but House Republicans have said they want to reduce spending to FY 2008 levels. House leaders said they will vote on such a measure the week of Feb. 14. Taylor said it’s unlikely that Obama and Congress will reach a deal before March 4, and Congress probably instead will adopt another short-term Continuing Resolution to fund the government.
"Congress should both pare back NTIA’s budget and demand the agency return whatever is left of the over $4 billion” in broadband money provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, said Kelly Cobb, an executive director at Americans for Tax Reform. NTIA’s budget was about $20 million before the continuing resolution. President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget had proposed an additional $24 million for broadband oversight. In December, the Senate Appropriations Committee said the resolution’s $40.6 million for NTIA would “prevent layoffs that would cause the agency to cease almost all operations."
Republicans’ focus on oversight could outweigh their urge to reduce spending, said some telecom industry lobbyists. “Politically, cutting funding to NTIA may be a popular idea,” said Paul Raak, vice president of the Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Alliance. “But with so much criticism and concern over how NTIA administered the broadband stimulus program, cutting funding intended to provide oversight may not accomplish the goal of either political party."
If lawmakers are worried about where stimulus funds have gone, they should want to fund NTIA, said analyst Craig Settles of Successful.com. “Oversight is not free,” he said. “Either you're going to have the oversight exercise and pay for it, or you don’t, but you can’t have both."
Some fiscal conservatives asked why NTIA needs so much money. Congressional oversight committees could handle oversight of the broadband program without requiring additional funds, said Seton Motley, president of Less Government. The administration already spent $18 million on Recovery.gov, which was designed for oversight of stimulus spending, Cobb said. “So the only thing more money for oversight does is inflate NTIA’s budget baseline.” But Settles said a Congressional oversight committee isn’t likely to chase hundreds of awardees around the country and monitor their progress. Recovery.gov is a useful resource, but doesn’t provide the level of detail that true, paid-for oversight would bring, he said.
"The funding needed by NTIA is tiny compared to the overall size of the budget, so we hope that both sides of the aisle in Congress recognize that the administrative funding for NTIA will have huge positive multiplier effects on economic growth,” said Telepoly President John Windhausen. “The BTOP projects, if NTIA is allowed to administer them properly, will prevent waste, fraud and abuse, and will create thousands of new jobs and broadband investment serving anchor institutions all across the country for decades to come.”