FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged Congress to adequately...
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged Congress to adequately fund the agency’s IT systems, prompting a defense from the GOP lawmaker responsible for a lean House version of the agency’s budget. Wheeler authored the blog post Wednesday, coinciding with both a…
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House vote for an FY 2015 FCC budget more than $50 million below what the FCC requested (CD July 17 p3 ) and the agency’s inability to handle the volume of net neutrality comments hitting. “It is particularly distasteful that the FCC -- the agency entrusted with promoting a world-class broadband infrastructure for the nation -- could ever be incapable of dealing with Americans expressing themselves via that broadband capability,” Wheeler said (http://fcc.us/1t8Mbwn). “I am hopeful that leaders in Congress, recognizing the importance of these systems to the public’s ability to communicate their views to the FCC without complication or delay, will ultimately reach agreement on funding levels that ensure we have the resources to modernize and upgrade our IT systems.” But a House Republican thinks the FCC should make do with less: “Given today’s technological and competitive landscape, I believe the FCC needs to do a better job at being a leaner, more efficient, and more transparent agency,” House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., told us in a statement. “My committee’s Fiscal Year 2015 allocation demands that the Commission review its organizational structure to reform and reorganize. Doing so will more appropriately reflect the Commission’s current role and enable it to keep up with the pace of the technology industries they regulate.” Crenshaw said the FCC “is funded by fees, [but] these are fees directly passed on to consumers.” The White House specifically objected to Crenshaw’s budget on the basis of its FCC funding. The Senate has not yet advanced a budget for the FCC past the committee level, but the Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee budget draft is at the level the agency requested.