FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will defend the FCC's
budget in an upcoming House hearing, an FCC source confirms.
He is scheduled to appear before the Republican-led House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related
Agencies (he hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m.
on March 30).
The FCC's budget has been targeted by some House Republicans
as a way to defund the FCC's new network neutrality rules and to zero out
funding for its chief diversity officer position, which has been branded part
of an unelected czardom the Republicans said the administration hadinstalled in positions of power that did not require congressional
confirmation.
Defunding both were included in an appropriations bill that
passed the House but not the Senate.
There could also be questions about a spectrum fee proposed
in the FCC budget as a "spectrum policy" tool, as well as a way for
the FCC to raise billions over the next 10 years. The FCC has suggested it
could use a spectrum fee as another way to encourage broadcasters to give
up spectrum real estate for wireless broadband. That would be the stick for
staying, the carrot being incentive auctions to compensate them for
exiting.
