House Asks FCC Members to Testify at Oversight Hearing

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The House Communications Subcommittee has invited all five FCC commissioners to testify at a general oversight hearing to talk about FCC reauthorization.

That is according to a committee spokesperson, who said the hearing would be sometime in March.

There is already a hearing scheduled for March 4 on the FCC's budget, but the only witness will be FCC managing director Jon Wilkins.

The FCC asked for $388,000,000 for FY2016. That is up from the $375,380,313 it asked for in FY2015, attributable almost entirely to the need to either move to a new headquarters or "restacking" the current space given the expiration of the FCC's lease. Doing so will save the FCC $119 million over 15 years, the FCC has said.

The FCC's budget is entirely covered by regulatory fees, in addition to which the commission will be generating billions for the treasury through its ongoing spectrum auctions.

John Eggerton
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.