Lawmakers Taking Close Look At FCC Budget Plans

Some Republican lawmakers are questioning the FCC’s new budget request, with a couple of them attempting to tie the agency’s funding to its controversial net neutrality, according to PCWorld.

The FCC’s vote last Thursday to impose new net neutrality rules on broadband providers will likely face a court challenge, Representative Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) said during a hearing before the communications subcommittee of House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Defending the net neutrality order “will not be costless,” Johnson said.

Most lawmakers at the hearing steered clear of the net neutrality debate and focused more generally on the FCC’s fiscal year 2016 budget request. The agency is asking for $530 million, $84 million more than in fiscal year 2015. A big chunk of the requested increase, $51 million, would be to move to new headquarters or to consolidate operations in a smaller space at its current building. Either of those options would yield a projected $119 million in savings over 15 years.

Another $21 million would go toward IT projects, with $15 million for replacing the agency’s aging IT infrastructure, including the online public comment system that collapsed in June during a period of heavy net neutrality comment traffic.

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