WASHINGTON-The big budget battle of 1995 now unfolding in Congress will shape wireless telecommunications policy in a fierce debate expected to test the resolve of the new Republican majority and the resiliency of the sputtering Clinton presidency.
Budget politics will touch almost everything in sight, including telecommunications reform, auctions, the Federal Communications Commission and possibly even pioneer’s preference licensees.
Some believe the second 100 days of the 104th Congress will be even nastier, bloodier and generally wilder than the first 100, during which House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., led a loyal battalion of conservative freshman and veteran Republicans to victory by passing a series of legislative reforms in a political manifesto called the Contract with America.
“It will be crazy in a different sense,” said Marc Kimball, a Democratic aide on the House Budget Committee. “I think it will be just as hectic.” The difference between the first and second 100 days is that this time more money will be at stake, presidential politics will be more pronounced and the issues will be more politically explosive.
Within the complex web of the budget process are several major wireless telecommunications issues. The Clinton administration is expected to press its case for expanded auction authority at some point during congressional consideration of the budget reconciliation measure.
The White House, according to a source, will seek to extend permanently beyond 1998 the FCC’s spectrum auction authority. Only broadcast spectrum will be exempted. Public-safety channels will not be shielded from competitive bidding, but licensees may be compensated for moving to comparable facilities on other frequencies. The plan also earmarks more federal government frequencies for the private sector and seeks permission for “flexible licenses” that allow bidders to decide how to use the spectrum they buy.
The administration wants to raise nearly $5 billion from auctions during the next five years. Almost $9 billion has been generated from auctions to date.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are anxious about giving the FCC too much responsibility for implementing telecommunications reform legislation and overseeing industry deregulation because to do so means increasing the budget of an agency Republicans want to downsize.
Also, watch for an attempt during the budget process to force pioneer’s preferences winners to pay more money for broadband personal communications services licenses.
President Clinton’s political standing in the months leading into next year’s campaign season could be significantly influenced by how he fares in the budget debate. Republicans, who have held together so far, may have to break ranks with leadership on budget issues that hurt hometown voters.
Between now and the hot, sweltering months ahead, the GOP-led Congress and the Clinton administration will knock heads-perhaps harder than at any time since the Republicans grabbed control of both houses last fall-over the budget.
The Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and the House Budget Committee, headed by John Kasich, R-Ohio, have begun work on the fiscal 1996 budget and on an ambitious, seven-year plan to erase the deficit by 2002 by trimming more than $1 trillion in federal spending during that period. The budget resolution they craft is a blueprint establishing spending, revenue and deficit-reduction parameters.
From there, authorization and appropriations committees will take up legislation to meet budget targets. Afterwards, through the rest of the summer, Congress will work on a budget reconciliation bill that changes the law to achieve revenue and spending levels set in the budget resolution.
