WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) were thwarted last week in their attempts to attach language to the FCC spending bill that would allow the government to take back licenses from bankrupt operators.
The conference committee charged with melding together the House and Senate versions of the commerce, justice, state and judiciary appropriations bill rejected the proposal championed by Gregg after the House said it would not include it.
“We have no flexibility. We can discuss it as long as you would like but our position is inflexible,” said Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House commerce, justice, state and judiciary appropriations subcommittee. Gregg is the chairman of the same subcommittee in the Senate.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) suggested Gregg amend the language to “prospective rather than retroactive,” taking out companies already in bankruptcy proceedings. Gregg said he had suggested that in private negotiations, but the House rejected that plan as well.
The House was taking its cue from Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas), who told reporters the next day that it is wrong to take back property won at auction. It is “fundamentally wrong to expropriate property in the face of bankruptcy. This is what they do in Chile, not in America,” Armey said.
One of the bankrupt operators that could lose licenses if the provision were to become law, General Wireless Inc. (Metro PCS), is located in Texas. GWI has emerged from bankruptcy, but the FCC is expected to appeal the ruling to a federal appeals court. The bankruptcy court ruled GWI only owes $166 million for its licenses instead of $1.06 billion.
The FCC was disappointed. “They are taking money out of the pockets of the American people … at a minimum we should get the value for the spectrum that was bid on the license,” said Ari Fitzgerald, legal adviser to FCC Chairman William Kennard.
The spending bill is tied up in a larger battle over budget priorities and President Clinton has issued a veto threat against the bill because it does not contain enough money for his community-oriented policing services (COPS) program.
The White House and Congress are in a debate over the best way to finish the budget for fiscal year 2000, which began Oct. 1. Traditionally spending bills are sent to the president in 13 individual items. As of last Friday, the president had signed into law only six bills, leaving seven that must be passed by Congress and signed by the president.
Meanwhile, the government continues operating under continuing resolution. The first stop-gap measure expired last week, but Clinton and congressional leaders and agreed to extend the budget negotiations until this Friday.
Republicans plan to have the seven remaining bills to the president by Tuesday.
Until the commerce, justice, state and judiciary bill is signed into law, the FCC bankruptcy spectrum provision could resurface. Indeed, last year the provision made it into the next-to-last version of legislation but was yanked by Armey as the bill was being sent to the president for his signature.
In other action, the conference committee set the FCC’s FY 2000 budget at $210 million. A large portion of this amount, almost $186 million, is to be raised through regulatory fees.
Recently, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, stated the FCC doesn’t know if all required fees are being paid. Regulatory fees are a separate assessment from filing fees since regulatory fees go to offset congressional appropriations and filing fees are sent to the general treasury. The amount of regulatory fees to be collected is set each year by Congress.
Additionally, the FCC was given buy-out authority to offer employees up to $25,000 if they wish to leave the agency as part of an early retirement program.
