WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission would be phased out over five years and spectrum management given over to a board with limited powers, under a new balanced budget proposal by a conservative think tank.
“Although the Telecommunications Act of 1996 eliminated many of the rules and regulations for which the FCC was responsible, Congress failed to address restructuring or downsizing the agency as part of this deregulatory package,” stated the Heritage Foundation.
“Without serious reform and downsizing,” Heritage said, “the FCC will continue to interfere needlessly in the increasingly competitive communications marketplace.”
The think tank recommended phasing out the FCC 20 percent each year over five years.
“Balancing the budget is an achievable goal,” said Scott Hodge, editor of the 450-page Heritage budget and a fellow at the group which specializes in federal budgetary affairs.
“The last Congress eliminated 270 federal offices, agencies and programs, and the average American probably can’t name even one,” said Hodge. “As long as lawmakers tread cautiously where popular programs like Medicare are concerned, cuts in the rest of the budget will go largely unnoticed.”
For the past two years, the GOP-controlled Congress has boasted loudly about plans to downsize government but Republicans have grown more timid since their embarrassing defeat to President Clinton in the budget battle that resulted in two partial government shutdowns.
From 1998 to 2002, the Heritage Foundation would consolidate all spectrum management-federal government and private-within the FCC.
Today, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration oversees federal government spectrum usage and advises the president on telecommunications policy. NTIA would be closed under the Heritage proposal.
Once the FCC itself is phased out, spectrum management would rest with a “Spectrum Coordination Council or Board … to enforce property rights in the spectrum and to handle remaining concerns, such as international coordination and dispute resolution.” The board would reside within the executive branch and could be self-funded through spectrum management fees.
The Heritage Foundation strongly supports auctioning spectrum, which it projects could raise $35 billion during the next five years (about the same as the Clinton administration’s estimate), and giving auction winners property rights to use the airwaves as they wish.
The same approach is championed by FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, but not by the other three commissioners.
Heritage supports efforts to expand auction authority beyond subscription wireless services to encompass commercial broadcast and federal government frequencies.
“Although there are some legitimate public uses for spectrum that involve national security and public safety, the greatest portion of publicly held spectrum is simply being hoarded by government agencies,” said Heritage.
“These bodies should be required to surrender large portions of their spectrum for auctioning to ensure that this valuable resource is used efficiently while simultaneously raising substantial revenues for the Treasury. Unfortunately, it is impossible to place a value on this spectrum, precisely because it has never been held privately and therefore has never commanded a market price.”
As such, the Heritage budget plan would cut the number of cabinet-level agencies, 14, in half and drastically reduce the number of independent federal agencies.
