Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: White House proposes broadband, antitrust budget boosts, (Mar 29, 2022)

By Lynn Stanton and Paul Kirby,TR Daily

The budget includes historic increases of over $100 million for the FTC and $88 million for the Antitrust Division.

President Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023 would provide as increased funding for antitrust enforcement by the Department of Justice and the FTC, which could be used to address consolidation, market dominance, and unfair trade practices in social media platform and other tech markets.

The FY 2023 budget request for the FTC would total $490 million, compared to $376.5 million for FY 2022. Of the FY 2023 funding, nearly $275 million would come from fees for Hart-Scott-Rodino Act premerger notification filings and $13 million would come from Telemarketing Sales Rule fees.

The White House said the budget proposal “reflects the Administration’s commitment to vigorous marketplace competition through robust enforcement of antitrust law by including historic increases of $88 million for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and $139 million for the FTC. The President also supports legislation that would align executives’ interests with the long-term interests of shareholders, workers, and the economy by requiring executives to hold on to company shares that they receive for several years after receiving them and prohibiting them from selling shares in the years after a stock buyback. This would discourage corporations from using profits to repurchase stock and enrich executives, rather than investing in long-term growth and innovation.”

The White House is proposing $67.6 million in funding for salaries and expenses at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, up from $50 million for FY 2022, “[p]rovided, [t]hat, notwithstanding 31 U.S.C. 1535(d), the Secretary of Commerce shall recover from Federal agencies the costs incurred in spectrum management, analysis, and operations, and such sums shall be collected from the agencies through non-expenditure transfers, to be retained and used for such purposes until expended: Provided further, That the Secretary of Commerce is authorized to retain and use as offsetting collections all funds transferred, or previously transferred, from other Government agencies for all costs incurred in telecommunications research, engineering, and related activities by the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences of NTIA, in furtherance of its assigned functions under this paragraph, and such funds received from other Government agencies shall remain available until expended.”

The White House fact sheet emphasized that the budget proposal would support “U.S. industry competing in the global communications market by providing $13 million for cutting-edge advanced communications research and engineering at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.” The proposal’s $13 million for advanced communications research is an increase of about $1 million from the amount provided by Congress for FY 2022.

The White House also proposed a $187 million increase for research initiatives at the National Institute of Standards and Technology “that would focus on developing standards to accelerate adoption of critical and emerging technologies with a focus on artificial intelligence, quantum science, and advanced biotechnologies. As part of this investment, the Budget includes an $8 million increase to strengthen U.S. leadership in international standards development for critical and emerging technologies,” the budget proposal says.

With respect to the Rural Utilities Service telecom and broadband programs, the White House fact sheet emphasized the president’s commitment “to ensuring that every American has access to broadband, which would not only strengthen rural economies, but also create high-paying union jobs installing broadband. Building on key investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Budget provides $600 million for the ReConnect program, which provides grants and loans to deploy broadband to unserved areas—especially tribal areas—and $25 million to help rural telecommunications cooperatives refinance their Rural Utilities Service debt and upgrade their broadband facilities.”

In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the budget proposal “builds on the $65 billion investment made by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to make high-speed internet available to all Americans, bring down high-speed internet prices across the board, and provide technical assistance to rural communities seeking to expand broadband through an additional $113 million over the 2022 enacted level for Reconnect to provide access to quality broadband to rural residents and address challenges for Tribal communities. Access to high-speed internet serves as an economic equalizer for rural America while creating high-paying union jobs in rural America.”

The FCC is seeking more than $390 million in budget authority for FY 2023 that would be offset by regulatory fees it charges entities, an increase from the nearly $382 million level for FY 2022. The Commission wants more than $132 million in budget authority for its spectrum auctions program. Of the FCC’s budget authority, at least $12.1 million would have to be used for the Office of Inspector General.

The FCC is requesting that 1,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees be funded from the offsetting regulatory fee collections, an increase of about 128 from the FY 2022 level.

The FCC said the budget request would include $35.9 million for base increases and $1.08 million for a one-time request for a new investment. The base increases are $22.9 million for additional FTEs, $5 million to implement the PIRATE Act, $2.5 million for virtual desktop infrastructure support, $2.22 million for regulatory IT and cybersecurity compliance, $2.03 million for a data and fraud detection tool, $1.04 million for application development teams, and $200,000 for OIG.

The one-time request is for a critical infrastructure upgrade that the FCC said was necessary to comply with a cybersecurity executive order signed by President Biden last year.

For the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, the budget proposal calls for “more than $350 million to expand reliable and affordable internet access through the development and deployment of secure digital and technological infrastructure. The Budget will improve international cybersecurity practices and promote the adoption of policies that support an open, interoperable, secure, and reliable internet. These resources will further develop programming across sectors, in support of the State Department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, and USAID’s digital development strategy. State and USAID will also seek to close the digital gender gap in low- and middle-income countries by increasing women and girls’ access to information communication technologies and address online harassment and abuse globally,” the White House said.

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