D.C. Memo: Guthrie Bill to Raise $88 Billion from FCC Spectrum Auctions

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House: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) needs some fiscal help from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. In a new budget bill that his panel will consider tomorrow, Guthrie is looking to Carr to raise $88 billion from spectrum auctions. “This reconciliation legislation will help raise federal revenue and limit government spending to what actually helps Americans. We will raise $88 billion by reauthorizing the Federal Communications Commission’s spectrum auction authority and provide resources to modernize federal information-technology systems. Both are crucial for maintaining and expanding U.S. technological leadership,” Guthrie said Sunday in an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal. Also in the WSJ last Monday, former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai – a Republican who took over as CEO of CTIA on April 1 – said to catch up to China, the U.S. needed to identify and auction at least 600 megahertz of midband spectrum for future 5G services, saying the sale could net $200 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Guthrie, who said the text of the budget bill would be made available last night, didn’t mention whether the $42.45 billion BEAD program would get cut. Guthrie said the budget would “slash waste, particularly handouts to Democrats’ climate activist cronies” and “claw back money headed for green boondoggles through ‘environmental and climate justice block grants’ and other spending mechanisms through the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department.” He said Medicaid was another target, claiming the bill would save $172 billion over the next 10 years by eliminating fraud and adding work requirements. (More after paywall.)