What's In -- and Out -- of the 2011 Budget

Monday was federal budget day in DC. Here's a quick take on some communications and technology-related issues raised in the fiscal year 2011 budget proposal which the White House says focuses on job creation, middle class security, and fiscal sustainability.

Broadband is a central part of the infrastructure necessary for the economy to create jobs and thrive in this century. During 2011, Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration will focus on administering the $4.7 billion program to expand broadband deployment, as well as programs to improve broadband adoption and data collection, which were funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The Budget will also achieve savings by eliminating the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, consolidating support for public broadcasters into the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The budget recommends $496 million for CPB, including a $460 million two-year advance appropriation for FY13 — up $15 million over the previous year Also included is $36 million for pubic TV and radio digital conversion, content and services.

The budget includes $768.8 million for the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an increase of 1.5 percent from the FY 2010 funding level. The request reflects the continued critical role of BBG broadcasts in support of U.S. foreign policy goals. The FY 2011 budget supports key new initiatives:

• Upgrading the BBG's global satellite distribution capacity, infrastructure, and network control center;
• Expanding FM, digital, and new media opportunities:
• Improving digital workflows and expanding distribution to mobile devices;
• Adding 24/7 FM transmitters in Afghanistan to carry Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) Pashto and Dari programming;
• Creating Radio Free Asia (RFA) video programming in Burmese,Tibetan, Mandarin, and Vietnamese;
• Diversifying distribution of VOA content in Africa.
• Addressing critical personnel and capital needs in RFE/RL bureaus.

The budget proposes fiscal year 2011 funding for the Federal Communications Commission of $352.5 million. The requested FY 2011 funding level would include monies to implement the National Broadband Plan; continue to manage the nation's spectrum use; overhaul the Commission's data systems and processes; continue to improve the FCC's operations using improved technology; support the Commission's public safety and cyber-security role; strengthen the Commission's consumer information programs; and enhance the FCC's role as a strong advocate for U.S. interests internationally.
The FY 2011 budget proposal includes these initiatives:

• Continuing the work of the National Broadband Plan and broadband map;
• Implementation of a spectrum inventory initiative and emergency response interoperability center;
• State-of-the-art consumer information programs, seizing the opportunities provided by new media and advanced information technology;
• New investment in the people and technology necessary to overhaul the agency's antiquated systems for data collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination;
• New expertise and new tools required to ensure that the FCC is able to be a model of excellence, openness, and transparency domestically and internationally.

The proposal includes a spectrum fee on un-auctioned spectrum licenses, which would include those held by broadcasters and cable operators.The Administration predicts that fee collections would begin this year and total $4.8 billion through 2020. The budget historically contains a spectrum fee proposal, and just as historically the fee is eventually excised during the negotiations in Congress before it gets approval from the Hill. The budget would also extend "indefinitely" the FCC's authority to auction spectrum, an authority that expires Sept. 30, 2012. The new budget also revives the proposal to auction new domestic satellite licenses, which the administration says would raise $200 million by 2020. But the makes clear that one of the reasons it wants to extend the FCC's authority to auction spectrum "indefinitely" is because it is expected to find new spectrum to sell to wireless broadband carriers. The 2011 budget says the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the FCC will collaborate on a 10-year "to make available significant spectrum suitable for both mobile and fixed wireless broadband use over the next 10 years. The plan is expected to focus on commercial broadband use or "dynamic" shared use by private industry and the government.

The $3.8 trillion budget includes increases in basic science research as well as education and training in an effort to help better position the nation to maintain its edge in innovation. The president's proposed budget calls for an 8 percent increase, about $550 million, in funding for the National Science Foundation over fiscal year 2010. It would double funding to $90 million for basic research "aimed at creating a future bio-economy by enhancing our ability to design biological systems, and starting the next revolution in computing by designing new materials." The administration also has called for a $60 million increase in funding for the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. At least $45 million of that boost would go toward NIST's laboratories. The proposed funding for NIST also includes slight increases for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, aimed at helping firms adopt more efficient manufacturing processes, and the Technology Innovation Program (formerly known as the Advanced Technology Program), which invests in high-impact, high-risk research to address critical national needs.

The Pentagon said it would expand secretive Special Operations units, deploy more unmanned aerial drones and increase aid to countries like Yemen to fight al Qaeda in a shift away from Cold War priorities. The Defense Department said it was putting cyberspace on a par with land, sea, air and space as a potential conflict zone, and developing new ways to operate there, according to a top-level Pentagon strategy review. It said the Defense Department was building a cadre of cyber experts to defend more than 15,000 different computer networks it operates across 4,000 military installations worldwide.

President Obama listed ways information technology can trim -- albeit slightly -- the record $1.6 trillion deficit, including agencies signing more enterprise software license agreements, turning off computers at night and eliminating paper pay stubs for all federal workers. Contained in the president's $3.8 trillion budget is a list of ideas the administration plans to use IT at federal agencies to save millions of dollars. The Veterans Affairs Department plans to sign a five-year enterprise licensing agreement with Oracle this fiscal year that will save the department nearly $118 million during five years. VA would save almost $10 million in fiscal 2010 and another $40.2 million in fiscal 2011, for example.

The Administration proposed terminating or reducing 120 federal programs as part of his fiscal 2011 budget request, for savings of more than $20 billion. The $3.8 trillion budget also freezes discretionary spending at $1.4 trillion, in keeping with a pledge in last week's State of the Union address. On Sunday, White House officials said they identified the cuts by searching the budget line-by-line for wasteful or duplicative programs and those that have outlived their usefulness. The officials acknowledged, however, that they face an uphill battle ensuring Congress enacts the proposed cuts.

Funding for the nation's major arts and cultural institutions will stay largely flat, although a few organizations -- including the Smithsonian Institution and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- will see increases over what the president requested last year. In general, arts organizations seemed grateful that things didn't turn out worse.