Appropriations Committee Approves Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Services and General Government Funding Bill

The House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal year 2021 Financial Services and General Government bill on a vote of 30 to 22. The legislation provides annual funding for the Department of the Treasury, the Judiciary, the Executive Office of the President, and other independent agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission. The bill includes $376.1 million for the FCC, an increase of $37.1 million above the FY 2020 enacted level. This includes funding to implement new broadband mapping legislation. Additionally, the bill includes $61 billion in emergency funding for the FCC to expand availability of broadband to unserved areas, as well as multi-year funding for broadband mapping and replacement of telecommunications equipment deemed to pose a national security threat to the United States. The bill would prevent the FCC from working on the following:

• A recommendation regarding single connection or primary line restrictions on universal service support
• A 2019 notice of proposed rulemaking on Universal Service Fund contribution methodology 
• Creating a 5G Fund for Rural America before completing map that depicts the availability of mobile broadband internet access service

The bill includes $341 million for the Federal Trade Commission, an increase of $10 million above the FY 2020 enacted level, to bolster antitrust and consumer protection work. 

Once again, appropriators started the debate on allocations for the Technology Modernization Fund—a central pot of money loaned to federal agencies for specific, impactful IT modernization projects—at $25 million. The administration, as with years past, requested $150 million in the president’s budget proposal. But, year after year, House appropriators offered to boost the fund by only $25 million. If this year’s proposed $25 million increase is approved, it will raise the fund’s cap to $175 million.