CBO Scores the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act

The Radio Spectrum Inventory Act (HR 3125) would require the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct an inventory of the license holders and users of certain frequencies of the radio broadcast spectrum. The agencies would be required to complete the inventory within one year of enactment of the bill and to make the results available to the public on the Internet. The bill would require the agencies to prepare two reports. The first, to present the results of the inventory, would be due two years after the date of enactment and would be updated biennially thereafter. The second, to provide recommendations by NTIA and the FCC of spectrum that should be reallocated or made available for sharing, would be due four years after enactment and would be updated every four years thereafter.

Based on information from NTIA and the FCC, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3125 would cost $31 million over the 2011-2015 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts. Most of that cost would be incurred to collect information about the users of each band of spectrum and update the databases that track that information. CBO estimates that costs to the FCC would total $15 million over the 2010-2015 period; costs to NTIA would be about $16 million over the same period. Further, under current law, the FCC is authorized to collect fees to offset the costs of its regulatory program; subject to appropriations action, CBO estimates that the FCC would collect $15 million in fees to offset the bill's costs. Therefore, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3125 would increase net discretionary spending by $16 million over the 2011-2015 period. CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3125 would increase net discretionary spending by $16 million over the 2011-2015 period, assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts.

Pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply to this legislation because it would not affect direct spending or revenues. H.R. 3125 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.