House Panel Refuses to Give FCC a Raise
A House subcommittee advanced a bill to provide $390.2 million for the agency's operation.
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2025 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr wanted a 6.7 percent budget increase. On Monday evening, a House panel said no.
The House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee agreed to a budget bill that would provide the FCC with $390.2 million in funding for fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1, 2025.
That’s the same as the agency received for 2024 and 2025, but nearly $26 million less than Carr had requested in May.
The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, advanced the bill 9-6 along party lines. Every Republican voted for the bill and every Democrat against it.
The bill would prevent funds from being used for enforcing the agency’s digital discrimination rules. The FCC instituted the rules last year as required by the Infrastructure and Jobs Act of 2021.
The rules are currently being challenged by broadband trade groups in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. They’re aimed at preventing gaps in broadband access based on race, ethnicity, income level, and other characteristics, known as digital discrimination.
Also prevented by the House bill would be “an advisory committee with respect to any environmental, social or governance matter.”
The FCC fully funds its operations through regulatory and processing fees. Under the House bill, the Federal Trade Commission would get $388.7 million, a $37 million cut.
The bill would next be considered by the full committee. A markup wasn’t scheduled before the House’s summer recess. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday he would send the chamber home Wednesday, one day early, for its summer recess to avoid votes on releasing material related to accused Jefferey Epstein. The financier took his own life in jail awaiting sex trafficking charges in 2019.
The full committee was slated to vote Thursday on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s bill that would fund the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The bill would provide $47 million for the agency, while the White House had requested $57 million, down from the $59 million the agency has received in the last two years.
The House is set to reconvene in September.
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee advanced its funding bill, which would provide $57 million for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
The Senate bill would direct the agency to issue a notice of funding opportunity for digital equity grants the agency was supposed to administer in fiscal year 2025 but froze in May.
Arielle Roth, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the agency, has yet to be confirmed.
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