The FCC’s budget would be scaled back to $358 million in Fiscal Year 2017, according to the president’s budget proposal sent to Congress this week.
That’s a $25.7 million (6.7%) decrease from the agency’s current $384 million budget for FY2016.
The commission is asking for more authority to levy spectrum license fees, seeking a total of $4.8 billion over 2017-2026; Congress rejected the request last year.
The budget request includes nearly $17 million for moving expenses and/or reconfiguring the Portals one its lease expires in 2017. That’s the second portion of a total $44 million ask made last year for the move.
The FCC anticipates the General Services Administration would award the contract for the move or space reconfiguration this spring. The agency tells Congress the new contract will use space more efficiently, reduce the FCC’s footprint and save up to $119 million over 15 years through reduced rental costs.
The Portals in Southwest Washington is actually two buildings; the agency got a jumpstart on consolidating space in 2015 by moving personnel in Portals I to Portals II; the 5,600 square feet reduction saved about $3 million, the agency tells Congress in its budget.
In FY2014 the commission moved to reduce its escalating IT costs to maintain legacy IT systems so in September 2015 the commission moved 200 legacy servers to a commercially-hosted facility in West Virginia.
