browse Browse

pac.dog pac.dog / CRS reports

R45699 — The Federal Communications Commission: Structure, Operations, and Budget

Reports · published 2025-06-18 · v17 · Active · crsreports.congress.gov ↗

Read
HTML · PDF
Authors
Patricia Moloney Figliola
Report id
R45699
Summary

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent federal agency established by the Communications Act of 1934 (1934 Act, or “Communications Act”). The agency is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The mission of the FCC is to make available for all people of the United States, “without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges.” The FCC operates under a public interest mandate first laid out in the 1927 Radio Act (P.L. 69-632) and reiterated in the 1934 Act; how this mandate is applied depends on how the Commission interprets “the public interest.” Some regulators seek to protect and benefit the public at large through regulation, while others seek to achieve the same goals through the promotion of market efficiency. Congress granted the FCC significant latitude and flexibility to interpret the public interest standard to reflect changing circumstances, and neither Congress nor the agency has defined it in concrete terms. These circumstances, paired with changes in FCC leadership according to the party that holds the presidency, have led to significant changes in how the FCC regulates the broadcast and telecommunications industries over time. The FCC is directed by five commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. The President designates one commissioner as chairperson. By law, the maximum number of commissioners who may be of the same political party is the least number that constitutes a majority (i.e., three). At the time of this report’s publication, the agency has two Republican commissioners, Brendan Carr, who was designated chairman by President Trump, and Olivia Trusty, and one Democratic commissioner, Anna Gomez, who was appointed by President Biden. Commissioner Trusty was confirmed by the Senate on June 17, 2025, to finish the term of former Democratic chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, which expires June 30, 2025. On June 18, 2025, Trusty was confirmed to a full five-year term, which will begin July 1, 2025. President Trump has not indicated whom he might nominate for the two remaining open seats. Now that the FCC is composed of three commissioners, which forms a quorum, it can act on agenda items at future FCC open meetings. The day-to-day functions of the FCC are carried out by seven bureaus and 12 offices. Beginning in the 110th Congress, the FCC has been funded through the House and Senate Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill as a single line item. Previously, it was funded through what is now the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, also as a single line item. The FCC’s funding is determined by appropriations language, but since 2009, it has been financed 100% by regulatory fees expected to be collected by the agency. The fees, often referred to as “Section (9) fees,” are collected from license holders and certain other entities. The FCC is authorized to review the regulatory fees it collects each year and to adjust them to reflect changes in the budget authority provided to the agency from year to year. In most years, appropriations language prohibits the commission from using any excess regulatory fees that are collected in the current or prior fiscal years. For FY2026, the FCC requested a budget authority of $416,112,000 from its regulatory fee offsetting collections. The request is an increase of $25,920,000, or 6.6%, from the FY2025 full-year continuing appropriations level of $390,192,000. The FCC also requested $132,681,000 in budget authority for the Spectrum Auctions Program, in which bands of the electromagnetic spectrum are auctioned to wireless telecommunication providers. This request is a decrease of $3,486,000, or 3%, from the FY2025 full-year continuing appropriations level of $136,167,000. The FCC’s general spectrum auction authority (i.e., authority to auction any band) expired on March 9, 2023. The FCC has separate authority to auction certain other bands, and the agency plans to use the funds for these purposes, as well as other spectrum management activities. Unless Congress reinstates the FCC’s authority to conduct auctions, the agency cannot generate or collect auction revenues.

Bills cited (8)

Curated by CRS — every bill listed in this report's relatedMaterials. Edge type cited_in_report, gold confidence.

pac.dog is a free, independent, non-partisan research tool. Every candidate, committee, bill, vote, member, and nonprofit on this site is mirrored from primary U.S. government sources (FEC, congress.gov, govinfo.gov, IRS) and each state's Secretary of State / election commission — no third-party data vendors, no paywall, no editorial intermediation. Citations to the originating source are on every detail page.