CBO Report Shows Spectrum Auction Budget Offsets
Spectrum auction offsets “are expected to have much smaller effects, on average, in future years,” the Congressional Budget Office said this week, explaining the effect of the offsetting receipts from FCC spectrum auctions. CBO’s 226-page report covered broader budget issues…
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for 2016 to 2026. “CBO estimates that offsetting receipts will fall from $256 billion in 2015 to $237 billion in 2016,” the report said. “That drop is primarily due to receipts from the [FCC’s] 2015 auction for licenses to use a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some of the proceeds from that auction were collected in 2015 and reduced outlays by $30 billion that year.” Additional proceeds are expected to cut the outlays in 2016, too, to the tune of $11 billion, CBO said. “Over the coming decade, offsetting receipts are projected to increase by 4 percent each year, on average, rising to $350 billion by 2026.” The FCC did the AWS-3 auction in late 2014 and expects to do the broadcast TV incentive auction starting this March, which CBO also mentioned: “Although the [FCC] plans to conduct another large auction in 2016, the receipts for those licenses will not be recorded in the budget until 2017.”