Draft 2022 Reg Fees Order Includes 13% Increase for Broadcasters

A draft order on regulatory fees circulated to FCC commissioners’ offices last week would create a 13% FY2022 regulatory fee increase for broadcasters and doesn’t include proposed shifts in the way full-time equivalents (FTEs) are allocated to bureaus, industry and FCC officials told us.

Several commissioners are expected to push for changes to the draft to reduce the impact on broadcasters, but reorganizing the regulatory fee system isn’t likely in this proceeding, the officials said. With fees due before the Sept. 30 end of the federal fiscal year, action on the draft is expected soon. The FCC didn’t comment. NAB last week was still seeking shifts in the way fees are calculated (see 2208160053). “Nothing prevents the Commission from implementing these decisions immediately,” NAB said. The agency’s NPRM on reg fees “does not suggest that the Commission lacks the authority to effectuate such changes in the current fiscal year,” NAB said.

The draft item currently closely resembles the NPRM released in June, FCC and industry officials said. That NPRM kept the current system of allocating FTEs but sought comment on possible changes, and didn’t include proposals to charge regulatory fees to tech companies or unlicensed users. It also sought comment on calculating the de minimis threshold for smaller entities (see 2207060064).

NAB, state broadcast associations and legislators vocally lobbied against the fees proposed in the NPRM, urging changes to the way the agency calculates fees and asking the FCC to avoid the 13% increase for broadcasters. “Why does the Commission’s proposed overall fee increase for broadcasters far exceed fee increases for any other industry?" said a bipartisan letter last week to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel signed by 92 lawmakers. “I am not aware of any benefits our stations receive as a result of the FCC’s fees, especially when the large payment we are required to make only negatively impacts our ability to serve our communities,” said Mountain Top Media President Cindy May Johnson in an ex parte letter posted Monday in docket 22-223. Broadcasters have specifically targeted the use of their fees to cover work on broadband deployment and the USF (see 2207270044).

Multiple commissioners are expected to seek changes to the draft to reduce the increased fees for broadcasters, FCC officials told us. Those revisions aren’t expected to alter the regulatory fee system as a whole. That outcome would be similar to what occurred during the past several regulatory fee proceedings, with NAB wanting structural changes to regulatory fees and the FCC making smaller, short-term concessions (see 210827007). Broadcast attorney Dawn Sciarrino of Sciarrino and Associates told us the rising fees make things difficult for her smaller broadcast clients and she doesn’t expect changes to the way regulatory fees are calculated next year either. “The only way that changes is if Congress somehow takes action,” she said.