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Prepared Statement of Chairman Julius Genachowski
Federal Communications Commission
Hearing on Fiscal Year 2013 Resource Needs 
for the Federal Communications Commission
Before the
Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government
U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations
May 9, 2012
Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Moran, and other members of the Subcommittee, I 
appreciate this opportunity to appear before you on the FCC’s 2013 budget.  
I’m proud to say that few, if any, federal agencies deliver a higher return on investment than the 
FCC. 
Spectrum auctions have raised more than $50 billion for the U.S. Treasury in the past two 
decades, and economists regard the economic value created by FCC auctions as being about 10 times that 
number, or $500 billion in value.  
Shortly after the Commission delivered its budget, Congress authorized the Commission to 
develop, and conduct voluntary incentive auctions – a new market-based mechanism to repurpose 
underutilized spectrum for flexible use such as mobile broadband.
Incentive auctions are an opportunity to unleash vitally needed additional spectrum for mobile 
broadband and create tremendous value for American consumers, while raising billions of dollars for 
deficit reduction. It’s a key part of the puzzle to unleashing the mobile broadband opportunity.
At the FCC, while we have concerns about certain of the legislation's provisions, we’re focused 
on faithfully implementing the new law and maximizing the opportunities for our economy and all 
Americans.  
It’s a privilege for the FCC to be entrusted with this responsibility, which of course will require a 
great deal of work and effort by the agency.
Incentive auctions are unprecedented.  The U.S. will be the first country in the world to conduct 
them. It will be a complex task affecting major parts of our economy and involving many challenging 
questions of economics and engineering.
FCC staff is hard at work planning for the challenges ahead.  We recently announced steps to 
begin implementing the law, which are outlined in my written statement.
Incentive auctions are part of our overall agenda to unleash the opportunities of modern 
communications technology to benefit our economy and all Americans.  
Just yesterday, at the wireless industry’s annual conference, I presented the Commission’s Mobile 
Action Plan.  This Plan will help ensure that America maintains the position it has now regained as the 
global leader in mobile.  It includes incentive auctions, but recognizes that we must have an “all-of-the-
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above” strategy that includes removing barriers to spectrum use, harnessing emerging technologies like 
small cells, and accelerating spectrum sharing between government and commercial users.  
On the latter, I was pleased to announce that we are moving ahead in partnership with NTIA to 
test spectrum sharing between commercial and government uses in the 1755-1780 MHz band, a band of 
particular interest to commercial carriers.  
This work reflects the agency’s focus on broadband communications – wired and wireless.  In 
2009, we developed America’s first National Broadband Plan, which identified key challenges and 
opportunities throughout the broadband ecosystem, and proposed solutions to ensure that the U.S. leads 
the world in broadband access and innovation.  In fact, one of those proposed solutions was incentive 
auctions.  
We have been working hard on implementing the broadband plan. Together with my colleagues 
at the FCC, we have made tremendous progress in the past three years, taking many steps to unleash 
investment, innovation, and job creation.  These include freeing spectrum for both licensed and 
unlicensed use, modernizing and reforming major programs like the Universal Service Fund, and 
removing barriers to broadband buildout.  
And indeed, investment, job creation, and innovation are up across the broadband economy.  
These metrics are up both when looking at broadband applications and services, and when looking at 
broadband providers and networks.  Our work is helping create jobs across the country, from workers 
constructing broadband infrastructure to agents at new broadband-enabled customer contact centers to 
employees of small businesses using broadband to expand to engineers and other innovators inventing the 
new digital future.
And in the past three years, the U.S. has regained global leadership in mobile innovation.  
American-designed apps and services are being adopted faster than any others. Our mobile innovation 
economy is the envy of the world. 
And we are now ahead of the world in deploying 4G mobile broadband at scale – with 64% of the 
world’s 4G LTE subscribers here in the U.S.  These next-generation networks are projected to add $151 
billion in GDP growth over the next four years, creating an estimated 770,000 new American jobs. 
The health of our broadband economy would be enhanced by closing broadband gaps.  My 
written statement highlights the Commission’s progress addressing the broadband deployment and 
adoption gaps. 
Public safety is a core mission of the FCC, and the agency is working to harness the power of 
communications to make our communities safer.  
As part of our longstanding role in ensuring the security and reliability of communications 
networks, an FCC-led panel recently issued a series of recommendations to address three critical threats 
to our cybersecurity:  botnets, Internet route hijacking, and domain name fraud.  ISPs serving nearly 90% 
of all U.S. broadband subscribers will implement our proposals.   
The FCC also provides value by protecting and empowering consumers. 
Smartphone theft is on the rise, and poses a real threat to consumers.  Last month, together with 
the wireless industry and law enforcement from around the country, we announced the launch of a new 
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database that will allow consumers and carriers to disable stolen smartphones, dramatically reducing their 
value on the black market.  
We have also made progress tackling consumer issues like bill shock and cramming, which are 
highlighted in my written statement. 
At the FCC, we are committed to smart, responsible government, and we have taken significant 
steps to modernize our programs and ensure that they are efficient and fiscally responsible -- saving 
billions of dollars.  
In addition to our programmatic reforms, we have also reviewed the agency’s rules and processes 
– asking tough questions to make sure the agency is operating efficiently and effectively.
In connection with this review, we’ve already eliminated more than 200 outdated rules and five 
unnecessary data collections.  We have identified two dozen more data collections for elimination.
And we’ve done everything I’ve listed and more with the lowest number of full-time employees in 
ten years. 
Maximizing the ability of 21st century communications technology to deliver value to the 
American people, and doing so in a smart and responsible way.  That’s the FCC’s record the past three 
years, and that’s our plan for the year and years ahead, as reflected in our fiscal 2013 requested budget.
To implement our responsibilities under Communications Act, the Commission’s budget requests 
a two percent increase over the previous year level, from $339,844,000 to $346,782,000 -- essentially flat 
adjusting for inflation.  
As in previous years, this amount will be derived entirely from fee collections.  
The budget reflects savings in several areas, and includes a few new initiatives – primarily 
technology investments designed to save money, and public safety investments aimed at saving lives.
The budget also provides a flat number of full-time employees, despite increasing workloads in 
many areas.  
In conclusion, the wired and wireless broadband sectors are critically important to our economy 
and global competitiveness.  I look forward to working with the Committee on implementing the new 
incentive auctions law, and unleashing the opportunities of communications technology for our economy 
and the American people. 
Thank you.