FY2016 Budget Request 
Executive Summary 
Current State 
 
? HQ space too large and expensive 
? Too much space per employee 
? Too expensive per square foot 
 
? Field footprint too large and inefficient 
? Field cost per FTE are 2x HQ costs – high real 
estate and support costs for very small offices 
? More mobile, technology-enabled deployment 
model can significantly improve productivity 
 
? Major opportunities to reduce 
recurring opex with technology 
? Over reliance on expensive contractors 
? Very expensive to maintain aged IT (many systems 
more than 10 years old) 
? Using expensive downtown Washington real estate 
for back-office functions that could be offsite 
 
? Section 9 fee payors shouldering lion’s 
share of requested budget increase 
 
 2 
Proposed Response 
 
? Relentless attention to cost efficiency: 
? Manage to even lower FTE levels – decline by 37 for 
2016, first FCC budget in a decade to not ask for more 
? Proposed consolidation of our field offices – saving 
$9m annually without diluting mission effectiveness 
? Reduce contractors; down from 483 to 435 by 2016 
? Reduce HQ lease cost; save $119m over 15 years 
 
? $84m requested increase for 2016 has 3 
components: 
? Unavoidable (70%) – $60m for move, inflation, OIG 
? IT (20%) – $17m to modernize and close security gaps 
? Mandates (10%) – $7m for broadcaster repacking, 
National Broadband Map, and PSAP registry 
 
? Align sources of funds with uses to 
maximize fairness: 
? Base collections from general regulatory fees ($388m) 
? Auctions costs from auctions proceeds ($117m)  
? USF costs from USF fees ($25m) 
Non-Auctions Funding Has Been Flat Since 2010, and FTEs 
Continue to Trend to New Historic Lows 
Millions 
FYs 2015 & 2016 Projected 
Workload Volume Grows While FTEs Decline 
4 
Equipment Authorizations includes FCC Preauthorized and TCBs 
FTEs for FYs 2015 and 2016 are estimates. 
NALs issued increased 20% but the overall EB actions decreased by 22%   
Cost Saving Steps Underway Today 
? FTE reductions 
? Attrition management (no automatic backfills) – since Jan 2014, 199 staff have left, only 145 replaced 
? Additional efforts underway to identify available workforce restructuring opportunities 
 
? Field offices consolidation 
? Proposal currently on circulation to Commissioners to reduce from 24 to 8 field offices 
? $9m in annual savings from reduced real estate, administrative overhead, and support costs  
? Post-restructuring, FCC would retain engineers/vehicles on the ground combined with a “tiger team” 
based in the Maryland suburbs that would be quickly deployable anywhere in the U.S. 
? One-day response time for 80% of U.S. population 
? Higher coverage than today for the rest of the country 
 
? Contractor drawdown 
? FCC-wide contractors currently at 483, down from over 600 since 2012, and trending to 435 in 2016 
? IT modernization investments essential for continued progress; will support significant reduction in 
expensive (2x), on-site contractors for infrastructure management and software development 
? Additional contractor reductions available via use of IT automation to replace labor-intensive processes 
 
? Continuing, ongoing efficiency review 
? Office of Managing Director is assessing every part of the FCC for additional efficiency opportunities 
 
5 
Building the Budget 
$millions 
    Fee-generated  Activity-generated 
       Auction USF 
 
FY2015 Budget Authority   340   106 N/A 
 
Requested FY2016 
? Office move (to save $119m)  44   7 
? Inflation/contractual cost increases 7   1 
? OIG request   1 
? IT Modernization   15 
? Cybersecurity fixes  2 
? Reallocation of USF support  (25)    25 
? Mission mandates 
? National Broadband Map  3 
? PSAP do-not-call registry  1 
? Broadcaster relocation fund oversight     3 
 
 
Total    388   117 25 
 
 
6 
More Than 70% of Requested FY 2016 Spending Increase* Is 
for “Unavoidable” Costs 
7 
“Unavoidable” 
(71%) 
 
    HQ Move ($51) 
    Inflationary ($8) 
    OIG ($1) 
Broadcaster Relocation Support (4%) 
IT Modernization (18%) 
Cybersecurity Fixes (2%) 
BB Map & PSAP (5%) 
* Note: Total $84m requested spending increase is the sum of requests for Salary & Expenses ($48m, from $340m to $388m), Auctions ($11m, from $106m to 
$117m), and USF Transfer ($25m).  Without USF Transfer, S&E requested level would grow from $388m to $413m. 
IT Investments Pay for Themselves Over 5 Years and 
Significantly Improve Speed, Security, and Quality 
 
Infrastructure 
Data 
Mission Systems 
From: Over 200 on premises, antiquated servers 
occupying expensive downtown real estate 
 
To: 100% off-premise, cloud-based deployment in a 
secure multi-agency facility; savings of $1-2m per yr 
From: 100,000 unique data objects, 43 Tb of stove-
piped, inaccessible and non-reusable data 
 
To: Single data architecture for ALL internal and 
external data, significantly enhanced transparency 
From: 207 systems, typical $600,000 cost for new 
projects, 6 months to complete, very high ongoing 
maintenance/support 
 
To: Handful of core systems supporting multiple 
front end applications, 50-75% lower cost / faster 
timelines per project; savings of $1-2m per year 
8 
New FCC Lease Projected to Save $119m over 15 Years 
Cumulative (costs) and lease savings 
9 
Millions 
] 
Move costs, FY2016 & 2017 
- costs consistent with 
similar  recent agency 
moves (NIH, NLRB, FWS) 
- must be funded in order to 
move lease process forward 
] 
Projected $13m savings per year 
under new lease: 
- smaller footprint 
- less costly per square foot 
Total Move Costs Lower for New Facility Versus Stay-in-Place 
Estimated move costs 
Millions 
10 
Note: assumes utilization rate = 180; estimated tenant improvement allowance of $13m