Why inflexible budget rules are keeping lawmakers from selling billions of dollars worth of government airwaves

The federal government could earn tens of billions of dollars by selling a stockpile of unneeded but highly coveted airwaves, but Congress' own inflexible budgeting rules are depriving taxpayers of a potential windfall, say regulators and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Under the rule set in place after the sequester negotiations of 2011, Congress won't approve any new spending without an equal amount of increased revenue. And the Congressional Budget Office is charged with coming up with that final price tag.

In 2012, when Congress passed a bill authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to auction off airwaves, or spectrum, to fuel the country's ever-expanding cellphone networks, the CBO was uncertain how intense the demand would be weighed against the cost of relocating users to other airwaves. The CBO pegged the potential profit to the government at $15 billion over the next decade. That proved to be a massive underestimate, as the first auction earlier this year brought in close to double that for the government. A second auction, scheduled for 2016, of valuable frequencies to be relinquished by TV stations is likely to bring in another $30 billion to $40 billion in revenue. Now, with companies like AT&T and T-Mobile desperate to get their hands on more of these airwaves, lawmakers want to capitalize on demand and sell off frequencies that the Department of Defense and Department of Transportation no longer need. But despite recent evidence of red-hot sale prices, the CBO won't reconsider its 10-year estimate, frustrating lawmakers, lobbyists and FCC commissioners alike.