Bush budget includes

[Gregg Lengling]

WASHINGTON

The Bush administration, facing a $521 billion budget deficit this fiscal year, today proposed a $2.4 trillion budget for 2005 that includes proposals to raise revenue through spectrum auctions and user fees on telecom firms and patent applicants.

The White House budget, delivered to Congress this morning, projects $2.4 billion in revenue from the sale of wireless licenses over the next 10 years. The administration proposed to establish an annual lease fee totaling $500 million - beginning 2007 - for the use of analog spectrum by TV broadcasters. Broadcasters must surrender analog frequencies that year as part of their transition to digital technology.

Under the Bush budget, the Federal Communications Commission would receive $293 million in fiscal 2005, which begins in October. Regulatory user fees pay for most of the FCC budget. The budget includes a legislative proposal to streamline the process for reimbursing federal agencies - like the Department of Defense - whose spectrum has been transferred to the private sector. The initiative would help the mobile-phone industry secure additional frequencies from the military for third-generation wireless systems.

President Bush's budget plan would terminate some technology grant programs and keeps intact the 3-percent federal excise tax on wireless and wireline phone service.