Should the government postpone the digital television transition currently
scheduled for Feb. 17? The Senate says yes, the House says no. Let the
legislative hijinks ensue.
Since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced
Jan. 5 that funding
for the $1.34 billion digital converter box coupon program was temporarily
exhausted and then President-elect Barack
Obama said the digital switchover should be delayed, lawmakers have been
scrambling to find a solution.
Democrats in both the Senate and the House want to push the deadline for
television stations to switch from analog to digital broadcasting to June 12,
in addition tossing in $650 million more for the digital converter box program.
Republicans in the Senate at first objected but then struck upon a compromise
with Democrats: Move the deadline to June 12 but allow stations that want to go
ahead and make the conversion any time prior to June 12. The Senate approved the
measure Jan. 27.
That appeared to grease the wheels for passage of the DTV delay legislature in the
House, but House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., was
unable to win over Republicans and canceled two hearings on the delay. Fine,
said the House leadership, and they put the Senate version, with some technical
corrections, up for vote Jan. 28. It failed, although the majority of members
voting said yes to the deal. Unfortunately for the Democrats, the rules on that
particular vote took a two-thirds majority.
Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, 20 days and counting before the Feb. 17
deadline.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who crafted the Senate compromise, said Jan. 28
he was "deeply disappointed" by the House vote.
"While the Senate paved the way with a bipartisan bill to repair this
unfortunate situation, our Republican counterparts in the House chose to stand
in the way of a workable solution," Rockefeller said in a statement.
"Instead of delaying the transition to ensure that the most vulnerable
among us have the ability to prepare for the transition, they have made certain
that far too many consumers across the country will wake up on Feb. 18 and find
that their television sets have gone dark."
Waxman expressed similar feelings.
"I am very disappointed the House Republicans blocked the DTV extension
today in the House," Waxman said in a statement. "Their vote
has wasted valuable time and will cause needless confusion for consumers. A
clear majority in Congress supports postponing the transition and providing
assistance to the millions of households that are
unprepared."
If the House ultimately fails to act on a digital TV extension, consumers who
solely depend on over-the-air signals for television reception must buy a
digital television set or a digital converter box for their analog sets.
Consumers who use cable or satellite service are not affected by the change.
Rockefeller said he has no intentions to let consumers' televisions go dark.
So, for his next legislative act, he said Jan. 29 the Senate may take up and
pass the failed House version and send that back over to the House for approval
next week.
House Republicans, though, continue to insist that the
digital transition can be achieved by Feb. 17 and that the coupon program is
not out of funds.
"The DTV converter coupon program is not out of money;
only half of the $1.5 billion in the coupon program has been spent," Rep.
Joe Barton, R-Texas, the ranking member of the Committee on Energy and
Commerce, wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Jan. 27, urging her to call off
the vote. "For the past three weeks, we have known exactly what we need to
do in order to get rid of the backlog in requests for DTV converter
coupons."
Barton insisted, "This delay is not necessary; nor is the
$650 million in the stimulus needed." Barton introduced Jan. 23 a bill to
provide additional coupons for the converter box program and to expedite
delivery of the coupons.
According to a Nielsen survey conducted a year ago, 14.3
million U.S. households rely solely on over-the-air broadcasts. The NTIA said
that, based on consumer self-reporting, 12.6 million households that rely on
over-the-air television have requested coupons. As of Jan. 4, though, more than
24 million households have requested approximately 46 million coupons, with
about 18 million coupons actually having been redeemed.
To date, 52.5 percent of coupons requested have been redeemed
and more than 13 million coupons have expired. The program allows for two $40
coupons per household to help offset the cost of digital converter boxes for
nondigital television sets.
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