Rockefeller Revises DTV Delay Bill; Barton Pursues ‘Fix’
The Senate may take up this week a revised DTV switch delay bill that has bipartisan support and has come closer to a draft offered last week by House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. But the bill’s fate is uncertain: Opposition remains, and the bill so far is without unanimous support it would need to be marked up in committee and sent to the Senate floor, where it would be open to amendment. That process could be time-consuming, at a time Congress is trying to hasten passage of an economic recovery bill.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The revised Senate DTV delay bill, offered by Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has the support of ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas. A Rockefeller aide expressed hope Friday that a fast-track vote will be taken this week. But industry observers were wary. “There still appear to be some issues to be worked out to overcome resistance and apparent legislative ‘holds’ in the Senate,” said a Stifel Nicolaus report Friday.
Waxman postponed a markup on his legislation last week, citing Senate Republican opposition to delay legislation. His bill is similar to Rockefeller’s most recent draft. Rockefeller’s original bill called for a 116-day delay -- until June 13 -- before broadcasters must shut off analog signals. The Obama administration supports a short delay. The second Rockefeller draft would allow households to get replacement coupons if their original ones expired, allow public safety to use spectrum broadcasters voluntarily vacated with FCC approval, and give the FCC auction authority to pay for delay costs.
On Friday, House Commerce ranking member Joe Barton of Texas introduced a bill aimed at solving converter box coupon delivery problems, while keeping the Feb. 17 deadline.
Rockefeller’s revised bill was put out to Senate offices Friday for a hotline vote. That would allow the bill to be approved by unanimous consent if no members object. “The way I see it, right now we have a choice,” Rockefeller said in a speech. “We can do the DTV transition right or we can do it wrong.” Doing it right would mean that consumers are fully informed and that no one wakes up Feb. 17 without TV service, he said. The revised bill, though not perfect, “represents a turning point,” Rockefeller said. If Congress doesn’t act, “we can survey the wreckage of a failed effort … complete with angry consumers, converter box troubles, and calling centers overwhelmed with consumer complaints,” he said.
Barton thinks a delay will confuse the country, and proposes in his bill (HR-661) a change in accounting rules to free up money to mail out additional coupons. The measure, with 10 Republican co-sponsors, would give the NTIA $250 million to send coupons by first-class mail. House economic recovery legislation calls for $650 million for the converter box program. “The choice is simple,” Barton said. “We can stall everything without clearing the [coupon] waiting list, delay a revolution in public safety and wireless broadband spectrum, cost broadcasters and industry a fortune in added preparations for a new transition deadline, and spend at least $650 million in stimulus money to pick up the pieces. Or we can pass this simple bill and fix the problem right now.”
Contrary to critics who say the NTIA has mismanaged the coupon program, the effort “is not out of funds,” the Barton bill says. Only about half the $1.5 billion in the program “has been spent on unredeemed coupons,” it says. The rest “remains in circulation, which is why there is a waiting list,” it says. About 300,000 coupons expire weekly, “and the recouped funding is used to send more coupons,” it says. The waiting list had swelled to about 2.5 million coupons Tuesday, from 2.1 million a week earlier, NTIA data show. About 1.2 million coupon requests have been removed from the waiting list since Jan. 4, the day the NTIA reached its ceiling, the agency has said (CD Jan 23 p8).
According to Nielsen figures, “only” 800,000 over-the- air-only households haven’t received a coupon, the bill says. Of those, about 600,000 are on the waiting list, leaving 200,000 that “could lose all service if such households do not take action,” the bill says. “Such households represent less than 2 percent of exclusively over-the-air households, and less than two-tenths of one percent of all television households. Such a small number of households with the potential to lose service is not reason enough to delay the transition.” A few people like that “will always be unprepared no matter what the government and industry do” to help them, it says.
Congressional aides appear aware of the need to accommodate public-safety agencies seeking quick access to the 24 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum that they will get after the DTV transition, a public-safety official said Friday. “I have actually been called by one of the staffers saying we're willing to work with you in making sure that whatever the legislation is, public safety concerns are factored into it,” the official said. “I know they have public safety’s needs as a concern.”
Days before Barack Obama became president, APCO and other major public-safety groups encouraged him to ask Congress to provide an exception for public safety if it puts off the analog cutoff. “All fifty states have already received licenses to operate on portions of the new spectrum, and many agencies across the nation have already acquired radios capable of operating in the 700 MHz band,” the letter said (CD Jan 12 p3).