WASHINGTON-After an unsuccessful effort to push up by two years the hard date to transfer spectrum from broadcasters, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to complete the digital TV transition on April 7, 2009. The House Commerce Committee is expected to consider its proposal, which sets the hard date at Jan. 1, 2009, next week.
Earlier in the week, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he planned to offer an amendment to set the hard date for completing the DTV transition at the end of 2006 or early 2007. McCain offered legislation earlier this year setting the hard date at Jan. 1, 2009, but after Hurricane Katrina, wanted the date moved up to Jan. 1, 2007. However, his amendment died by a 5-17 vote.
In urging defeat of the McCain amendment, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the Congressional Budget Office had said the McCain amendment would not raise the $4.8 billion the Senate Commerce Committee had been directed to raise by the Senate Budget Committee. McCain countered that he hoped “lives were more important than money.”
Congress is considering a hard date for the DTV transition as part of the 2006 budget reconciliation process. In 1997, Congress said that in 2007 broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that was given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been encouraged widely by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
Stevens said the committee hopes to address policy issues related to the DTV transition next week. At one point legislation addressing DTV policy issues totaled more than 40 pages.
