[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 26 (Monday, February 9, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             DTV DELAY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. LOIS CAPPS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 4, 2009

  Mrs. CAPPS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 328, the DTV 
Delay Act.
  As a supporter of this bill, I believe we must do everything we can 
to make sure no one gets left behind during the transition to digital 
television.
  Unfortunately, the Bush Administration grossly mismanaged the digital 
television transition and put years of meticulous planning for this 
transition at risk.
  The coupon program, which was designed to help households defray the 
cost of converter boxes, has a waiting list of over two million. This 
number is expected to increase in the weeks ahead. What's more, we also 
face the possibility of converter box shortages.
  And that's why we need to approve this important legislation to 
extend the cutoff date.
  First, the DTV Delay Act extends the DTV transition date to June 
12th, 2009. I am confident this one-time extension will give us the 
time we need to develop an approach that allows us to move the country 
smoothly to digital television without needing to extend the transition 
date in the future.
  Second, this legislation fixes the converter box coupon program.
  The fact that the coupon program has failed comes as no surprise.
  As someone that supports the digital transition, I joined many of my 
colleagues in fighting for additional funding for the coupon program.
  Over the last two years we have tried, repeatedly, to prevent this 
failure. And, I was very disappointed the Bush Administration did not 
work with us to prevent this situation.
  We called on NTIA multiple times to make sure the coupon program had 
enough funding and people would not be put on a waitlist.
  Repeatedly, we were told not to worry. And then, on Christmas Eve, we 
were informed that there were millions of people on the coupon wait-
list and the NTIA would run out of money before the transition date, 
leaving millions of Americans without access to television.
  Without coupons, households will not be prepared.
  Unfortunately, in this economy, where every penny counts, the price 
of a converter box is more than many people can afford. To date, 98% of 
converter boxes are purchased with the help of a government coupon.
  Last week we took a very important first step to fix this program by 
providing additional funds in the economic stimulus package for 
coupons.
  But now, we must make further improvements to the program to address 
consumer needs.
  For example, this bill permits Americans to receive coupons 
electronically and to apply for new coupons if their current coupons 
have expired. Americans should no longer have to wait 4 to 6 weeks to 
receive their coupons.
  Unfortunately, we also know that certain segments of our population 
will likely be disproportionately impacted by the digital transition: 
Latinos, African Americans and seniors. As someone who represents a 
congressional district that is 42 percent Latino and many senior 
citizens, I find the failure of the coupon program particularly 
troubling.
  Third, this legislation keeps in place the SAFER Act, legislation 
that I introduced and the Congress passed last year.
  The SAFER Act enables the FCC to let a single broadcaster in each 
market continue broadcasting simple information about the transition to 
digital broadcasting over the old analog channel for a short period of 
time.
  Households still not prepared for the DTV transition will see, for 30 
days after the transition, information that the transition has taken 
place and information phone numbers. More importantly, households will 
also receive emergency weather and public safety information that is 
broadcast over digital airwaves.
  We know that regardless of how much work we do, there will always be 
some households left behind and the SAFER Act is a common sense step to 
reduce that confusion even further.
  Finally, the DTV Delay Act will let first responders use available 
spectrum before the transition date if the FCC determines there is no 
harmful interference in the area. It also explicitly authorizes the FCC 
to use expedited procedures to promote inter-operability amongst public 
safety radio services.
  It is important for us to remember that one of the original purposes 
of switching to digital television was to free up spectrum so our first 
responders would have radio inter-operability.
  This will make our country safer. But if we transition to digital 
television with millions of households still unprepared, we risk 
cutting off millions of Americans from vital emergency information, 
thus causing confusion and decreasing our safety.
  We must act now to extend the cutoff date and fix the converter box 
coupon program. We cannot afford to wait any longer.
  I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

                          ____________________