Republicans: DTV Date Change Talk "Breeding Uncertainty"
Send letter to President-elect Obama.
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/14/2009 5:58:00 AM
More than a dozen Republican legislators have sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama invoking 9/11 and saying "panicky talk" about moving the DTV transition date is "breeding uncertainty."
The effort was led by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which is reportedly now working on a bill to increase funding for the transition and move the date.
Barton warned last week against a DTV date panic attack following a letter by the Obama transition team to him and other top legislators asking that the date be delayed.
Spurring that request is a government slowdown/stoppage in distributing DTV-to-analog converter box coupons.
“[The transition] is freeing broadcast spectrum for firefighters, police officers and other life-savers and also providing them with $1 billion to equip themselves with the state-of-the-art communications gear that was so tragically lacking on 9/11,” they wrote. “The transition plan is freeing additional spectrum for advanced wireless broadband services and has raised almost $20 billion in spectrum auction proceeds for taxpayers."
Barton and company said that none of those things would have happened without a hard date and that delaying it would be a "monumental error in judgment."
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Delay analog shut-off until Aug. 31, 2011, the Canadian date. Chuck the coupons in favor of a tax credit/rebate. Hold hearings to find out how many $ were squandered -- and whether DTV system specs allow for external program/channel CENSORSHIP and/or in-home SURVEILLANCE.
Adam Smith - 1/14/2009 1:00:00 PM EST -
Delay analog shut-off until Aug. 31, 2011, the Canadian date. Chuck the coupons in favor of a tax credit/rebate. Hold hearings to find out how many $ were squandered -- and whether DTV system specs allow for external program/channel CENSORSHIP and/or in-home SURVEILLANCE.
Adam Smith - 1/14/2009 1:00:00 PM EST
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