Waxman, Boucher Push DTV Date-Change Bill To Colleagues
Wrote letter with headline "How Many Families in Your Congressional District Are Waiting for a Digital Television Converter Box?"
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/2/2009 7:54:11 PM
House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) pushed the DTV date-change bill in a "dear colleague" letter Monday.
"How Many Families in Your Congressional District Are Waiting for a Digital Television Converter Box?" was the headline on the letter.
They pointed out that the waiting list for $40 coupons subsidizing the purchase of the boxes is now 3.3 million requests long from over 1.8 million households. But they went even farther, spelling out for each House member what that translated to in terms of constituents in their respective districts.
"We have received data from the Commerce Department on the number of households in your district that are on the waiting list for digital converter box coupons. In order to assist you in evaluating the need for the DTV Delay Act, we have attached a table that contains this information for each member of Congress."
To check out the list, click here.
The House is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would move the DTV transition date from Feb. 17 to June 12 and allow people with expired coupons to reapply for them.
Money would come from the $650 million in the economic stimulus package. President Barack Obama supports the move and has said he expects the House to approve the bill--the Senate already has.
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The transition will be expensive, costing taxpayers, broadcasters, and other companies millions of dollars. And in the end, we will still have millions of homes "not ready" for the transition. It takes no more effort to deal with the problems after the transition than it does to do it before. This is no time to waste money; the transition delay is a profoundly bad idea.
Alfred Poor
HDTV Almanac
Alfred Poor - 2/4/2009 9:43:59 AM EST -
First of all. Why did these people wait so long to try and get coupons? The transition has been well publicized for years. Second, these people are waiting for coupons not boxes. The coupon is a rebate, they can buy the box or already have them the rebate can be claimed as they become available. So the actual number of people without Tvs is likely much smaller.
Eric Smith - 2/4/2009 7:25:30 AM EST -
Let's think about this for a second. Taking the data included in the Waxman-Boucher letter, there are 12,698 households in Nevada on the waiting list for converter box coupons. Nevada has approximately 1 million television households. So Congress is saying we need to postpone the transition until June because approximately 1% of the TV households seeking a coupon in Nevada don't have it?
The same could be said in Wyoming. Wyoming has 1,742 households on the waiting list. That's approximately 1% as well.
Artie Fufkin - 2/3/2009 9:51:55 AM EST
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