Today, the U.S. House voted against the delay of the long planned digital TV transition.  Today’s bill would have cost a disappointing $650 million.

Democrats are panicked because they think the program that doles out $40 coupons for converter boxes is out of money.  The coupon program is not out of money and people are being moved off the waiting list by the hundreds of thousands.  A delay will only cause more confusion, cost more money, and harm public safety.

The “delay” bill will not move a single television viewer off the coupon waiting list. What it will do is confuse consumers and leave the country unprepared for catastrophe. How you ask? It will jeopardize the spectrum that police and firefighters said they needed five years to the day before September 11, 2001. It will also jeopardize the spectrum that the original DTV legislation clears for advanced wireless services. This very well could be our Nation’s quickest and most realistic way to improve broadband deployment, stimulate the economy, and create jobs.  Now the biggest disappointment of it all, it will cost the taxpayers another $650 million in the stimulus package.

None of this is necessary, however. The program sending $40 converter-box coupons to consumers is NOT out of money. Only half of the $1.5 billion in the program has been spent on redeemed coupons; the other half remains in circulation. That is why there’s a waiting list. The coupons expire 90 days after issuance if consumers don’t use them. About 350,000 coupons expire every week. The recovered value is used to send more coupons, rotating people off the waiting list. Approximately 700,000 homes have already been taken off the list in the last three weeks.

Moreover, this is a solvable problem.  Not only is it solvable it shouldn’t cost us the $650 million. It will, however cost about $250 million.  Legislation, based on a Commerce Department proposal, outlined would authorize $250 million for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to immediately begin processing coupons off the waiting list, even before active coupons expire. Some of this money could come back from expired coupons at the end of the program. Need coupons, fast?  This bill does that too, by allowing use of first class mail. Mr. Barton, Mr. Stearns, and nine other Republican members of the Energy and Committee have also introduced a bill, H.R. 661, implementing this very approach. Under this option, the NTIA could clear the waiting list in around two weeks, put approximately 5 million more coupons in the mail by Feb. 17, and put a total of approximately 10 million more coupons in the mail by the end of the program.

There is a sensible and efficient solution out there and the people have called for bipartisan corporation… let’s give it to them.

Tagged as: General
Posted 28 Jan 2009