Congresswoman Waters in Support of S. 325, DTV Delay Act
I cannot understand why the Members of Congress would not be generous enough to have an appreciation for the fact that people are going to be terribly inconvenienced. Seniors who depend on their friend, the TV, let alone all of those televisions that will go dark without people understanding why. We could have a national emergency and our first responders would not have the opportunity to have an interoperative system where they could talk to each other.
I don't care about whether or not amendments have not been heard by either side. This bill has been debated ad nauseam in committee over a long period of time. And so, Members of Congress, if you want your telephones ringing off the hook, if you want 911 tied up, if you want people knocking on the door of their neighbors and others, trying to find out what is wrong, you act irresponsibly and not support this legislation, and let all hell break loose, because we will have a crisis on our hands.
I would ask the Members: be responsible. Don't nickel and dime this legislation. Don't create an unnecessary bureaucracy. Just vote the bill out so that we can support the average American in having their television not go on dark on February 18.
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PREPAIRED STATEMENT
Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA]: I support the DTV Delay Act, S. 352, which will provide a one-time delay of the upcoming transition to digital television scheduled to take place on February 17th. Unfortunately, too many Americans are still not prepared for DTV. Passage of this bill will postpone the elimination of analog television broadcasting until June 12th. Analog television broadcasts provide the over-the-air signals that Americans have, up until now, relied upon for both entertainment, news and emergency notification.
While it may have appeared that preparation for this transition was on track last year, it has since become clear that we are not ready. Members of Congress must act quickly and responsibly to keep the average Americans' televisions from going dark.
Even before President Obama was sworn in, his transition team alerted Congressional leaders about their discovery of major difficulties in preparation for the February 17th conversion from analog to digital broadcasting. These difficulties will result in major problems for consumers and the potential for them to wake up on the 17th with blank television screens.
By taking action today, we will extend time to provide coupons for digital converter boxes to the millions of Americans who still need them and are stuck on a waiting list that grows larger each day that we approach February 17th. In fact, between January 30th and February 2nd, the number of households on the waiting list grew by 200,000.
In California's 35th Congressional District, there were 7,502 households on the waiting list on January 30th. On February 2nd, the number was 8,113. In this short period of time, those constituents on a waiting list for coupons for converter boxes grew by 600 households.
If Congress fails to act, millions of Americans will see their televisions go dark on February 18th, and unfortunately, a disproportionate number of these households will be low-income, rural, and elderly. The most recent estimates indicate that 6.5 million households will lose all TV reception.
The DTV Delay Act will allow consumers who have not redeemed their coupons to reapply for replacement coupons, up to two coupons per household. This bill also preserves the ability of broadcasters to transition before the new date, if it does not interfere with another broadcast signal. And, regarding public safety, the bill expressly preserves the ability of public safety entities to use the DTV spectrum, subject to existing rules.
I urge my colleagues to prevent the crisis that will be on our hands if we fail to act. The average American needs our help now. I urge my colleagues to not get hung up on bureaucratic excuses and to nickel and dime this bill to death. If we fail to act, our phones are going to be ringing off the hook because there will be chaos and confusion when our constituents turn on their televisions and get nothing but darkness.