WASHINGTON-Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he hopes to work with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to craft a bill that would end the uncertainty on the transition to digital TV.
“I want to work with Sen. Stevens in getting legislation passed,” said McCain, former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, at a press conference with the leadership of the 9/11 Commission and two mothers of victims of the 9/11 attacks. “I am not abandoning public safety just because I am no longer chairman.”
Stevens’ office said he is working on a DTV bill and hopes to have a hearing on his bill June 29.
McCain did not give many details about his bill. However, one of the main points of McCain’s effort is to allocate more spectrum in the 700 MHz band to public safety. When asked whether additional spectrum for public safety would hurt the budget by reducing auction revenues, McCain said the most important thing was to free the 24 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that has already been allocated to public safety.
“We need to study how much they need,” said McCain. “We are hearing from first responders that they need even more spectrum, but the 24 megahertz is essential.”
A total of 48 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band is available for other purposes, but there has been no official decision yet as to what to do with it.
The House and Senate Commerce committees have been tasked with trying to find more than $4 billion to help reduce the federal budget deficit.
McCain’s bill takes the budget considerations in hand when it sets a hard date at Jan. 1, 2009, for the end of the transition to DTV, with an auction of available spectrum no later than April 30, 2008, and proceeds to the U.S. Treasury no later than June 30, 2008.
The Save Lives Act is being co-sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland-Security Committee. RCR Wireless News first reported McCain’s plans June 9.
The Save Lives Act will be similar to legislation by the same name that McCain introduced last year, but will reduce the set-top box subsidy from $1 billion to $463 million plus administrative costs. This amount is expected to cover the 9.2 million low-income homes that receive their TV signals from free over-the-air broadcasting.
The FCC and the General Services Administration would administer the set-top box subsidy program. These agencies would work with broadcasters to distribute the boxes.
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been widely encouraged by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
