Audio Video News

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to keep the DTV transition running on schedule, defeating legislation that would have allowed some stations to delay the transition from February 17 to June 12. Though the measure had passed the Senate, it did not attract the two-thirds majority required to pass the House. Therefore all TV stations will have to stop transmitting analog signals, using digital only, after February 17--unless the bill's proponents try again.

The vote broke down roughly along party lines, with most Democrats voting for the delay and most Republicans voting against. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) spoke for the pro-transition forces when he said: "We could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date. The bill is a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration."

"The outgoing Bush administration grossly mismanaged the digital television transition and consumers are confused, households are not prepared, and the coupon program for converter boxes is broken," retorted Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV)--ignoring the fact that the DTV transition has been a bipartisan 26-year process, implemented by an FCC that includes both Republicans and Democrats, and that Congress passed the legislation authorizing it in 2005.

The reason why the legislation needed a two-thirds majority in the House was that the leadership introduced it using a special process that limited debate. Democrats may bring the bill up for another vote, next time with a more conventional process that would provide full debate and require only a simple majority for passage. Under those rules, yesterday's 258-168 vote would have been sufficient to send the bill to the president's desk. Don't touch that dial.

Updates: After the bill was approved by the Senate and defeated in the House, the Senate passed a second version of it, again unanimously. Presumably it will go on to debate in the House.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson weighed in with the first White House statement on the affair since President Obama took office: "Poor planning and inadequate funding of the DTV conversion means that millions of Americans risk being left in the dark on February 17th. This bipartisan legislation which again passed unanimously in the Senate tonight appropriately acknowledges the needs of both the American consumer and the public safety community. We urge the House to move quickly to pass this bill, and we will work with Congress to improve the information and assistance available to Americans as the nation moves to digital television."