House Budget Bill Passes 217-215, Heads to Conference
The House early Fri. passed 217-215 a budget bill with DTV provisions. Republicans had just enough votes to overcome stiff objections to social service cuts. As expected, no Democrats voted for the bill. But House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) said “aye,” after having vowed to oppose the measure because Arctic oil drilling provisions had been stripped out. The bill heads to conference with the Senate, whose bill passed Nov. 3 (CD Nov 4 p5). A conference schedule hasn’t been set, a House Budget Committee spokeswoman said.
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Congress was expected to adjourn for Thanksgiving over the weekend, with the House returning Dec. 5 and the Senate Dec. 12, Hill sources said. The measure could be taken up then, with conferees perhaps chosen from the ranks of chairmen and ranking members of committees with jurisdiction over each part of the bill, according to Hill sources. If that occurs, the DTV provisions would fall under the heads of the House and Senate Commerce committees. Official business can’t begin until the Senate convenes, but work on the conference report could begin in preconferencing meetings.
“I think it will be resolved,” said Janice Obuchowski, exec. dir.-High Tech DTV Coalition, welcoming House passage of the bill as a “big win.” Americans will benefit from release of spectrum, with firms providing new services and public safety groups improving interoperability, she said. Accord on a hard date won’t be as elusive as on the converter subsidy, Obuchowski said. “There’s nothing here that’s a deal stopper in conference,” she said. CTIA welcomed passage of the bill, saying it brings the public safety community a step closer to getting the spectrum needed to upgrade their services. Enactment of a hard date will help wireless consumers by spurring development of advanced services, CTIA Pres. Steve Largent said in a statement.
The bills’ disparities are “incremental compared with the massive public benefits to be brought by this legislation,” said Michael Petricone, CEA vp-technology policy, urging the conferees to move quickly on final passage. House passage, in jeopardy until Republicans’ last-minute concessions on cuts, is “a giant step toward completion” of long-sought legislation on a hard analog cutoff date that will make DTV mainstream, he said: “Our first responders are now closer to getting the spectrum they need, and America is closer to the era of fast, ubiquitous wireless broadband,” Petricone said.
The Senate DTV provisions differ from the House bill’s mainly on date -- the Senate’s is April 7, 2009 -- and the converter subsidy, on which the Senate’s $3 billion compares with the $990 million House figure. The House bill dedicates $500 million to a public safety trust fund for interoperability, compared with the Senate bill’s $1 billion. Barton and Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) have said they hope they can compromise on a converter box subsidy, which could be a challenge. During markup, some House Commerce members opposed a subsidy entirely; Senators could have a hard time getting the House to move toward the Senate number. But House Democrats, who want a larger subsidy than the committee approve, prefer the Senate’s number.
Another problem for the House bill is the “Byrd” rule, which bars nonfunding related provisions from budget bills. The Senate bill has no “Byrdable” elements, but parts of the House bill could qualify. These include downconversion of digital signals to analog, consumer education and a provision to require the FCC to begin a rulemaking by June 1, 2006, to reevaluate the band plan for auctioning unauctioned parts of the lower 700 MHz band, now designated Blocks A, B and E.
The White House backs the House bill’s DTV provisions, but urged Congress “to ensure that the largest possible share of auction receipts is devoted to deficit reduction,” said an Office of Management & Budget statement of Administration policy released Thurs. OMB also wants to prevent creation of “unnecessary and duplicative” grant programs, the statement said.