Prepared Statement of The Honorable Joe Barton

This is a legislative hearing on a staff discussion draft of the DTV Transition Act of 2005.

Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
May 26, 2005

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this legislative hearing on the DTV hard-deadline staff discussion draft. As I have made clear, I believe the 85-percent penetration test in current law is delaying the DTV transition, making it harder for industry and consumers to prepare for the end of analog broadcasts, and preventing use of the spectrum for critical public safety and wireless broadband purposes. I think a hard deadline creates the certainty we need to resolve these issues.

While I prefer a December 31, 2006 hard deadline, I have listened to industry and my colleagues, and I am willing to wait until December 31, 2008, if it will make my colleagues less anxious about completing the consumer education and regulatory steps needed to achieve as smooth a transition as possible.

I have also said, in the context of a December 31, 2006 hard date, that I am willing to provide one, $50 rebate toward a digital-to-analog converter-box for each exclusively analog, over-the-air, low-income home. The need for a subsidy diminishes, however, if we move the hard date to December 31, 2008. By all accounts, the cost of digital-to-analog converter boxes will have more time to drop. The tuner mandate will also have more time to increase the number of digital, over-the-air tuners in consumers' homes, especially if we accelerate the tuner mandate deadline.

The labeling and consumer education provisions in the bill also will ensure that consumers understand their options, and understand that they will have more time to decide whether to buy a digital television or a converter box, or to sign up for cable or satellite service. Consumers also will have more time to save. If I start putting aside just 30 cents per week, I'll save more than $50 by the time a December 31, 2008 hard deadline rolls around. I've got a lot of television sets, so I'm going to take my own advice and start saving now.

But I am also here to listen. You all have before you a staff discussion draft. Tell me what you think works. Tell me how you think we can make it better. Chairman Upton and I intend to move a hard-deadline bill expeditiously. I hope we can build consensus toward bipartisan legislation.

I look forward to the testimony of our witnesses. I thank them for appearing, and yield back.

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