Anna Eshoo: “I served on the Energy and Commerce Committee for 14 years, and much of that time in the Telecommunications Subcommittee…”

“I served on the Energy and Commerce Committee for 14 years, and much of that time in the Telecommunications Subcommittee was spent dedicated to digital transition. So I have been around this issue for a while. After all of the oversight, after all of the work, after all of the hearings, it's become unfortunately clear that we're unprepared to transition on February 17. Many consumers never received their coupons because the coupons were lost in the mail and they were prevented from reapplying. Other consumers' coupons expired because they could not find converter boxes before they expired, and we know that problems in the education program for the DTV transition probably left many families uncertain about what to do with their coupons. And coupons were mailed third class. Now, I don't know what genius came up with that in the department, but it was really, totally mishandled and bungled. Seven and a half million households are prepared for the transition, and there are over 2.7 million coupons representing more than 1.5 million households on a waiting list right now today.”