Cliff Stearns: “I think what we have here is we have the former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and we have the present…”

“I think what we have here is we have the former chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and we have the present chairman of Committee on Commerce, under the Republicans, both agreeing that this is an issue where we should not charge the broadcasters to go into the higher spectrum. The analogy I would like to bring you your attention is the Homestead Act. What happened was, we gave people land and we said, develop this land. Just like we gave the broadcasters the analog spectrum and we said, develop it. Now we are saying to the people on the homestead piece of land, we want you to go somewhere else. We are not going to go ahead and charge all these people to go somewhere else. We are asking them to go and try it out, and then we will auction off what they have. It is analogous to the Homestead Act. I think if you think of it in those terms, you will realize we cannot charge the broadcasters for this. They already have huge mortgage payments, development of capital they have already invested. They cannot go ahead and reinvest on this new spectrum first without paying their old debt. So what I am saying is, we need to allow them to go forward. Then we can auction off their old piece of property, their old analog. For that reason, I am against the Frank amendment.”