Ed Markey: “I want to commend you for quickly putting this Senate legislation, once again, before the House for immediate…”

“I want to commend you for quickly putting this Senate legislation, once again, before the House for immediate consideration. In several weeks, without immediate action, millions of Americans may remain unprepared for the digital television transition. Mr. Speaker, as you know, I have had a long interest in the digital television transition. I held the very first hearing on ``High Definition TV'' in October of 1987--more than 20 years ago. In 1990, I battled hard and successfully as then-Chairman of the House Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee to get the Federal Communications Commission to switch from pursuing an ``analog'' HDTV standard to a ``digital'' standard. Moreover, I fought to build into the Telecomm Act in 1996 the appropriate way in which broadcasters could utilize ``spectrum flexibility'' to multiplex the digital signal into several video programming channels or offer wireless interactive television or information services. And I pushed unsuccessfully in the context of the 1997 budget battles to prohibit the sale of ``analog-only'' televisions by the year 2000--an amendment that was opposed by every Republican in our Committee markup in 1997. The result was over a hundred million analog-only sets were sold into the marketplace even as the government was stipulating it intended to turn off the analog TV signal.”