John Ensign: “the reason I hold up this report, partly to respond, during the hearings we had on transitioning from the analog…”

“the reason I hold up this report, partly to respond, during the hearings we had on transitioning from the analog spectrum to digital, we had the Germany experience where parts of Germany transitioned, and they had a program to subsidize some people who would need to make their analog sets operate in a digital world. When they had this program in Germany, not nearly as many people participated in it as their government expected to happen. The GAO report said if there were no means test, it would cost about $1 billion for all of the over-the-air broadcast televisions, one per household for all of those who do not have cable and who do not have satellite television. This is for, on average, about $50 per set-top box. Now, what I have said, and what I would like to see happen, is that we means test this, that anybody, let's say, who is up to 200 percent of poverty would be the only ones subsidized for a set-top box. If we did that, we could buy every one of those households two set-top boxes for under $1 billion, and we would have enough money left over to administer the program. And that is if 100 percent of the homes participate--100 percent. Now, I think it is reasonable for us to expect that not 100 percent of the homes are going to participate, but that is even with 100 percent of the low-income homes participating.…”