On the recordSeptember 8, 2000
As a conferee last year on a major satellite television bill--the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act--I worked hard to include, along with other Senators, a provision that would have assured that rural Americans were not left out of the benefits of that Act. I teamed up with other Senators to include a title that would have allowed USDA to provide loan guarantees to companies that wished to offer local-into-local television to rural Americans. We wanted to do this so that rural families would be able to receive their local network television stations over satellite, or other service, along with the full range of other programming. We wanted rural families to be able to get local news, local weather warnings and local programming but recognized that without a loan guarantee program that might never happen.
Source
govinfo.gov
