As Senate Democrats have worked hard to pass the legislation requested by President Obama to postpone the DTV transition until June, Republicans have been working on legislation of their own. Today a bill was introduced by Congressman Joe Barton of Texas that would provide an additional $250 million to the DTV voucher program. The program, which provides voucher cards to be redeemed for up to $40 toward a DTV converter, is currently slated to provide $1.34 billion to consumers.
The problem, according to the bill's authors, is that all the money set aside for DTV vouchers is currently tied up. Even though just over half has actually been spent through voucher redemption for converter boxes, the remaining amount is already committed to others still in circulation. As it currently stands new vouchers can't be sent out until those expire, freeing up the necessary funds.
They also point out that this may not even cost any additional money in the long run as it's possible $250 million worth of vouchers may go unredeemed by the program's end. By authorizing the additional funds now they say there would be no need to postpone the transition, avoiding any delay in turning over portions of the broadcast spectrum currently used for analog TV to public safety personnel and wireless internet providers.
Even assuming this course were chosen over postponement, it remains to be seen if converter box supplies would be sufficient to satisfy the increased demand. It wouldn't be the first time converters were hard to find.
They also point out that this may not even cost any additional money in the long run as it's possible $250 million worth of vouchers may go unredeemed by the program's end. By authorizing the additional funds now they say there would be no need to postpone the transition, avoiding any delay in turning over portions of the broadcast spectrum currently used for analog TV to public safety personnel and wireless internet providers.
Even assuming this course were chosen over postponement, it remains to be seen if converter box supplies would be sufficient to satisfy the increased demand. It wouldn't be the first time converters were hard to find.
