WASHINGTON — The date of the nation’s digital-television transition remains Feb. 17 for now, after House Republicans on Wednesday defeated a bill that sought to delay the switch from analog broadcasts.
The vote was a setback to the Obama administration and other supporters of a four-month delay, who say millions of U.S. households could be left with dark TV sets when analog signals cease.
The Nielsen Co. estimates about 1.7 million Coloradans are affected by the transition.
A chief Democratic backer of the bill said the fight to delay the transition may not be over.
“I am working with the Obama administration and congressional leadership to explore all available options,” said Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “A clear majority in Congress supports postponing the transition and providing assistance to the millions of households that are unprepared.”
Bill supporters in the House failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed for passage under a special procedure. The vote in Washington was 258-168 in favor of the bill. Nearly all the chamber’s Democrats supported the bill, but a large majority of Republicans opposed it.
Democrats have the option of moving a bill through the regular committee process that would require only a simple majority for passage, but that would probably take at least until next week.
House Republicans say changing the digital-transition deadline would confuse consumers, who have been told for months that it is coming in February. They also say pushing the date to June 12 as proposed would create added expenses and technical challenges for broadcasters across the country.
“We could do nothing worse than to delay this transition date,” said Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the House Commerce Committee’s top Republican, who led the effort to defeat the delay.
Barton called the bill, which passed the Senate unanimously Monday, “a solution looking for a problem that exists mostly in the mind of the Obama administration.”
More than 665,000 government coupons for $40 toward the purchase of a converter box have been sent to Coloradans.
Denver Post staff writer David Migoya contributed to this report.
