House Passes Delay to Digital TV

[BruceWayne]

Originally Posted by caliblue15

yeah, they could revote...

And it said on Yahoo that if they revote they are going to try for a floor vote which would only need to win by majority instead of 2/3. They need to just kill this thing.

[caliblue15]

Originally Posted by BruceWayne

And it said on Yahoo that if they revote they are going to try for a floor vote which would only need to win by majority instead of 2/3. They need to just kill this thing.

Majority of who is actually there....

[BruceWayne]

Originally Posted by caliblue15

Majority of who is actually there....

lol, good point.

[SkantDragon]

Frankly, they could delay it another decade, and millions of people still wouldn't be ready. There's been lots of time for this. If these folks aren't ready by now, then they are obviously not going to take any action until the switch has already occured.

Delaying the switch again will only further convince them to not bother making any effort and confuse the populace further.

Eventually, you just have to say 'Hey, it's too late to turn your homework in'.

[Bobby Henderson]

Originally Posted by BruceWayne

And it said on Yahoo that if they revote they are going to try for a floor vote which would only need to win by majority instead of 2/3. They need to just kill this thing.

Apparently the earliest the DTV Delay bill could come back to the House floor for a vote would be some time next week. And that would be only 2 weeks from the Feb. 17 deadline which is still in effect. Very little time for broadcasters to change plans already in motion, much less change all those "DTV is taking over Feb 17" commercials.

Add to that the factors of amendments getting attached and the whole thing needing to be reconciled with the Senate's version in committees and you have a situation where Congress may be lucky to have something in front of the President to sign before mid February.

I read the US House is adjourned until Friday. Congress is pretty consumed by debating the economic stimulus package and a lot of other issues. They can afford to spend only so much time talking about DTV.

While the possibility still exists that the House may succeed in delaying the current 2/17 DTV deadline, chances are not very good they will manage doing that.

[Blu-Malibu2009]

I'll be glad when my local ABC station is forced to upgrade to digital. They still haven't started broadcasting in digital although they've promised an HD signal by the February 19th changeover date. I wouldn't mind their refusal to upgrade if they actually had a high quality standard def broadcast but they don't. It's garbage. The worst of any of the local channels.

[caliblue15]

Originally Posted by Bobby Henderson

Apparently the earliest the DTV Delay bill could come back to the House floor for a vote would be some time next week. And that would be only 2 weeks from the Feb. 17 deadline which is still in effect. Very little time for broadcasters to change plans already in motion, much less change all those "DTV is taking over Feb 17" commercials.

Add to that the factors of amendments getting attached and the whole thing needing to be reconciled with the Senate's version in committees and you have a situation where Congress may be lucky to have something in front of the President to sign before mid February.

I read the US House is adjourned until Friday. Congress is pretty consumed by debating the economic stimulus package and a lot of other issues. They can afford to spend only so much time talking about DTV.

While the possibility still exists that the House may succeed in delaying the current 2/17 DTV deadline, chances are not very good they will manage doing that.

They passed the stimulus bill today...

[Bobby Henderson]

The House voted to pass the stimulus bill. It still has to hurdle through the Senate, where it could end up being stuck in filibuster. Chances are strong serious changes would be made to it requiring more trips through both the House and Senate.

[jkwest]

sigh...why is the government making this so complicated!?

just let the damn thing happen already...