Satellite Home Viewer Reauthorization Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. STEARNS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

My colleagues, this bill is about a hundred pages, and the Judiciary Committee had probably the majority of this bill. We start at page 74 in title II, and the preponderance is in the Judiciary. But the bill is critical in the sense that this act itself is going to expire at the end of this month and we need to make sure that this passes.

This has been a great display of bipartisanship. You had two committees. The Judiciary Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee had separate bills just like they have in the Senate. The Senate has a separate bill in their Commerce Committee and also in the Judiciary. But we've come together, and it's a tribute to Mr. Boucher and Mr. Waxman as well as Mr. Barton that we came together here in the House of Representatives with a bipartisan bill, and we now have it on the floor. And we're hopeful that the Senate will do the same thing, because at this point, they haven't, and we might have to have an extension. I hope not. But I think it's been outlined pretty much, some of the aspects about it, so I'm going to concentrate in the areas that deal with telecommunications, a committee I serve as the ranking member.

The Communications Act provisions make clerical and substantive changes to reflect the end of analog broadcasting. That's a statement in itself with the new digital spectrum.

They also require an FCC report on whether the signal strength and antenna standards for distant signal eligibility should be modified in light of the DTV transition. They implement the deal DISH has struck with broadcasters to regain authority to provide distant signals if they offer local-into-local service in all 210 markets. They clarify that nothing in this act affects must-carry rights. They clarify that if a subscriber starts receiving from their satellite operator the network programming from a local station's multicast stream, the subscriber shall no longer receive a distant signal carrying that network's programming. They include language clarifying that restrictions on use of compulsory licenses do not limit private deals negotiated without compulsory licenses, such as to provide in-State programming to orphan counties. It requires an FCC report analyzing, one, the number of households that receive out-of-State signals; two, the extent to which consumers have access to in-State programming; and, three, whether there are alternatives to use of the existing Nielsen-defined markets.

Earlier, Lamar Smith, the gentleman from Texas, mentioned there are some things that have to be ironed out, and I think that's true.

While it still contains, in this bill, a provision we opposed in the committee during the markup that tries to twist DISH's arm into carrying public broadcasting stations in high-definition format, and I was the one that spoke against this, the additional views in the committee report reflect our concerns, and there is a chance that provision will become moot since, obviously, the parties are in negotiation, and we're hoping for a favorable negotiation so that will work itself out.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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