Senate Passes DTV Bill

The Senate late Thursday approved the DTV transition bill -- officially Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 -- by a close vote of 52 to 47. The bill was amended to earmark additional revenues from spectrum auctions. From the projected $10 billion in auction revenues, the bill sets aside $5 billion for the treasury, $3 billion for the subsidy; $200 million low power TV stations and translators; $1 billion for state and local interoperability; $250 for a national alert and tsunami warning system; $250 million for E-911 communications; $200 million for coastal States affected by hurricanes and other disasters; $75 million available for the Essential Air Service program (an unrelated appropriation which is apparently important to Alaska and Hawaii, the home states of the co-chairmen of the Senate Commerce Committee, which drafted the bill. In addition, the amendment that was adopted earmarks the first $1 billion--over the Congressional Budget Office's $10 billion estimate--for deficit reduction, the next $500 million for interoperability for first responders, the next $1.2 billion for coastal restoration for hurricane-affected states, and the rest to deficit reduction again.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6281029?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
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* Senate Rejects Major Changes To DTV Bill
http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-GGHC1131063778203.html