Senate Passes Satellite Measure; House Next
The Senate passed legislation reauthorizing satellite TV providers’ distant signal licenses for five years Wednesday. It’s a significant step for what has proven to be a difficult piece of legislation to complete. The Satellite TV Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) was an amendment to a larger jobs bill (HR-4213), which passed 62-36. The bill will next move to the House, where leadership will decide to vote on the bill as-is, or make changes with the Senate through a conference, industry and Senate officials said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The legislation passed by the Senate includes a controversial provision that held up similar legislattion last year and waives a 2006 injunction that has left Dish Network unable to import distant signals. In exchange for the waiver, Dish will provide local-into-local service for all 210 designated market areas. The lifting of the injunction was included as a compromise, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who said lifting injunctions is something he generally doesn’t support. The bill also includes a “look back” provision, retroactively pushing forward the license deadline and freeing satellite TV providers from legal problems for importing distant signals while the license had expired. Last week, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher said he expects no objections in the House to provisions in the Senate bill (March 3 p5).
The legislation has required several stop-gap measures along the way, including a reprieve late last year after the full reauthorization derailed in the Senate. The Senate passed an extension earlier this month, though the distant signal license had already expired due to objections from Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. Senate and House Judiciary Committee leaders urged the satellite TV providers to continue service as is despite the expiration.