Television for \"Underserved\" Areas. This bill proposing a $1.25 billion loan guarantee program for local television in \"underserved\" areas is similar to House Vote (below).
[ Television for \"Underserved\" Areas. As a way of providing local television to 30 million households in areas of the country that cannot receive over-the-air signals or do not have local television through a satellite provider, this bill would create a new program that would provide $1.25 billion in loan guarantees to telecommunication providers. The loans would offer a competitive edge to satellite providers since cable companies cannot apply for the loans to expand their service. The loans would be administered by the Department of Agriculture\’s Rural Utilities Service. Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA) in floor debate asserted that the Rural Utilities Service is \"writing off billions of dollars in their existing loan portfolio left and right, at taxpayer expense, and … about 30 to 40 percent of the loans that are going to get made under this program are likely to be written off. So one can look at the cost of this program [and see that] right up front [it] is about $400 million.\" ]
The bill, S. 2097, passed the Senate on March 30, 2000 by a vote of 97-0 (Roll Call 50). We did not assign any pluses, since there weren\’t any nays.
