The
Senate Judiciary Committee version of the satellite reauthorization bill, which
is the one with generally bipartisan support Senate Republicans said last
week, has resurfaced as part of a just-introduced jobs bill, according to a
Judiciary committee staffer.
Sens.
Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced the bill Monday
afternoon on the floor after a bill that would have simply extended the
satellite license, as well as health and unemployment insurance payments for
another few weeks (until March 28 for the satellite bill) continued to be
blocked by a single Senator (Jim Bunning [R-Ky.]) according to multiple
sources, over issues unrelated to satellite.
Meanwhile
although the license that allows satellite operators to deliver distant
affiliate TV station signals expired Feb. 28, those signals are still being
delivered. That is because the leadership of the Judiciary committees promised
DirecTV, National Programming Service (which deliver the signals) and the
relevant stakeholders (broadcasters, sports leagues and others who receive
payments) that when a bill does pass it will retroactively make the interim
delivery legal.
