What is the Special Committee on Aging Doing?
Hearing: In September 2007, the Aging Committee held a hearing entitled “Preparing for the Digital Television Transition: Will Seniors Be Left in the Dark?” Testimony from Federal Communications Commissioner John Adelstein and Mark Goldstein, Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), corroborated the results of an Aging Committee investigation that found that, at the time, the federal government was drastically unprepared to educate America’s seniors about the February 2009 transition. The hearing uncovered several concerns, including the lack of coordination between government agencies; an over reliance on competing private sector efforts; the potential for fraud, abuse, and confusion with respect to the government’s coupon-program; and finally, that non-profit organizations require additional resources to sufficiently assist seniors with navigating the transition.
Legislation: In response to the hearing’s findings, Senator Kohl introduced the “Preparing America’s Seniors for the Digital Television Transition Act of 2007” (S. 2125), which in part would have established a grant program to support non-profits and state and local government agencies, such as area agencies on aging, in their efforts to help seniors and other vulnerable populations navigate the transition and the converter box coupon program.
In July 2008, Congress passed a similar provision in the DTV Transition Assistance Act (PL 110-295), which provides the Commerce department with the authority to use excess funds in a $10 million TV station grant program for consumer education grants, contracts, and assistance programs to assist vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens, with taking the necessary steps to prepare for the DTV transition.
Keeping Seniors Connected Coalition: Chairman Kohl helped convene the Keeping Seniors Connected Coalition, consisting of organizations advocating on behalf of older Americans and other vulnerable populations. Kohl led the Coalition in a push to obtain federal funding for those community outreach groups on the frontlines of the DTV transition. The coalition determined that seniors would need targeted education, assistance in navigating the federal government’s converter box coupon program, and one-on-one support for converter box installation.
In November 2008, Chairman Kohl hailed NTIA’s announcement of an award in the amount of $2.7 million to the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a) to help seniors transition to digital television.
Coupon Program: In June 2007, Chairman Kohl succeeded in urging NTIA, along with 14 Congressional colleagues, to allow residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to receive coupons to purchase converter boxes, leading to the agency’s change of policy. Since these seniors do not have home addresses of their own, they were originally left out of the coupon program.
In addition, Chairman Kohl has called on NTIA repeatedly to allow consumers with expired converter box coupons to reapply so that their coupons may be reissued. In June 2008, Kohl sent a letter along with 17 Congressional colleagues urging NTIA to address the issue, and echoed his concerns when the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in September that areas with predominately senior populations have allowed 43 percent of their converter box coupons to expire. At that time, Kohl also called on NTIA to comply with GAO’s recommendation to develop a plan to manage volatility in coupon requests leading up to the transition, expressing concern that NTIA had no specific plans to address an increase in the demand for converter box coupons.
In January 2009, the Commerce Department announced it would start placing converter box coupon applications on a waiting list, having already run up against the $1.34 billion statutory funding limit for the program. New coupons would not be issued until older coupons expire or additional funding is allocated to the program. Chairman Kohl promptly sent letters to then-Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), and Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), urging them to address the shortfall in funding for the NTIA converter box coupon program and to work to make certain that inventory is available when coupons are once again distributed.
DTV Delay: In February, Senator Kohl cosponsored the DTV Delay Act (PL 111-4) which was signed into law to delay the nationwide transition to digital television by four months, to June 12, 2009. The legislation also allows the NTIA to issue up to one replacement converter box coupon per household for coupons that have expired without being redeemed.
Fortunately, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was recently signed into law, included $650 million for additional coupons, as well as outreach and installation assistance to vulnerable populations, such as senior citizens. Senator Kohl was a staunch supporter of this funding.