House Subcommittee Approves CALM Act

Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet favorably reported H.R. 1084, the CALM Act, to the full committee on a voice vote. The bill includes a substitute amendment introduced by the original sponsor, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) that would require the FCC to conduct a rulemaking adopting the standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee dealing with this issue. The substitute also allows one year after adoption for operators to come into compliance, and gives the FCC the option of granting two successive one year waivers in the event of "severe financial hardship." 

However, Rep. Eshoo did note that smaller cable operators have stated that the standards would impose a hardship on them, and this issue may have to be dealt with when the full committee takes up the bill.