From: Nigel.Allen@lambada.oit.unc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Update on U.S. Cable TV Re-Regulation Bill
Date: 4 Oct 92 06:57:05 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 758, Message 1 of 5

[Moderator's Note: The Sunday papers said Bush vetoed the cable bill
Saturday afternoon.   PAT]

Here is a press release from the National Association of Broadcasters.

 Consumer Federation, National Association of Broadcasters Update

Status of Cable Bill

 Contact: Gene Kimmelman, 202-387-6121, of Consumer Federation of
          America;
          Eddie Fritts or Lynn McReynolds, 202-429-5350, of the
          National Association of Broadcasters; or
          Bob Chlopak, 202-296-2777

   News Advisory:

   The fate of the cable TV bill will be determined this weekend or
early next week at the latest.  Here are the most recent developments:

   -- President Bush must sign or veto the bill by midnight Saturday.
If he fails to act the bill will automatically become law on Sunday.
The Senate will vote first to override a presidential veto, and the
vote could come within hours of a veto since both houses are expected
to work through the weekend.

   -- Stories in the 10-2-92 {New York Times} and {Washington Post}
claim that the White House does not appear to have the votes to
sustain a veto.  The Times reports that the administration may be
reconsidering its position.  If the president vetoes the cable bill,
he could be overriden for the first time in 34 tries.

   -- The White House lobbying effort has focused on Republican
senators with a goal of changing nine votes.  The Post reports that
the president is making a straight forward request for party loyalty
in personal meetings and phone calls with target senators.  It also
reports that the president is asking senators to change their votes
while he is unwilling to change his position and is making an issue of
Gov. Clinton's alleged flip-flops.

   -- Opponents of the bill may try to filibuster the override vote in
the Senate in the hope of killing the bill by delaying tactics at the
end of the session.  Such tactics would be unprecedented; there has
never been a filibuster of an override veto.

   -- Finally, the latest indication of the momentum building for the
cable bill came yesterday from an unlikely source, the National
eligious Broadcasters.  These conservative allies of the president
urged him not to veto the bill and pledged to work for a veto override
if it was necessary.

   Following is the {Washington Post} article of Friday, Oct. 2: "Key
Group Opposes Bush on Cable Bill" by Ann Devroy, staff writer:

   The National Religious Broadcasters group, ally of President Bush
on family values and abortion issues, has told him that it will work
against him on legislation to overhaul the cable industry.

   This adds to burdens that Bush must overcome on what aides said
could be Congress's first successful veto override in his
administration.

   In a letter to the White House yesterday, the broadcasters
contended that cable operators arbitrarily exclude Christian stations
from cable systems, seriously undercutting their audiences.

   The broadcasters have mounted what they call an "all-out campaign"
against an intensive White House effort in the last week to persuade
nine Republican Senators to switch votes and side with Bush in an
override fight.

   With little public notice and no fanfare, Bush, White House Chief
of Staff James A. Baker III, and others in the administration have
taken aim primarily at the nine Republicans.  A senior administration
official said their argument is "pure loyalty.  If the president loses
his first override in four years three weeks before Election Day, it
will add another nail to his political coffin."

   The cable bill, which Bush must sign or veto by midnight Saturday,
reregulates basic cable rates and equipment, provides certain minimum
customer-service standards and promotes competition in the cable
industry.  After House passage by a wide margin, the Senate passed the
legislation Sept. 23, 74 to 25, a veto-proof margin unless nine votes
switch.

   Consumer representatives said the wide margins in both chambers
were indicative of public discontent with cable industry pricing and
service records.  Since 1986, when prices were deregulated, household
cable rates have increased an average of 56 percent.

   Bush opposed the legislation as imposing "a wide array of costly,
burdensome and unnecessary requirements" on the industry and
government regulators.  Consumer rates will increase, Bush said,
because of such burdens.

   The president pledged in a formal letter to veto the legislation,
and many of his aides are saying he is in what one called "a real
box."  This is the case, aides said, because while Bush cannot switch
to the pro-consumer side of the dispute without being accused of
flip-flopping, he is asking senators to change their votes in
deference to his reelection problems.

   According to administration officials, Bush met last Friday with
five Republican senators, and he and Baker have called each at least
once and in some cases more often to make the loyalty plea.

   Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vt.), one of those being lobbied, said he
told the White House that, "out of deference to the president," he
would reconsider his vote but that "it is hard to turn around on this
one."

   Jeffords said Bush and Baker had made the "obvious political case"
that "to lose a veto for the first time in four years right before the
election would be unfortunate."

   In their letter to Bush, the religious broadcasters said, "We
prefer not to oppose you in a veto override" but "we will support an
override if it is necessary."

   Pat Robertson, a member of Bush's religious-broadcasting coalition,
is on the other side of the issue, according to administration
officials, and has asked Bush to stick to his veto.  Robertson and his
son are principal owners of cable's Family Channel and are seeking to
buy into another cable operation.

   If Bush fails to gain nine vote changes, it will mark the first
time in his presidency that he could not muster the one-third of votes
needed to stop a congressional action.

   The veto has been a major Bush tool.  On 34 separate battles about
highly charged issues ranging from family leave to abortion to China
policy, the president has always been able to make a persuasive case
to his own party members and avoid an override.

   White House officials said major lobbying campaigns for and against
cable legislation have raged all year and have been escalated in
recent days as the veiws of both sides appeared in television
advertising.

   Cable-system owners and the motion-picture industry are the major
opponents of the legislation.  Consumer groups, unions and local
government associations have been major supporters.

   Following is the {New York Times} article of Friday, Oct. 2:

"Bush Considers Signing Cable TV Bill" by Edmund L. Andrews:

   WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- Confronted with the likelihood of a defeat in
Congress, White House officials are exploring the possibility that
President Bush should reverse himself and sign a bill regulating cable
television prices.

   Mr. Bush has vowed to veto the legislation, which passed the House
and Senate by veto-proof margins, contending that it would impose
costly, burdensome and unnecessary regulations on the cable industry.
But some advisers are almost certain that he will be overridden, and
they have been looking at options.

   On Tuesday, a White House official called the Republican Mayor of
Jefferson City, Mo., Louise Gardner, to discuss what she called the
"possibility" of a signing ceremony for the bill in her city.

   Campaign Battleground

   In 1989, Jefferson City was among municipalities that battled cable
companies to restrain prices or stimulate competition.  Missouri is
the state of Senator John C. Danforth, a Republican who is one of the
bill's sponsors, and it is a battleground in the Presidential
campaign.

   "It was discussed, the possibility of a signing ceremony," Mayor
Gardner said, emphasizing that she had been given no indication that
Mr. Bush had decided to sign the bill.  She said the call came Tuesday
from Jim Snyder, a special assistant to the president.

   Democrats have used the cable television issue to charge that Mr.
Bush is indifferent to consumers and a prisoner of corporate
interests.  But switching positions on the cable bill would expose Mr.
Bush to charges that he is indecisive and weak, and the potential
political costs are so high that a veto remains very likely.

   "As of right not, senior advisers are still recommending a veto,"
said Laura Mellilo, a White House spokeswoman.

   Another White House official, who spoke on the condition that he
not be identified, said the Administration was trying to craft a veto
message that might open a new debate on the issue.  The official said
the President would propose allowing telephone companies to compete in
the cable television business, hoping that the prospect of a new bill
would persuade enough lawmakers to reverse their earlier votes.

   Most lawmakers say the administration has only a slim chance of
preventing Congress from overriding a veto of the cable bill, which
would be the first time it has overridden a veto by Mr.  Bush.  The
President has successfully vetoed nearly three dozen bills since
taking office, but in both houses, the cable television measure
received more than the two-thirds majorities needed to override.

   Mr. Bush put his reputation on the line two weeks ago, vowing to
veto the bill in a letter to Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, the minority
leader.  Denouncing the measure as full of "costly, burdensome and
unnecessary regulations," Mr. Bush said it would restrain innovation,
cost jobs and drive prices up rather than bring them down.

   F.C.C. Pricing Formula

   He must send the bill to Congress by midnight Saturday, or it
becomes law without his signature.

   The bill would require the Federal Communications Commission to
establish a formula by which local governments can set the price for a
basic package of cable channels.  The bill also prohibits large cable
companies that produce popular programming from refusing to license
their shows to rival distributors, like satellite companies.