November 8, 2004
Dear Mr. Shields:
Thank you for contacting my office to express your support for the
reauthorization of the Satellite Home Viewer Extension Act
(SHIVA). I appreciate hearing your thoughts about this important
issue, and I am pleased to inform you that I voted in favor of the
FY2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which included a provision
to reauthorize SHIVA.
During the 108th Congress, several pieces of legislation was
introduced to reauthorize certain provisions of the Satellite Home
Viewer Improvement Act (SHIVA) of 1999, which was set to
expire later on December 31, 2004. Senators John Ensign (R-NV)
and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced the Satellite Home Viewer
Extension Act and Rural Consumer Access to Digital Television
Act, or S. 2644, which would reauthorize the distant network
signal license through 2009. S. 2013 also included provisions that
would allow satellite television companies to provide "distant
network signals" to subscribers who cannot receive broadcast
network television signals via antennas.
That being said, I understand the importance of reauthorizing
SHIVA, particularly for satellite subscribers on rural areas who
would not have been able to receive any broadcasts after January 1,
2005. That is why I am pleased that these bill were incorporated
into the FY2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill on November 20,
2004, and is waiting to be signed into law by President Bush.
Should the full Senate further discuss this issue, please be assured
that I will keep your views in mind.
Thank you again for contacting my office regarding this important
issue. Please feel free to contact me in the future about this, or
another matter of importance to you.
With best personal regards, I am
Sincerely Thomas R. Carper