Washington (DC) - This afternoon, the amendment to the 2005 Senate Budget Reconciliation Bill offered by Sen. John McCain (R - Arizona) to move up the digital television transition date by one year, to 7 April 2009, failed on the floor of the Senate by a vote of 30 - 69.

Perhaps sensing the handwriting on the wall, Sen. John Ensign (R - Nevada) immediately withdrew his amendment, which would have slashed appropriations for set-top converter box subsidies, raised from the auction of VHF TV spectrum by the FCC, from $3 billion to $1 billion.

In the 60 seconds he was alloted for his speech, Sen. McCain pleaded with his colleagues, "We have the ability, we have the technology," to effectuate a transition in an accelerated timeframe. "It can be accomplished." His amendment was supported by every major agency representing first responders, he said, but opposed mainly by the National Association of Broadcasters. "We'll see if they can win again," he closed.

For rebuttal, Sen. Ted Stevens (R - Alaska) - this time without threatening resignation - argued that moving up the date would close the transition time too close to the end of the spectrum auction. As a result, Sen. Stevens said, there would be no way that proceeds from the auction could be made available prior to the time when broadcast licenses for the new DTV spectrum need to be issued.

But citing the coup de grace argument delivered in testimony which we covered last July before the Senate Commerce Committee, ironically in a response to Sen. McCain's question of his own witness, Stevens said first responders themselves required at least three years, perhaps longer, to undergo the bureaucratic process of requisitioning local funds needed to purchase the communications and transmitter equipment that would use the reclaimed spectrum.

Among those voting in favor of the McCain amendment were three Democratic presidential "hopefuls" for 2008: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D - New York), former candidate Sen. John Kerry (D - Massachusetts), and Sen. Evan Bayh (D - Indiana).

In a statement released late this afternoon, Edward O. Fritts, Pres. / CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, said, "Today's overwhelming 69-30 vote in the Senate represents a victory for millions of Americans who could have been left stranded by a premature end to analog television service. Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens and ranking member Daniel Inouye deserve enormous credit for their steady leadership in shepherding a 2009 'hard date' DTV bill through the Senate. Now that a firm date for ending analog TV is settled, NAB will work to ensure that all consumers have access to the full benefits of digital and high definition television." Senators Stevens and Inouye (D - Hawaii) both voted against the McCain amendment.

Fritts' statement does not take into account the House version of the Digital Transition Bill, whose "hard date" is presently set at 1 January 2009, and has yet to be reconciled with the Senate bill. Prior to passage of the Senate version through committee, the "hard date" was extended from 1 January to 7 April 2009, to enable broadcasters to conclude coverage of the NCAA Division I Mens' Basketball Championships before turning over their old channels to the FCC.