Five years to the day before the 9/11 attacks, an advisory committee recommended that broadcasters return some of the airwaves for public safety use within five years. Nothing happened, and rescuers and those they tried to help paid the price of that failure inside the World Trade Center.

The change is overdue, but it’s finally coming. The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act sets midnight, Feb. 17, 2009, as the firm date for broadcasters to finish their DTV transition and turn over 24 MHz of broadcast spectrum for public safety, implementing one of the 9/11 Commission’s primary recommendations. Another 60 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned by Jan. 28, 2008, for consumer services such as wireless broadband. The proceeds will buy $1 billion worth of communications gear for firefighters and police officers.

The act also provides $990 million so the small and consistently dwindling minority of households that use rabbit ears with analog televisions can request two $40 coupons toward the purchase of digital-to-analog converter boxes. If even more money is needed to help people switch, another $510 million becomes available. The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the program is fully funded for expected demand.

Not everybody is happy, however. Some say that the program will come up short, because of a Government Accountability Office cited figure of 21 million exclusively over-the-air homes. Yet even the GAO has admitted that the figure comes from a 2004 study purchased by the broadcast industry, not one conducted by GAO.

The broadcasters now say 69 million televisions rely on antennas, including unconnected televisions in cable and satellite homes. They say that after a broadcaster-sponsored consumer education effort, consumers will want coupons for one-third of those televisions. That comes to 23 million coupons, and the initial $990 million allocation can fund 22.25 million coupons. If really necessary, additional funds will underwrite another 11.25 million coupons.

I think many of the coupons will never be used. According to the FCC, only 15 million TV households relied exclusively on over-the-air antennas as of June 2005, with 94 million homes subscribing to cable or satellite. The number of analog, exclusively over-the-air households is falling, not expanding. Every day more people connect to video services offered by satellite, cable and lately, the phone company. Consumers have also been buying digital TVs in record numbers. And under FCC rules, all TV receivers manufactured since March 1 must be able to receive digital signals over the air.

According to the consumer electronics industry — the people who actually build and sell digital televisions and converter boxes — only 25 million sets will need a box, and consumers will want a taxpayer subsidy for only a third of them. That works out to just over 8 million coupons, which can easily be covered by the program.

An important part of all this is letting people know what’s up. Except for hermits, monks and infants, I’ll bet that most of the 300 million people in our country at least glance at a TV each day. Yet I suspect that most viewers are dramatically more likely to know last night’s baseball scores than the fact that their television is going digital. Our legislation allocates $5 million to help educate them. We tried to do more, but Senate procedural rules stripped the additional consumer education provisions.

TV watchers are the customers of broadcasters, cable operators, satellite companies and TV retailers. Those industries have a strong incentive to inform America how to manage the transition. In case that’s not enough, the DTV Consumer Education Act of 2007 will provide some extra incentive.

Sponsored by Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and me, the bill would require cable and satellite operators to send notices in their bills. Broadcasters would have to file regular reports detailing their own consumer education efforts, such as public service announcements, and the Federal Communications Commission would operate its own outreach program.

The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act struck the right balance in completing the DTV transition, providing spectrum and money for first responders, promoting wireless broadband service, and ensuring coupons are available to consumers. The transition has already taken too long, and the public safety and other benefits of this legislation are too important, to weaken resolve by squabbling over $40 coupons. The DTV transition must occur on Feb. 17, 2009.

Barton is the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

SPECIAL SECTION: COMMUNICATIONS