House Democrats today are expected to name Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., to replace Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., as chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Telecom and the Internet Committee.
The immediate impact of the move is to potentially make less important Rep. Markey’s statement Wednesday suggesting the digital TV transition date could be delayed.
Read full TVWeek coverage of the DTV switch.
As chairman of the key committee, Rep. Markey has had the lead role in the House on most broadcasting issues on the Democratic side. He has urged a unified TV, movie and film ratings system and been concerned about the digital TV transition.
Rep. Markey also has been very interested in privacy and telecom issues handled by the panel. He was the author of V-chip legislation requiring TV set manufacturers to put a chip in their sets that lets parents block programming.
Just last night a statement from an aide to Rep. Markey suggesting that the DTV transition date be delayed sent shock waves through the broadcast community.
Now Rep. Markey will switch committee roles with Rep. Boucher, who had headed Energy & Commerce’s energy committee.
Rep. Boucher now will head the House’s overview of the DTV transition and other broadcasting issues. The lawyer and former Virginia state senator has been a co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus.
Rep. Boucher was a co-sponsor of net neutrality legislation in the House and has spoken regularly of concerns that, without such regulation, telephone and cable providers would turn the Internet into a road where the fast lane is reserved for favored content providers and the slow lane is for everyone else.