The legislation, offered by U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Co-Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), establishes two specific dates that will advance the transition to a digital television (DTV) broadcast signal and improve public safety communications.

First, the Act requires broadcasters to vacate the analog portion of the public spectrum by April 7, 2009. From that date forward, public safety personnel will have access to the 24 MHz of spectrum recovered in the transition.

Second, the legislation begins the auction of recovered spectrum on January 28, 2008. Under its budget reconciliation instruction, the Commerce Committee is required to raise $4.8 billion in revenue in the next five years, and the spectrum auctions are considered to be the most viable method within the Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction to recover this revenue. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that auctions will raise a total of $10 billion.