A week after Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., Jim DeMint, R-S.C., John Thune, R-S.D., and 15 GOP co-sponsors proposed to enact a law mirroring a ban approved by the House, the senators hope instead to add the language to an Iraq war appropriations bill now on the Senate floor. A press conference to announce the plan is slated for Wednesday.
A debate and vote on the Fairness Doctrine amendment could take place by week’s end. The Senate today was locked in what could be a long debate on Iraq war-related amendments that could delay consideration of other amendments to the bill.
However, this story seems a little unclear--to me at least. Will this proposed bill merely deny funding to the FCC to implement the "Fairness Doctrine" for the next financial year (as the amendment passed in the House stipulated), or will it permanently ban the FCC from implementing the "Fairness Doctrine" (as the "Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2007"--proposed last month by Coleman, DeMint, and Thune among others and which is not yet passed--would stipulate)? The language of those paragraphs above makes it sound like maybe the former, but we'll see tomorrow for sure.
