WASHINGTON A Senate committee voted Thursday to prevent federal regulators from letting media companies own larger shares of the nation's television market, defying a White House veto threat. The Senate Appropriations Committee's voice vote came six weeks after the House approved a bill that would also block the liberalized ownership rules. After Thursday's vote, the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee said he believed President Bush would not veto the measure. In June, the Federal Communications Commission voted to let individual companies own stations serving up to 45 percent of the nation's viewers, compared with the current cap of 35 percent. The FCC's broad overhaul of the decades-old restrictions would allow a single company to own combinations of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same area. The language approved by the Appropriations panel would not affect that part of the FCC's plan, but some senators said they would try to block it, too, when the full Senate considers the measure. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia temporarily blocked the new rules from taking effect as scheduled on Thursday. Buoyed by that decision, consumer groups expanded their fight against the rules by petitioning the FCC to abandon the regulations, saying they resulted from a flawed decision that denied the public a chance to comment. With billions of dollars and programming control at stake, the fight over the national TV ownership cap is pitting the television broadcast networks against many local station owners and a coalition of conservative and liberal groups. The White House has threatened to veto legislation that thwarts the new regulations, arguing they are needed in a 21st Century television industry changed by satellite and cable stations, as well as by the Internet. "The position has not changed" on the White House's veto threat, said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. But there has been strong congressional sentiment against raising the cap on television ownership, leading many lawmakers to conclude Bush would not cast his first veto as president on the issue. "In my heart, I don't think they would veto this bill" over the caps, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told reporters. Critics say the proposal would give too much power to the networks, at the expense of local station owners. The provision was added to a routine spending bill covering the FCC and other agencies the same bill to which the House attached its language. In Wednesday's emergency stay of the new rules, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a coalition of media access groups that claimed its members could suffer irreparable harm if the rules went into effect as scheduled. "The court stay is a critical victory," said Gene Kimmelman, public policy director for Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. "It prevents an impending wave of mergers and shifts the burden back to the commission to act swiftly on public requests for reconsideration." Consumers Union joined with the Consumer Federation of America in filing a petition with the FCC that asks the agency to largely abolish the changed regulations. The groups said the rules are riddled with contradictions and flawed reasoning and were developed through "an illegal administrative process that denied the public the opportunity to comment" on the specifics. FCC spokesman Richard Diamond had no comment on the petition. After the court decision, the agency said in a statement that it would continue to fight for the rules. The Senate also is preparing to vote as early as next week on undoing all the FCC changes. Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., have been leading a group of senators pushing for a resolution of disapproval, a seldom-used maneuver also called a "congressional veto." Dorgan has said the court decision gives new momentum to the effort. To succeed, the resolution would need majority approval in the Senate and House and President Bush's signature or enough votes to override his veto.
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