The U.S. House of Representatives voted 400 – 21 in favor of an appropriations bill (H.R. 2799) for fiscal year 2004 covering the operations of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and other agencies, including the FCC. The bill contains language that rolls back the new media ownership rules recently approved by the FCC.
FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell defended the broadcast media ownership rules, writing that democracy would not be threatened by allowing large media companies to exceed the previous 35% market penetration cap by acquiring additional local stations. Powell was in favor of raising this limit to 45%.
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