Get ready for summertime DTV transition.

The House on Wednesday approved a bill to move the DTV transition from February 17 to June 12 by a vote of 264 to 158.

The Senate approved the measure last week, so it now moves to President Obama, who is expected to sign the bill into law.

Television broadcasters are federally mandated to switch from analog to digital signals in order to free up spectrum for public safety and other uses. The February 17 date was selected by Congress in 2005, but recent concerns about funding for the converter box coupon program, technical issues, and consumer education prompted President Obama's team to push for a delay.

In addition to moving the transition date to June 12, the bill also allows broadcast stations to make the switch earlier than that date if they are ready. If the stations do make that early switch, that spectrum can immediately be allocated to public safety officials.

Meanwhile, consumers with expired converter box coupons may apply for new replacement coupons. At the moment, people with expired coupons are out of luck.

The vote was preceded by a floor debate, during which Republicans criticized the Democrats for holding a "closed" vote that did not allow for amendments and for not having any hearings or markups on the bill.

"I'm trying to figure out what it is the majority fears about open debate," said Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican.

"This was discussed in Rules Committee the other day and there is a need for expediency here," responded Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, also questioned why the bill does not include any funding for the transition.

"The money for this bill is in the stimulus package, which probably won't clear the Senate for another couple weeks," Barton said. "We're delaying a hard date without additional money. How silly is that?"

The stimulus package, which passed the House, and is currently being debated in the Senate, provides $650 million for the coupon program and outreach efforts.

Democrats were not swayed.

"Can you imagine February 18 when millions of households will have their televisions go dark and not understand why? Yes, it would be great if everybody had received their coupons and everyone understood the transition ... but they don't," said Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. "I don't care about whether or not amendments have not been heard. This bill had been debated ad nauseum in committee over time."

"This has not been an ideal transition...and this is hardly a perfect solution, [but] punishing consumers is surely not the way we fix this problem," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, also a California Democrat.

Barton provided details on some of the Republicans amendments that would have been offered had they been allowed, including one that would have removed the delay and simply authorized more money, one that would have exempted broadcasters from the delay if it was going to cost them more than $100,000, and one that said broadcasters would have to go ahead with the switch by February 17 if they were sitting on spectrum that could help provide broadband access to rural areas.

Barton still tried to push one change via a motion to recommit, which would have sent the bill back to committee, but that effort failed by a vote of 180 to 242. Under his plan, stations that are sitting on public safety spectrum would have to vacate by February 17.

Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.