Georgia 9th District Congressman Doug Collins announced Thursday that he is forming a national caucus to address the lack of access to local television programming, a nationwide issue that locally affects the residents of four North Georgia counties.
Collins met with officials from Elbert, Hart, Franklin and Stephens counties ahead of the announcement, focusing "on the new process of petitioning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a ‘Change of Market’", according to a release from Collins' office.
Collins said current federal policies that determine which media markets will be broadcast in a given area often lead to residents only having access to a market that may be in an entirely different region, if not a different state.
“Like many rural areas, the Ninth District of Georgia has counties bordering another state that are in that state’s media market, and therefore unable to access local programming," he said. "This means that residents of those areas miss out on local weather, news, events, and public discourse."
Collins said he views the issue as one affecting public safety, citing severe weather warnings as a prime example.
"During these times, programming from way up in South Carolina doesn’t do our folks much good. Georgia residents need Georgia channels.”
While most Georgians are uneffected by the FCC's policies on the issue, Collins said his constituents in the aforementioned counties have been very vocal about the problem.
"I was sort of surprised when I first got in, we starting hearing this from really the minute we first took office, and I've been working on it now for 3 years," he said. "We have a lot of comments from over there. One of the more regular complaints that I get from the eastern side of the district is dealing with these orphan counties."
The caucus, formally known as the Congressional Orphan Counties Caucus, "will bring together Members of Congress who face similar challenges in their home districts and provide a forum to educate Members who are not aware of this issue."
Collins said by forming the caucus, he hopes more attention will be drawn to the issue, and that more support will lead to changes being enacted more quickly.
“This problem unfortunately is not unique to Georgia, which is why I am establishing the...caucus to bring together Members of Congress who also have this issue in their districts, so we can look at solutions," he explained. "We hope to bring more attention to this problem as a group, and better serve our constituents.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/3/376567/rep-collins-forms-caucus-to-assist-orphan-counties-in-accessing-local-media-markets