The National Grange is asking Congress to reauthorize the STELAR Act

The National Grange Reaffirms Support for Congressional Reauthorization of STELAR ACT

Rural communities face incredible challenges in several areas—including healthcare delivery and broadband internet access—that are essential to living a healthy and productive life. Failure to reauthorize the STELAR Act would create another gap by gambling away rural American’s access to information.

The STELAR Act enables satellite and pay-TV providers to import distant broadcast signals to underserved households. Because of the technical limitations of over-the-air antenna, it would be difficult for these communities to watch sports, local news, and other basic programming without STELAR in place. The legislation also protects rural consumers from programming “blackouts” that used by broadcasters without warning to extract even-greater retransmission fees from operators.

While most American’s take these services for granted, many rural communities do not have that luxury. Without STELAR in place, over 870,000 customers – mostly in rural areas – risk being barred from watching regular network TV programming.

Simply put, rural Americans should not be needlessly punished by broadcasters because of their geography. Reauthorizing STELAR will keep rural communities on equal footing with all other Americans. It would be a shame for Congress to let this opportunity slip away.