OKEMOS - On May 5, 2011 the Community Access Preservation Act (“CAP Act”), H.R. 1746 was introduced by Congresswoman Baldwin (D-WI) and Congressman LaTourette (R-OH). This Act will allow HOMTV and other like channels to continue to provide programming & other services to the communities of Haslett, Okemos and East Lansing about local events, emergencies, and other relevant programming. With few outlets for local information available in Haslett, Okemos and East Lansing, HOMTV is one of the last existing sources for localism and civic engagement.

Unlike public broadcasting, HOMTV receives no federal or state appropriation of funds, but relies on franchise fees and support from local members and organizations. However, support for public, educational and governmental access have been threatened, and in some cases eliminated, by changes in many states’ laws and resistance from cable providers. The CAP Act responds to four immediate threats to our funding and those of public, educational and governmental cable channels around the country:

• It amends the Communications Act so that public, educational and governmental access funding may be used to support basic operational costs, including employee salaries;
• It reaffirms the principles of the Communications Act that cable providers should not discriminate against us and should treat us the same as other local broadcast channels;
• It promotes the preservation of public, educational and governmental channels like HOMTV, and ongoing funding from cable providers for local programming; and
•Requires the FCC to undertake a study of PEG.
* PEG = Public, Educational, and Government