That is if you live in Washington DC, and the item coming is a new version of the minority tax certificate, which met its untimely demise in 1995 and has been mourned ever since by just about all concerned parties. A new version is coming from Bob Menendez (D-NJ), with an bipartisan list of co-sponsors including Ken Salazar (D-CO), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Their still blotting and drying the ink on the new bill and its introductory press release, but its thrust would be the same as the old version, to provide a tax incentive for those divesting broadcast properties to sell them to socially disadvantaged businesses.
RBR/TVBR observation: The better the party balance on the co-sponsor list, the more bullet-proof the legislation. In this case, Democrats are trying to place both Smith and Stevens on the politically-endangered species list, but the tax certificate program seems to have zero detractors, so we expect there will be additional significant support for many more Republicans. John McCain (R-AZ) is one who has expressed support for the measure in the past. We suspect that the sooner this is put before the full membership of both houses, the sooner it comes back to life.
