WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and 14 committee Republicans today wrote to President-elect Obama saying that the consequences of delaying the digital television transition will hurt first responders and delay the public safety improvements intended by the transition.

“[The transition] is freeing broadcast spectrum for firefighters, police officers and other life-savers and also providing them with $1 billion to equip themselves with the state-of-the-art communications gear that was so tragically lacking on 9/11,” the lawmakers wrote. “The transition plan is freeing additional spectrum for advanced wireless broadband services and has raised almost $20 billion in spectrum auction proceeds for taxpayers.

“None of this would have happened without the certainty of a deadline,” the Republicans added. “No one said this was going to be easy, but we have unquestionably made the right decision to complete the digital television transition on February 17, 2009. We believe that panicky talk of a delay is breeding stultifying uncertainty, and that an actual delay would be a monumental error in judgment that would damage the program and the public.”

According to Nielsen, at the end of November, 93 percent of households had at least one television prepared for the transition and 83 percent had all the their TVs prepared.

A copy of the letter can be found here.