"This is a victory for all those who believe in the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religious expression," Hall said.  " The FCC was wrong from both a procedural and a constitutional perspective, and I am very pleased that this ruling has been quickly reversed."

 Last month, with out the benefit of public comment or congressional input, the FCC issued an order that would force some religious television broadcasters to alter their programming or risk losing their licenses.  The order involved a television licenses transfer between a commercial station and a noncommercial educational station in the Pittsburgh area.  The FCC approved the license transfer with the pre-condition that "religious exhortation, proselytizing, or statements of personally-held religious views and beliefs generally would not qualify as ‘general educational' programming."  It said that church services also normally would not qualify as "general educational" programming.

 Hall sent a letter to FCC Chairman William Kennard on January 11 calling for a reversal of the ruling.  He signed on as an original cosponsor and the lead Democrat of Oxley's bill, entitled the Religious Broadcasting Freedom Act, which was introduced on January 24.  Hall and Rep. Steve Largent (R-OK) sent a "Dear Colleague" letter to all Members of the House of Representatives on January 24 to solicit additional co-sponsors.  By today, 77 members of the House had cosponsored the bill.

 Religious groups and thousands of concerned citizens also weighed in with calls to congressional offices during the past two weeks expressing their opposition to the FCC ruling.

 In its reversal today, the FCC noted the "widespread public confusion" over the meaning and effect of the ruling.  "Regrettably, it has become clear that our actions have created less certainty rather than more, contrary to our intent."  The FCC said that it would continue to defer to broadcaster programming judgements and handle any factual disputes about educational programming on a case-by-case basis as it has done for the past 48 years.

 "This attempt by the FCC to restrict religious broadcasting was wrong – and it has been quickly remedied," Hall said.  "I'm pleased that the FCC listened to Congress and to the American people and reversed this onerous ruling."