But despite today's congressional action, many TV stations in Seattle would like to make the switch to all on February 17th as originally planned, and they've asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to do that.

Bucking the Obama administration, House Republicans on Wednesday defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital television, leaving the current Feb. 17 deadline intact for now.

In ways both large and small, Americans are doing without. Squeezed by lofty prices for gasoline, food and other products, worried about their jobs and rattled by talk of a recession, people are hunkering down.