The Cable Bill says that the local channels have to be available to all _subscribers_, not to anybody who manages to tap into the cable somehow.
If one needs a cable box to view the service, then any _subscriber_ will have one.
But this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what was required to happen on the 17th and which Obama has put back to June. That affects over the air broadcasters whose signal you recieve with an antenna, it has no effect at all on cable.