By Staff
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday overwhelmingly approved U.S. Fred Upton's legislation to clean up the public airwaves.
Upton's legislation, H.R. 310, the Broadcast Indecency Act of 2005, would raise the amount the FCC can fine for indecency from $32,500 to $500,000 per violation.
H.R. 310 passed the House by a vote of 389 to 38.
"There must be a level of expectation when a parent turns on the TV or radio between the family hours that the content will be suitable for children. A parent should not have to think twice about the content on the public airwaves. Unfortunately, that situation is far from reality. With passage of this legislation, I am confident that broadcasters will think twice about pushing the envelope. And our kids will be better off for it. I am pleased with the passage of this bill in the House today, not only as the bill's author, but more importantly as a parent."
In addition to raising the fines from $32,500 to $500,000 per violation, Upton's legislation also mandates a license revocation hearing (but does not dictate the outcome of the hearing) after the third offense by a broadcaster (the FCC currently has the authority to hold such a hearing after the first offense, but is not mandated to do so) and also imposes on the FCC a 180 day "shot clock" to act on indecency complaints filed by consumers. Additionally, the bill raises the amount the FCC can fine networks and entertainers who willfully or intentionally violate indecency standards from $11,000 to $500,000. The bill also includes protections for affiliates from fines in instances, like the 2004 Super Bowl, where they did not know what was soon to be broadcast by the network.
Just over a year ago, Upton introduced similar legislation after all five FCC Commissioners, both Republican and Democrat, had lamented that the current level of fines was too low. The bill passed the House last March 11th by a vote of 391 to 22 and the Senate passed similar legislation by a vote of 99 to 1 on June 22nd.
Also, today the White House Office and Management and Budget released a statement in strong support of Upton's bill that said, "This legislation will make broadcast television and radio more suitable for family viewing by giving the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the authority to impose stiffer penalties on broadcasters that air obscene or indecent material over the public airwaves. In particular, the Administration applauds the inclusion in the bill of its proposal to require that the FCC consider whether inappropriate material has been aired during children's television programming in determining the fine to be imposed for violations of the law."