If only all legislation was so easy to approve on Capitol Hill.
In under 10 minutes’ time, the House Energy & Commerce Committee unanimously passed H.R. 5709, legislation that will greatly strengthen the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s ability to find unlicensed radio broadcasters and silence them for good.The legislation is the Preventing Illegal Use of Radio Through Enforcement Act — dubbed the “PIRATE Act.”
The legislation, proposed by Reps. Leonard Lance and Paul Tonko, would increase fines for illegal pirate operations to $100,000 per day per violation, from $10,000 per violation, up to a maximum of $2 million. It will also streamline the FCC’s enforcement process and empower state and local law enforcement in combating illegal pirate operations.
Some three hours and 52 minutes into Thursday’s full committee markup of more than one dozen bills, which included a recess, the House members began consideration of H.R. 5709 by hearing a bipartisan amendment offered by Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.).
Collins’ amendment makes changes to the bill that would require annual enforcement sweeps by the FCC, along with additional monitoring sweeps. His amendment also calls on the FCC to establish a pirate radio broadcasting database.
This is a slight change from an amendment originally set to be introduced June 13 at the Subcommittee level. Originally, Collins suggested that within 90 days after the PIRATE Act’s enactment and semi-annually thereafter, the FCC publish a list “in a clear and legible format” of all licensed radio stations operating in the AM and FM bands in the top five markets “with the highest concentration of pirate stations.”
The original plan would have also have had the FCC include a list of all unlicensed stations and their respective frequencies in each of these markets.
Rep. Lance supported the newly worded amendment. Rep. Tonko thanked the NY State Broadcasters Association for their help and assistance in getting the PIRATE Act to where it stands today. Lastly, House E&C Chairman Greg Walden commended Lance and Tonko, noting that he was an owner of radio stations for 21 years and “played by the rules … and there are a lot of them. The things that some of these pirate radio stations do can be pretty vile and vulgar, and also interfere with legitimate and legal communication. It is important our committee take these steps.”
With that, the PIRATE Act was passed on to the House floor with the amendment’s adoption.
NYSBA President David Donovan was the first to applaud.
“The number of illegal AM and FM stations operating in the New York City metro area exceeds the number of stations licensed by the FCC,” Donovan said. “The FCC’s ability to police the airwaves has been severely compromised in a number of markets. The result is interference to the Emergency Alert System, interference to FAA airport communications systems, transmission of RF radiation at levels above government standards, and a complete disregard for all FCC and consumer protection laws. We urge members of the House of Representatives and the Senate to move forward with this essential legislation. Time is of the essence. The FCC must regain control of the nation’s airwaves.”
