[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5564 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5564
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for certain
requirements with respect to ownership and diversity reporting for
television broadcast stations and cable operators, and for other
purposes.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 9, 2020
Ms. Clarke of New York introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
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A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for certain
requirements with respect to ownership and diversity reporting for
television broadcast stations and cable operators, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Enhancing Broadcaster Diversity and
Inclusion by Verifying and Ensuring the Reporting required by Statute
Is Transpiring and Yielding Data Act'' or the ``Enhancing Broadcaster
DIVERSITY Data Act''.
SEC. 2. OWNERSHIP AND DIVERSITY REPORTING.
(a) Sense of Congress.--Recognizing the long history of exclusion
of women and people of color from media resources in the United States,
and the responsibility of broadcasters to be responsive to the needs
and interests of their communities of license, it is the sense of
Congress that the Commission should carry out policies promoting
diversity, localism, and inclusion in the broadcast and cable
industries. As such, Congress directs the Commission to take the
actions described in subsection (b) and the amendments made by such
subsection.
(b) Media Ownership and Diversity.--
(1) Employment data.--Not later than 18 months after the
date of the enactment of this Act, in accordance with sections
334(a) and 634(d)(3)(A) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 334(a); 554(d)(3)(A)), the Commission, after notice and
comment, shall complete the proceeding initiated in the Third
Report and Order and Fourth Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in
the ongoing Review of the Commission's Broadcast and Cable
Equal Employment Opportunity Rules and Policies, MM Docket No.
98-204.
(2) Ownership data.--Part I of title III of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended
by adding at the end the following:
``SEC. 344. OWNERSHIP DATA.
``(a) In General.--Except as specifically provided in subsection
(b), the Commission may not revise--
``(1) section 73.3615 of title 47, Code of Federal
Regulations (relating to ownership reports), as in effect on
the date of the enactment of this section, as such section
73.3615 applies to television broadcast station licensees and
permittees; or
``(2) the forms used by the licensees and permittees
described in paragraph (1) to report pertinent ownership data
to the Commission.
``(b) Technical Revisions or Improvements.--
``(1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the Commission
may revise the regulations described in subsection (a) to
augment the quality and sufficiency of the reports required
under such regulations, to make nonsubstantive technical or
clerical revisions in such regulations as necessary to reflect
changes in technology, terminology, or Commission organization,
or to ensure the anonymity of station-specific ownership data
unnecessary to the analysis of aggregated industry ownership
trends.
``(2) Limitation.--The Commission may not diminish or
otherwise reduce the frequency or quality of the reports
required under the regulations described in subsection (a).''.
(3) Ownership and diversity report.--
(A) In general.--Section 13(d)(3) of the
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 163(d)(3)) is
amended by striking ``in accordance with the national
policy under section 257(b)'' and inserting the
following: ``and include in the report required by
subsection (a) the most recent data collected under the
regulations described in sections 334(a), 344(a), and
634(d)(3)(A), and analysis of such data, as such
barriers and such data relate to the national policy
under section 257(b)''.
(B) Ownership database.--Not later than 2 years
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Commission shall create a public, searchable database
of the data collected under the regulations described
in section 344(a) of the Communications Act of 1934, as
added by paragraph (2), that members of the public may
use to search for and produce reports identifying--
(i) ownership data with respect to any
particular station;
(ii) ownership interests of any person who
holds a license;
(iii) industry-wide statistics;
(iv) statistics for particular geographic
regions; or
(v) statistics for particular licensee
classifications.
(c) Commission Defined.--In this section, the term ``Commission''
means the Federal Communications Commission.
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