Section 331 Obligation Clarification Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 941 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify the obligations of licensees under section 331 of that Act, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 28, 2019 Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. BOOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify the obligations of licensees under section 331 of that Act, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Section 331 Obligation 4 Clarification Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. LICENSEE REQUIREMENTS. 6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 331 of the Communica- 7 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 331) is amended by striking 8 subsection (a) and inserting the following: 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 941 IS ‘‘(a) TELEVISION STATIONS IN UNDERSERVED 1 STATES.— 2 ‘‘(1) CHANNEL ALLOCATION.— 3 ‘‘(A) COMMISSION POLICY.—It shall be the 4 policy of the Commission to allocate channels 5 for commercial television broadcasting in a 6 manner which ensures that not less than 1 very 7 high frequency channel and not less than 1 8 ultra high frequency channel shall be allocated 9 to each State, if technically feasible. 10 ‘‘(B) REALLOCATION OF VERY HIGH FRE- 11 QUENCY CHANNELS AND ULTRA HIGH FRE- 12 QUENCY CHANNELS.—In any case in which a li- 13 censee of a very high frequency commercial tele- 14 vision broadcast station or an ultra high fre- 15 quency commercial television broadcast station 16 notifies the Commission to the effect that such 17 licensee will agree to the reallocation of its 18 channel to a community within a State in 19 which, at the time of such notification, there is 20 allocated no very high frequency commercial tel- 21 evision broadcast channel or ultra high fre- 22 quency commercial television broadcast channel, 23 as applicable, the Commission shall, notwith- 24 standing any other provision of law, order such 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 941 IS reallocation and issue a license to such licensee 1 for that purpose under section 307. 2 ‘‘(2) LICENSEE REQUIREMENTS.—Each licensee 3 of a commercial television broadcast station that re- 4 ceives a license under paragraph (1)(B) shall— 5 ‘‘(A) broadcast on the channel of the li- 6 censee not fewer than 14 hours of common local 7 programming per week, not fewer than 7 hours 8 of which shall be broadcast between the hours 9 of 6:00 p.m. and midnight; 10 ‘‘(B) include as part of the common local 11 programming broadcast under subparagraph 12 (A) a substantial amount of particularized local 13 content; 14 ‘‘(C) maintain a broadcast studio in the 15 station’s community of license for each license 16 so received; 17 ‘‘(D) file with the Commission a quarterly 18 disclosure of all programming broadcast under 19 subparagraph (A) during the period covered by 20 the disclosure, which— 21 ‘‘(i) shall include a separate list of 22 programming included under subparagraph 23 (B) with a detailed explanation of how that 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 941 IS programming satisfies the requirements of 1 subparagraph (B); and 2 ‘‘(ii) the Commission shall make pub- 3 licly available; and 4 ‘‘(E) when developing the programming de- 5 scribed in subparagraphs (A) and (B), or any 6 public service announcement broadcast on the 7 channel of the licensee, consult with community 8 leaders and members of the general public in 9 the market served by the station. 10 ‘‘(3) EFFECT OF CHANGES TO ULTRA HIGH 11 FREQUENCY STATION.—If a licensee that holds a li- 12 cense issued under paragraph (1)(B) changes from 13 a very high frequency commercial television broad- 14 cast station to an ultra high frequency commercial 15 television broadcast station— 16 ‘‘(A) the licensee shall ensure that the 17 change does not affect any special service obli- 18 gation imposed on the licensee because of the 19 fact that the licensee received the license under 20 that paragraph, without regard to whether the 21 Commission imposed the obligation— 22 ‘‘(i) by rule or order; or 23 ‘‘(ii) as part of the grant or renewal 24 of the license; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 941 IS ‘‘(B) the Commission may not directly or 1 indirectly reduce or eliminate the special service 2 obligation described in subparagraph (A) be- 3 cause of that change. 4 ‘‘(4) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 5 ‘particularized local content’ means programming— 6 ‘‘(A) aired on a commercial television 7 broadcast channel by a licensee that receives a 8 license under paragraph (1)(B); and 9 ‘‘(B) that— 10 ‘‘(i) has specific, articulable, and par- 11 ticularized appeal for the community to 12 which the channel described in subpara- 13 graph (A) is reallocated under paragraph 14 (1)(B) that is separate and distinct from 15 the general national or local television mar- 16 ket appeal; 17 ‘‘(ii) includes news or public affairs 18 information about the State, or the region 19 of the State, in which the community de- 20 scribed in clause (i) is located; and 21 ‘‘(iii) is responsive to the unique con- 22 cerns of the community described in clause 23 (i) as part of a State that lacks a television 24 market that is centered in that State.’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 941 IS (b) RULEMAKING.— 1 (1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 2 (A) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the 3 Federal Communications Commission; and 4 (B) the term ‘‘section 331’’ means section 5 331 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 6 U.S.C. 331), as amended by subsection (a). 7 (2) RULES.—Not later than 1 year after the 8 date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 9 issue final rules to implement the amendments made 10 by subsection (a). 11 (3) REQUIREMENTS.—The rules required under 12 paragraph (2) shall— 13 (A) contain specific procedures and re- 14 quirements for how an individual who lives in a 15 community to which a commercial television 16 broadcast channel is reallocated under sub- 17 section (a)(1)(B) of section 331 can challenge 18 whether the licensee with respect to that chan- 19 nel has satisfied the requirements of the li- 20 censee under section 331, particularly when 21 that licensee seeks to renew the license with re- 22 spect to that channel; 23 (B) include guidance regarding what type 24 of evidence the Commission shall accept and re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 941 IS view in determining whether a licensee de- 1 scribed in subparagraph (A) is satisfying the re- 2 quirements of the licensee under section 331; 3 and 4 (C) ensure that the procedure by which an 5 individual described in subparagraph (A) can 6 participate in the review by the Commission of 7 a licensee described in that subparagraph— 8 (i) is simple and straightforward; and 9 (ii) includes holding community fo- 10 rums as necessary. 11 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941 pamtmann on DSKBFK8HB2PROD with BILLS