[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2136 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2136

   To prohibit sponsorship of television violence by agencies of the 
              Federal Government, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                 May 19 (legislative day, May 16), 1994

Mr. Graham (for himself and Mr. Dorgan) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To prohibit sponsorship of television violence by agencies of the 
              Federal Government, 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 ``Federal Advertisement Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``Federal agency'' means each authority of 
        Government of the United States, whether or not it is within or 
        subject to review by another agency, including--
                    (A) an executive agency, as defined by section 105 
                of title 5, United States Code; and
                    (B) the United States Postal Service and the Postal 
                Rate Commission; and
            (2) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Commerce, 
        acting through the National Telecommunications and Information 
        Administration.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION.

    (a) In General.--Except as provided in subsection (b), a Federal 
agency may not advertise, or enter into a contract to advertise, any 
product, program, or policy during any television program identified as 
having a high degree of violence pursuant to section 4.
    (b) Exceptions.--The identification of a television program as 
containing a high degree of violence pursuant to section 4 shall not 
apply to an advertisement pursuant to--
            (1) any contract entered into prior to the date of 
        enactment of this Act; or
            (2) any contract entered into prior to the date of 
        publication of such identification in the Federal Register.

SEC. 4. IDENTIFICATION OF VIOLENT PROGRAMMING.

    (a) Program.--Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration (in this Act referred to as the ``Administration'') 
shall establish a program to evaluate television programs with respect 
to violent content contained in the programs. The Administration shall 
establish the program in accordance with this section.
    (b) Program Selection.--The Administration shall evaluate each 
program on each of the national broadcast television networks, or on 
cable television systems (in the case of programs available to a 
substantial percentage of the households that subscribe to cable 
television service nationally). For each calendar year, the 
Administration shall select at least 1 week during television sweeps, 
as defined by the Secretary.
    (c) Identification of Program.--After evaluating the television 
programs described in subsection (b), the Administration shall identify 
programs that contain a high degree of violence, as defined by the 
Secretary.
    (d) Publication.--The Secretary shall publish in the Federal 
Register a list of the programs identified pursuant to subsection (c) 
each calendar quarter.

SEC. 5. REGULATIONS.

    The Secretary shall promulgate such regulations as are necessary to 
carry out this Act.

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