[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 772 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 772

 To provide for an assessment of the violence broadcast on television, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                  May 9 (legislative day, May 1), 1995

 Mr. Dorgan (for himself and Mrs. Hutchison) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for an assessment of the violence broadcast on television, 
                        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 ``Television Violence Report Card Act 
of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Three out of every four people in the United States 
        consider television programming too violent, according to a 
        1993 poll by Electronic Media.
            (2) Three Surgeon Generals, the National Institute of 
        Mental Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the American 
        Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and 
        the American Psychological Association have concurred for 
        nearly 20 years as to the deleterious effects of televised 
        violence on children.
            (3) In conjunction with other societal factors such as 
        poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, and poor education, the 
        depiction of violence in all forms of media contribute to 
        violence in United States society.
            (4) The entertainment industry is becoming increasingly 
        sensitive to public sentiment against excessive violence in 
        television programming. A recent survey of 867 entertainment 
        executives by U.S. News and World Report and the University of 
        California in Los Angeles reveals the following:
                    (A) 59 percent of such executives consider violence 
                on television and in movies a problem.
                    (B) Nearly 9 out of 10 such executives say that 
                violence in the media contributes to the level of 
                violence in the United States.
                    (C) 63 percent of such executives believe that the 
                entertainment media glorify violence.
                    (D) 83 percent of such executives believe that the 
                debate on excessive violence in television programming 
                has affected the programming decisions made by the 
                broadcast television industry.
            (5) The broadcast television and cable programming 
        industries have undertaken efforts to decrease violence on 
        television through joint standards on violence, implementation 
        of an advance parental advisory plan, and the establishment of 
        independent efforts to monitor the incidence of violence in 
        television programming, analyze the portrayal of violence in 
        network television programming and in other forms of video 
        programming, and analyze the trends and changes in the 
        treatment of violent themes by the media.
            (6) The American Psychosocial Association finds that 
        approximately 1,000 studies and reports on the effects of 
        violence on television have been published since 1955. The 
        accumulated research clearly demonstrates a correlation between 
        the viewing of violence on television and aggressive behavior.
            (7) To the fullest extent possible, parents and consumers 
        should be empowered to choose which television programs they 
        consider appropriate for their children and which programs they 
        consider too violent.

SEC. 3. TELEVISION VIOLENCE REPORT CARDS.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Commerce shall, during fiscal 
years 1996 and 1997, make grants directly to one or more not-for-profit 
entities for purposes of permitting such entities to carry out in such 
fiscal years an assessment of the violence in television programming. 
The amount of the grants shall be sufficient to permit such entities to 
carry out the assessment.
    (b) Assessment.--(1) In carrying out an assessment under this 
section, an entity shall--
            (A) review current television programs (including programs 
        on broadcast television, on independent television stations, 
        and on cable television) in order to determine the nature and 
        extent of the violence depicted in each program;
            (B) prepare an assessment of the violence depicted in each 
        program that describes and categorizes the nature and extent of 
        the violence in the program; and
            (C) take appropriate actions to make the assessment 
        available to the public.
    (2) An entity shall carry out a review under paragraph (1)(A) not 
less often than once every 90 days.
    (3) In making an assessment public under paragraph (1)(C), an 
entity shall identify the sponsor or sponsors of each television 
program covered under the assessment.
    (c) Grant Procedures.--The Secretary shall determine the entities 
to which the Secretary shall make grants under this section using 
competitive procedures. Applications for such grants shall contain such 
information as the Secretary may require to carry out the requirements 
of this Act.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as may be necessary to make the grants required 
under this section.
                                 <all>