[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 500 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 500

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal 
   Communications Commission should vigorously enforce indecency and 
 profanity laws pursuant to the intent of Congress in order to protect 
children in the United States from indecent and profane programming on 
                    broadcast television and radio.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 21, 2004

 Mr. Pickering (for himself, Mr. Pitts, Mrs. Wilson of New Mexico, Mr. 
   Terry, Mrs. Jo Ann Davis of Virginia, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Istook, Mr. 
    Burgess, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Akin, and Mrs. Bono) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                         on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal 
   Communications Commission should vigorously enforce indecency and 
 profanity laws pursuant to the intent of Congress in order to protect 
children in the United States from indecent and profane programming on 
                    broadcast television and radio.

Whereas millions of people in the United States are increasingly concerned with 
        the patently offensive television and radio programming being sent into 
        their homes;
Whereas millions of families in the United States are particularly concerned 
        with the adverse impact of this programming on children;
Whereas obscene, indecent, and profane programming is contributing to a 
        systematic and detrimental coarsening of civil society of the United 
        States;
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission is statutorily charged with 
        ``encourag[ing] the larger and more effective use of radio in the public 
        interest'' (47 U.S.C. 303(g)) and correspondingly enforcing standards of 
        decency in broadcast media pursuant to section 1464 of title 18, United 
        States Code;
Whereas section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, prohibits the utterance of 
        ``any obscene, indecent or profane language by means of radio 
        communication'';
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission established a standard defining 
        what constitutes indecency in the declaratory order In the Matter of a 
        Citizen's Complaint Against Pacifica Foundation Station WBAI(FM), 56 
        F.C.C.2d 94 (1975) (referred to in this Resolution as the ``Pacifica 
        order'');
Whereas the standard established in the Pacifica order focuses on protecting 
        children from exposure to indecent language;
Whereas the standard established in the Pacifica order was upheld as 
        constitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Federal 
        Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978);
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission has not used all of its available 
        authority to impose penalties on broadcasters that air indecent material 
        even when egregious and repeated violations have been found in the cases 
        of WKRK-FM, Detroit, MI, File No. EB-02-IH-0109 (April 3, 2003) and 
        WNEW-FM, New York, New York, EB-02-IH-0685 (September 30, 2003);
Whereas the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission found on 
        October 3, 2003, that no violation of the decency laws or regulations 
        had occurred as a result of the airing of indecent language during the 
        broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards on broadcast television, at a time 
        when millions of children were in the potential audience; and
Whereas an application for review is pending before the Federal Communications 
        Commission as of January 2004, requesting that the full Commission 
        review that decision of the Enforcement Bureau: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the commissioners of the Federal Communications 
        Commission should reverse the Enforcement Bureau's decision In 
        the Matter of Complaints Against Various Broadcast Licensees 
        Regarding Their Airing of the ``Golden Globe Awards'' Program, 
        File No. EB-03-IH-0110, 2003 FCC LEXIS 5382 (October 3, 2003), 
        in light of the public policy considerations of protecting 
        children from indecent and profane material;
            (2) the Federal Communications Commission should return to 
        vigorously and expeditiously enforcing the indecency and 
        profanity statute pursuant to its declaratory order In the 
        Matter of a Citizen's Complaint Against Pacifica Foundation 
        Station WBAI(FM), 56 F.C.C.2d 94 (1975), which was affirmed by 
        the United States Supreme Court;
            (3) the Federal Communications Commission should make every 
        reasonable and lawful effort and use all of its available 
        authority to protect children from the degrading influences of 
        indecent and profane programming, including--
                    (A) the discretion to impose fines up to a 
                statutory maximum for each separate ``utterance'' or 
                ``material'' found to be indecent; and
                    (B) the initiation of license revocation 
                proceedings for repeated violations of its indecency 
                rules;
            (4) the Federal Communications Commission should resolve 
        all indecency and profanity complaints expeditiously and should 
        consider reviewing such complaints at the full Commission 
        level;
            (5) the Federal Communications Commission should 
        aggressively investigate and enforce all indecency and 
        profanity allegations; and
            (6) the Federal Communications Commission should reassert 
        its responsibility as defender of the public interest by 
        undertaking new and serious efforts to sanction broadcast 
        licensees that refuse to adhere to the Federal statute 
        prohibiting profane and indecent utterances on broadcast media.
                                 <all>