[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2726 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2726

  To prohibit municipal governments from offering telecommunications, 
  information, or cable services except to remedy market failures by 
              private enterprise to provide such services.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 2005

 Mr. Sessions introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit municipal governments from offering telecommunications, 
  information, or cable services except to remedy market failures by 
              private enterprise to provide such services.

    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 ``Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act 
of 2005''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON MUNICIPAL SERVICES.

    (a) Amendment.--Section 253 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 253) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(g) Provision of Services by State and Local Governments and 
Their Affiliates.--
            ``(1) Prohibition.--Effective 60 days after the date of 
        enactment of the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, 
        neither any State or local government, nor any entity 
        affiliated with such a government, shall provide any 
        telecommunications, telecommunications service, information 
        service, or cable service in any geographic area within the 
        jurisdiction of such government in which a corporation or other 
        private entity that is not affiliated with any State or local 
        government is offering a substantially similar service.
            ``(2) Grandfather provision.--Paragraph (1) shall not 
        prohibit a State or local government or affiliated entity 
        thereof from providing in any geographic area within the 
        jurisdiction of such government any service that such 
        government or entity was providing on the date of enactment of 
        the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Subsection (f) of section 621 of the 
Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 541(f)) is repealed.
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