[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1084 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1084


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 16, 2009

    Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
    To require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a 
standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes 
               than the program material they accompany.

    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 ``Commercial Advertisement Loudness 
Mitigation Act'' or the ``CALM Act''.

SEC. 2. RULEMAKING ON LOUD COMMERCIALS REQUIRED.

    (a) Regulation Required.--Within 1 year after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall prescribe 
pursuant to the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) a 
regulation that is limited to incorporating by reference and making 
mandatory (subject to any waivers the Commission may grant pursuant to 
subsection (b)(2)) the ``Recommended Practice: Techniques for 
Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television'' 
(A/85), and any successor thereto, approved by the Advanced Television 
Systems Committee, only insofar as such recommended practice concerns 
the transmission of commercial advertisements by a television broadcast 
station, cable operator, or other multichannel video programming 
distributor.
    (b) Implementation.--
            (1) Effective date.--The Federal Communications Commission 
        shall prescribe that the regulation adopted pursuant to 
        subsection (a) shall become effective 1 year after the date of 
        its adoption.
            (2) Waiver.--For any television broadcast station, cable 
        operator, or other multichannel video programming distributor 
        that demonstrates that obtaining the equipment to comply with 
        the regulation adopted pursuant to subsection (a) would result 
        in financial hardship, the Federal Communications Commission 
        may grant a waiver of the effective date set forth in paragraph 
        (1) for 1 year and may renew such waiver for 1 additional year.
    (c) Definitions.--For purposes of this section--
            (1) the term ``television broadcast station'' has the 
        meaning given such term in section 325 of the Communications 
        Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325); and
            (2) the terms ``cable operator'' and ``multichannel video 
        programming distributor'' have the meanings given such terms in 
        section 602 of Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522).

            Passed the House of Representatives December 15, 2009.

            Attest:

                                            LORRAINE C. MILLER,

                                                                 Clerk.