[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2125 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2125

  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure the integrity of 
      voice communications and to prevent unjust or unreasonable 
discrimination among areas of the United States in the delivery of such 
                            communications.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 13, 2014

 Mr. Johnson of South Dakota introduced the following bill; which was 
  read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                             Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure the integrity of 
      voice communications and to prevent unjust or unreasonable 
discrimination among areas of the United States in the delivery of such 
                            communications.

    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 ``Public Safety and Economic Security 
Communications Act of 2014''.

SEC. 2. ENSURING THE INTEGRITY OF VOICE COMMUNICATIONS.

    Part II of title II of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
251 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 262. ENSURING THE INTEGRITY OF VOICE COMMUNICATIONS.

    ``(a) Registration and Compliance by Intermediate Providers.--An 
intermediate provider that offers or holds itself out as offering the 
capability to transmit covered voice communications from one 
destination to another and that charges any rate to any other entity 
(including an affiliated entity) for the transmission shall--
            ``(1) register with the Commission; and
            ``(2) comply with the service quality standards for such 
        transmission to be established by the Commission under 
        subsection (c)(1)(B).
    ``(b) Required Use of Registered Intermediate Providers.--A covered 
provider may not use an intermediate provider to transmit covered voice 
communications unless such intermediate provider is registered under 
subsection (a)(1).
    ``(c) Commission Rules.--
            ``(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date 
        of the enactment of this section, the Commission shall 
        promulgate rules to establish--
                    ``(A) a registry to record registrations under 
                subsection (a)(1); and
                    ``(B) service quality standards for the 
                transmission of covered voice communications by 
                intermediate providers.
            ``(2) Requirements.--In promulgating the rules required by 
        paragraph (1), the Commission shall--
                    ``(A) ensure the integrity of the transmission of 
                covered voice communications to all customers in the 
                United States; and
                    ``(B) prevent unjust or unreasonable discrimination 
                among areas of the United States in the delivery of 
                covered voice communications.
    ``(d) Public Availability of Registry.--The Commission shall make 
the registry established under subsection (c)(1)(A) publicly available 
on the website of the Commission.
    ``(e) Scope of Application.--The requirements of this section shall 
apply regardless of the format by which any communication or service is 
provided, the protocol or format by which the transmission of such 
communication or service is achieved, or the regulatory classification 
of such communication or service.
    ``(f) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be 
construed to affect the regulatory classification of any communication 
or service.
    ``(g) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Covered provider.--The term `covered provider' has 
        the meaning given the term in section 64.2101 of title 47, Code 
        of Federal Regulations, or any successor thereto.
            ``(2) Covered voice communication.--The term `covered voice 
        communication' means a voice communication (including any 
        related signaling information) that is generated--
                    ``(A) from the placement of a call from a 
                connection using a North American Numbering Plan 
                resource or a call placed to a connection using such a 
                numbering resource; and
                    ``(B) through any service provided by a covered 
                provider.
            ``(3) Intermediate provider.--The term `intermediate 
        provider' means any entity that--
                    ``(A) carries or processes traffic that is 
                generated from the placement of a call from a 
                connection using a North American Numbering Plan 
                resource or a call placed to a connection using such a 
                numbering resource; and
                    ``(B) does not itself originate or terminate such 
                traffic in the context of the carriage or 
                processing.''.
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