[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 597 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 597

 To amend section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to provide 
    that such section does not authorize the Federal Communications 
   Commission to preempt the laws of certain States relating to the 
       regulation of municipal broadband, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 26, 2015

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to provide 
    that such section does not authorize the Federal Communications 
   Commission to preempt the laws of certain States relating to the 
       regulation of municipal broadband, 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 ``States' Rights Municipal Broadband 
Act of 2015''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that the Federal Communications 
Commission does not have the authority under section 706 of the 
Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302) to prevent any State 
from implementing any law of such State with respect to the provision 
of broadband Internet access service (as defined in section 8.11 of 
title 47, Code of Federal Regulations) by such State or a municipality 
or other political subdivision of such State.

SEC. 3. PRESERVATION OF STATE MUNICIPAL BROADBAND LAWS.

    Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302) 
is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (c) the following:
    ``(d) Preservation of State Municipal Broadband Laws.--Nothing in 
this section shall be construed as authorizing the Commission to 
prevent the State of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, 
Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North 
Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, 
Virginia, Washington, or Wisconsin, or any other State, from 
implementing any law of such State with respect to the provision of 
broadband Internet access service (as defined in section 8.11 of title 
47, Code of Federal Regulations) by such State or a municipality or 
other political subdivision of such State.''.
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