[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 16, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E369]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3717, BROADCAST DECENCY ENFORCEMENT 
                              ACT OF 2004

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                               speech of

                         HON. PETER A. DeFAZIO

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 11, 2004

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3717) to 
     increase the penalties for violations by television and radio 
     broadcasters of the prohibitions against transmission of 
     obscene, indecent, and profane language:

  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Chairman, like many of my colleagues, I've been long 
concerned about the increasing coarseness of language and content on 
radio and TV.
  Had I not been required to travel to Oregon for official 
representational purposes, I would have voted ``aye'' on H.R. 3717, the 
Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004.
  We have an obligation to balance first amendment rights with our duty 
to ensure that programming that's accessible to children, particularly 
those shows that are available on network TV, is free of language and 
material that's inappropriate for children. A recent study by the 
Parents Television Council found that foul language during the so-
called family hour increased by 94.8 percent between 1998 and 2002. 
With the average American watching nearly 4 hours of TV per day, 
inappropriate programming affects us all. At the same time we need to 
be mindful not to scare broadcasters from pulling programming that is 
challenging and provocative. It's also likely that the dearth in 
quality programming is a result of increasing corporate concentration 
of mass media, which is leading to a loss of accountability to local 
values. Congress needs to address this before community standards are 
driven into the ground.
  H.R. 3717 would increase the fines on broadcasting obscene, indecent, 
or profane language to $500,000 per violation. Nonmonetary penalties 
could include forfeiture of broadcast licenses and producing public 
service announcements that serve the educational and informational 
needs of children and would have an audience up to five times larger 
than the offending broadcast.
  With his inability to defend the public interest against increasingly 
inappropriate broadcasts, Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal 
Communications Commission has forced Congress to take action. While 
this legislation could have been improved with new restrictions on 
gratuitous TV violence, this bill is a good first step towards bringing 
some civility back to the public airwaves. I urge my colleagues to 
support this bill.

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