[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3290-3291]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          BROADCAST INDECENCY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, families are tired of having to cover their 
children's eyes and ears every time they turn on the television. Many 
parents' standards of common decency are repeatedly offended and their 
parenting is undermined by the onslaught of indecent material on 
television and radio. Frankly they have been outraged recently by the 
examples of filth permitted on the airwaves by the FCC. Just as the 
majority leader said yesterday, if the industry cannot police itself, 
Congress must step in.
  The FCC has been entrusted with enforcing our Federal decency laws 
and should be expected to do so. There are

[[Page 3291]]

plenty of laws on the books regarding this matter and the FCC just 
needs to enforce them. Today the Committee on Energy and Commerce will 
mark up a bill which allows the FCC to enforce tougher penalties on 
broadcasters for violations of the law. The privilege of conducting 
business over the airwaves should always be conditional on their 
willingness to adhere to standards of common decency.
  Broadcast airwaves belong to the American people, not to the 
networks. It is time for Congress to defend and protect America's 
parents and children and pass a tough bill to ensure decency on the 
airwaves.

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