[Harc] PIRATE RADIO ACT

[Mark Nelson]

FYI  Mark  AA6DX
AT THE SECOND SESSION

*Begun and held at the City of Washington on Friday,the third day of
January, two thousand and twenty*

   To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for enhanced
   penalties for pirate radio, 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 “Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through
Enforcement Act” or the “PIRATE Act”.

SEC. 2. PIRATE RADIO ENFORCEMENT ENHANCEMENTS.

Title V of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 501
<http://uscode.house.gov/quicksearch/get.plx?title=47&section=501> et seq.)
is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

“SEC. 511. ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING; ENFORCEMENT
SWEEPS; REPORTING.

“(a) Increased General Penalty.—Any person who willfully and knowingly does
or causes or suffers to be done any pirate radio broadcasting shall be
subject to a fine of not more than $2,000,000.

“(b) Violation Of This Act, Rules, Or Regulations.—Any person who willfully
and knowingly violates this Act or any rule, regulation, restriction, or
condition made or imposed by the Commission under authority of this Act, or
any rule, regulation, restriction, or condition made or imposed by any
international radio or wire communications treaty or convention, or
regulations annexed thereto, to which the United States is party, relating
to pirate radio broadcasting shall, in addition to any other penalties
provided by law, be subject to a fine of not more than $100,000 for each
day during which such offense occurs, in accordance with the limit
described in subsection (a).

“(c) Annual Report.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of
the PIRATE Act, and annually thereafter, the Commission shall submit to the
Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives and the
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report
summarizing the implementation of this section and associated enforcement
activities for the previous fiscal year, which may include the efforts by
the Commission to enlist the cooperation of Federal, State, and local law
enforcement personnel (including United States attorneys and the United
States Marshals Service) for service of process, collection of fines or
forfeitures, seizures of equipment, and enforcement of orders.

“(d) Enforcement Sweeps.—

“(1) ANNUAL SWEEPS.—Not less than once each year, the Commission shall
assign appropriate enforcement personnel to focus specific and sustained
attention on the elimination of pirate radio broadcasting within the top 5
radio markets identified as prevalent for such broadcasts. Such effort
shall include identifying, locating, and taking enforcement actions
designed to terminate such operations.

“(2) ADDITIONAL MONITORING.—Within 6 months after conducting the
enforcement sweeps required by paragraph (1), the Commission shall conduct
monitoring sweeps to ascertain whether the pirate radio broadcasting
identified by enforcement sweeps is continuing to broadcast and whether
additional pirate radio broadcasting is occurring.

“(3) NO EFFECT ON REMAINING ENFORCEMENT.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the
Commission shall not decrease or diminish the regular enforcement efforts
targeted to pirate radio broadcast stations for other times of the year.

“(e) State And Local Government Authority.—The Commission may not preempt
any State or local law prohibiting pirate radio broadcasting.

“(f) Revision Of Commission Rules Required.—The Commission shall revise its
rules to require that, absent good cause, in any case alleging a violation
of subsection (a) or (b), the Commission shall proceed directly to issue a
notice of apparent liability without first issuing a notice of unlicensed
operation.

“(g) Pirate Radio Broadcasting Database.—

“(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of
this section, and semi-annually thereafter, the Commission shall publish a
database in a clear and legible format of all licensed radio stations
operating in the AM and FM bands. The database shall be easily accessible
from the Commission home page through a direct link. The database shall
include the following information:

“(A) Each licensed station, listed by the assigned frequency, channel
number, or Commission call letters.

“(B) All entities that have received a notice of unlicensed operation,
notice of apparent liability, or forfeiture order issued by the Commission.

“(2) CLEAR IDENTIFICATION.—The Commission shall clearly identify in the
database—

“(A) each licensed station as a station licensed by the Commission; and

“(B) each entity described in paragraph (1)(B) as operating without a
Commission license or authorization.

“(h) Definition Of Pirate Radio Broadcasting.—In this section, the term
‘pirate radio broadcasting’ means the transmission of communications on
spectrum frequencies between 535 and 1705 kilohertz, inclusive, or 87.7 and
108 megahertz, inclusive, without a license issued by the Commission, but
does not include unlicensed operations in compliance with part 15 of title
47, Code of Federal Regulations.”.

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