II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 941 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to clarify the obligations of 

licensees under section 331 of that Act, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 28, 2019 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. BOOKER) 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 clarify the 

obligations of licensees under section 331 of that Act, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Section 331 Obligation 

5 Clarification Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. LICENSEE REQUIREMENTS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 331 of the Communica8 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 331) is amended by striking 

9 subsection (a) and inserting the following: 


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1 ‘‘(a) TELEVISION STATIONS IN UNDERSERVED

2 STATES.— 

3 ‘‘(1) CHANNEL ALLOCATION.— 

4 ‘‘(A) COMMISSION POLICY.—It shall be the 

5 policy of the Commission to allocate channels 

6 for commercial television broadcasting in a 

7 manner which ensures that not less than 1 very 

8 high frequency channel and not less than 1 

9 ultra high frequency channel shall be allocated 

10 to each State, if technically feasible. 

11 ‘‘(B) REALLOCATION OF VERY HIGH FRE12 QUENCY CHANNELS AND ULTRA HIGH FRE13 QUENCY CHANNELS.—In any case in which a li14 censee of a very high frequency commercial tele15 vision broadcast station or an ultra high fre16 quency commercial television broadcast station 

17 notifies the Commission to the effect that such 

18 licensee will agree to the reallocation of its 

19 channel to a community within a State in 

20 which, at the time of such notification, there is 

21 allocated no very high frequency commercial tel22 evision broadcast channel or ultra high fre23 quency commercial television broadcast channel, 

24 as applicable, the Commission shall, notwith25 standing any other provision of law, order such 


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1 reallocation and issue a license to such licensee 

2 for that purpose under section 307. 

3 ‘‘(2) LICENSEE REQUIREMENTS.—Each licensee 

4 of a commercial television broadcast station that re5 ceives a license under paragraph (1)(B) shall— 

6 ‘‘(A) broadcast on the channel of the li7 censee not fewer than 14 hours of common local 

8 programming per week, not fewer than 7 hours 

9 of which shall be broadcast between the hours 

10 of 6:00 p.m. and midnight; 

11 ‘‘(B) include as part of the common local 

12 programming broadcast under subparagraph 

13 (A) a substantial amount of particularized local 

14 content; 

15 ‘‘(C) maintain a broadcast studio in the 

16 station’s community of license for each license 

17 so received; 

18 ‘‘(D) file with the Commission a quarterly 

19 disclosure of all programming broadcast under 

20 subparagraph (A) during the period covered by 

21 the disclosure, which— 

22 ‘‘(i) shall include a separate list of 

23 programming included under subparagraph 

24 (B) with a detailed explanation of how that 


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1 programming satisfies the requirements of 

2 subparagraph (B); and 

3 ‘‘(ii) the Commission shall make pub4 licly available; and 

5 ‘‘(E) when developing the programming de6 scribed in subparagraphs (A) and (B), or any 

7 public service announcement broadcast on the 

8 channel of the licensee, consult with community 

9 leaders and members of the general public in 

10 the market served by the station. 

11 ‘‘(3) EFFECT OF CHANGES TO ULTRA HIGH

12 FREQUENCY STATION.—If a licensee that holds a li13 cense issued under paragraph (1)(B) changes from 

14 a very high frequency commercial television broad15 cast station to an ultra high frequency commercial 

16 television broadcast station— 

17 ‘‘(A) the licensee shall ensure that the 

18 change does not affect any special service obli19 gation imposed on the licensee because of the 

20 fact that the licensee received the license under 

21 that paragraph, without regard to whether the 

22 Commission imposed the obligation— 

23 ‘‘(i) by rule or order; or 

24 ‘‘(ii) as part of the grant or renewal 

25 of the license; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) the Commission may not directly or 

2 indirectly reduce or eliminate the special service 

3 obligation described in subparagraph (A) be4 cause of that change. 

5 ‘‘(4) DEFINITION.—In this subsection, the term 

6 ‘particularized local content’ means programming— 

7 ‘‘(A) aired on a commercial television 

8 broadcast channel by a licensee that receives a 

9 license under paragraph (1)(B); and 

10 ‘‘(B) that— 

11 ‘‘(i) has specific, articulable, and par12 ticularized appeal for the community to 

13 which the channel described in subpara14 graph (A) is reallocated under paragraph 

15 (1)(B) that is separate and distinct from 

16 the general national or local television mar17 ket appeal; 

18 ‘‘(ii) includes news or public affairs 

19 information about the State, or the region 

20 of the State, in which the community de21 scribed in clause (i) is located; and 

22 ‘‘(iii) is responsive to the unique con23 cerns of the community described in clause 

24 (i) as part of a State that lacks a television 

25 market that is centered in that State.’’. 


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1 (b) RULEMAKING.— 

2 (1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection— 

3 (A) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the 

4 Federal Communications Commission; and 

5 (B) the term ‘‘section 331’’ means section 

6 331 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

7 U.S.C. 331), as amended by subsection (a). 

8 (2) RULES.—Not later than 1 year after the 

9 date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

10 issue final rules to implement the amendments made 

11 by subsection (a). 

12 (3) REQUIREMENTS.—The rules required under 

13 paragraph (2) shall— 

14 (A) contain specific procedures and re15 quirements for how an individual who lives in a 

16 community to which a commercial television 

17 broadcast channel is reallocated under sub18 section (a)(1)(B) of section 331 can challenge 

19 whether the licensee with respect to that chan20 nel has satisfied the requirements of the li21 censee under section 331, particularly when 

22 that licensee seeks to renew the license with re23 spect to that channel; 

24 (B) include guidance regarding what type 

25 of evidence the Commission shall accept and reVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:31 Apr 04, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S941.IS S941

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1 view in determining whether a licensee de2 scribed in subparagraph (A) is satisfying the re3 quirements of the licensee under section 331; 

4 and 

5 (C) ensure that the procedure by which an 

6 individual described in subparagraph (A) can 

7 participate in the review by the Commission of 

8 a licensee described in that subparagraph— 

9 (i) is simple and straightforward; and 

10 (ii) includes holding community fo11 rums as necessary. 

Æ 


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