I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 514

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to strengthen and clarify

prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 3, 1999

Mrs. WILSON (for herself, Mr. TAUZIN, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. OXLEY, Ms.

ESHOO, Mr. DEAL of Georgia, Mr. WYNN, Mrs. CUBIN, Mr. LUTHER,

Mr. ROGAN, Mr. SAWYER, Mr. PICKERING, and Mr. GILLMOR) introduced

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to strengthen

and clarify prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, 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 ‘‘Wireless Privacy En5 hancement Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. COMMERCE IN ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING

7 DEVICES.

8 (a) PROHIBITION ON MODIFICATION.—Section

9 302(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.
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1 302a(b)) is amended by inserting before the period at the

2 end thereof the following: ‘‘, or modify any such device,

3 equipment, or system in any manner that causes such de4 vice, equipment, or system to fail to comply with such reg5 ulations’’.

6 (b) PROHIBITION ON COMMERCE IN SCANNING RE7 CEIVERS.—Section 302(d) of such Act (47 U.S.C.

8 302a(d)) is amended to read as follows:

9 ‘‘(d) EQUIPMENT AUTHORIZATION REGULATIONS.—

10 ‘‘(1) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS REQUIRED.—The

11 Commission shall prescribe regulations, and review

12 and revise such regulations as necessary in response

13 to subsequent changes in technology or behavior, de14 nying equipment authorization (under part 15 of

15 title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any other

16 part of that title) for any scanning receiver that is

17 capable of—

18 ‘‘(A) receiving transmissions in the fre19 quencies that are allocated to the domestic cel20 lular radio telecommunications service or the

21 personal communications service;

22 ‘‘(B) readily being altered to receive trans23 missions in such frequencies;

24 ‘‘(C) being equipped with decoders that—
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1 ‘‘(i) convert digital domestic cellular

2 radio telecommunications service, personal

3 communications service, or protected spe4 cialized mobile radio service transmissions

5 to analog voice audio; or

6 ‘‘(ii) convert protected paging service

7 transmissions to alphanumeric text; or

8 ‘‘(D) being equipped with devices that oth9 erwise decode encrypted radio transmissions for

10 the purposes of unauthorized interception.

11 ‘‘(2) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR SHARED FRE12 QUENCIES.—The Commission shall, with respect to

13 scanning receivers capable of receiving transmissions

14 in frequencies that are used by commercial mobile

15 services and that are shared by public safety users,

16 examine methods, and may prescribe such regula17 tions as may be necessary, to enhance the privacy of

18 users of such frequencies.

19 ‘‘(3) TAMPERING PREVENTION.—In prescribing

20 regulations pursuant to paragraph (1), the Commis21 sion shall consider defining ‘capable of readily being

22 altered’ to require scanning receivers to be manufac23 tured in a manner that effectively precludes alter24 ation of equipment features and functions as nec25 essary to prevent commerce in devices that may be
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1 used unlawfully to intercept or divulge radio commu2 nication.

3 ‘‘(4) WARNING LABELS.—In prescribing regula4 tions under paragraph (1), the Commission shall

5 consider requiring labels on scanning receivers warn6 ing of the prohibitions in Federal law on inten7 tionally intercepting or divulging radio communica8 tions.

9 ‘‘(5) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this subsection,

10 the term ‘protected’ means secured by an electronic

11 method that is not published or disclosed except to

12 authorized users, as further defined by Commission

13 regulation.’’.

14 (c) IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS.—Within 90 days

15 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Com16 munications Commission shall prescribe amendments to

17 its regulations for the purposes of implementing the

18 amendments made by this section.

19 SEC. 3. UNAUTHORIZED INTERCEPTION OR PUBLICATION

20 OF COMMUNICATIONS.

21 Section 705 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

22 U.S.C. 605) is amended—

23 (1) in the heading of such section, by inserting

24 ‘‘INTERCEPTION OR’’ after ‘‘UNAUTHORIZED’’;
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1 (2) in the first sentence of subsection (a), by

2 striking ‘‘Except as authorized by chapter 119, title

3 18, United States Code, no person’’ and inserting

4 ‘‘No person’’;

5 (3) in the second sentence of subsection (a)—

6 (A) by inserting ‘‘intentionally’’ before

7 ‘‘intercept’’; and

8 (B) by striking ‘‘and divulge’’ and insert9 ing ‘‘or divulge’’;

10 (4) by striking the last sentence of subsection

11 (a) and inserting the following: ‘‘Nothing in this

12 subsection prohibits an interception or disclosure of

13 a communication as authorized by chapter 119 of

14 title 18, United States Code.’’;

15 (5) in subsection (e)(1)—

16 (A) by striking ‘‘fined not more than

17 $2,000 or’’; and

18 (B) by inserting ‘‘or fined under title 18,

19 United States Code,’’ after ‘‘6 months,’’; and

20 (6) in subsection (e)(3), by striking ‘‘any viola21 tion’’ and inserting ‘‘any receipt, interception, divul22 gence, publication, or utilization of any communica23 tion in violation’’;

24 (7) in subsection (e)(4), by striking ‘‘any other

25 activity prohibited by subsection (a)’’ and inserting
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1 ‘‘any receipt, interception, divulgence, publication, or

2 utilization of any communication in violation of sub3 section (a)’’; and

4 (8) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the

5 following new paragraph:

6 ‘‘(7) Notwithstanding any other investigative or en7 forcement activities of any other Federal agency, the Com8 mission shall investigate alleged violations of this section

9 and may proceed to initiate action under section 503 of

10 this Act to impose forfeiture penalties with respect to such

11 violation upon conclusion of the Commission’s

12 investigation.’’.

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