I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2844 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to consolidate the reporting 

obligations of the Federal Communications Commission in order to improve congressional oversight and reduce reporting burdens. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 26, 2013 

Mr. SCALISE (for himself, Mr. WALDEN, and Ms. ESHOO) introduced the 

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

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to consolidate 

the reporting obligations of the Federal Communications 

Commission in order to improve congressional oversight 

and reduce reporting burdens. 

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 ‘‘Federal Communica5 tions Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2013’’. 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

2 

•HR 2844 IH

1 SEC. 2. COMMUNICATIONS MARKETPLACE REPORT. 

2 Title I of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

3 U.S.C. 151 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 

4 following: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 14. COMMUNICATIONS MARKETPLACE REPORT. 

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—In the last quarter of every even7 numbered year, the Commission shall publish on its 

8 website and submit to the Committee on Energy and Com9 merce of the House of Representatives and the Committee 

10 on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 

11 a report on the state of the communications marketplace. 

12 ‘‘(b) CONTENTS.—Each report required by sub13 section (a) shall— 

14 ‘‘(1) assess the state of competition in the com15 munications marketplace, including competition to 

16 deliver voice, video, audio, and data services among 

17 providers of telecommunications, providers of com18 mercial mobile service (as defined in section 332), 

19 multichannel video programming distributors (as de20 fined in section 602), broadcast stations, providers 

21 of satellite communications, Internet service pro22 viders, and other providers of communications serv23 ices; 

24 ‘‘(2) assess the state of deployment of commu25 nications capabilities, including advanced tele26 communications capability (as defined in section 706 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

3 

•HR 2844 IH

1 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 

2 1302)), regardless of the technology used for such 

3 deployment, including whether advanced tele4 communications capability is being deployed to all 

5 Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion; 

6 ‘‘(3) assess whether laws, regulations, or regu7 latory practices (whether those of the Federal Gov8 ernment, States, political subdivisions of States, In9 dian tribes or tribal organizations (as such terms are 

10 defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination 

11 and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b)), or 

12 foreign governments) pose a barrier to competitive 

13 entry into the communications marketplace or to the 

14 competitive expansion of existing providers of com15 munications services; 

16 ‘‘(4) describe the agenda of the Commission for 

17 the next 2-year period for addressing the challenges 

18 and opportunities in the communications market19 place that were identified through the assessments 

20 under paragraphs (1) through (3); and 

21 ‘‘(5) describe the actions that the Commission 

22 has taken in pursuit of the agenda described pursu23 ant to paragraph (4) in the previous report sub24 mitted under this section. 

25 ‘‘(c) SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS.— 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

4 

•HR 2844 IH

1 ‘‘(1) ASSESSING COMPETITION.—In assessing 

2 the state of competition under subsection (b)(1), the 

3 Commission shall consider all forms of competition, 

4 including the effect of intermodal competition, facili5 ties-based competition, and competition from new 

6 and emergent communications services, including the 

7 provision of content and communications using the 

8 Internet. 

9 ‘‘(2) ASSESSING DEPLOYMENT.—In assessing 

10 the state of deployment under subsection (b)(2), the 

11 Commission shall compile a list of geographical 

12 areas that are not served by any provider of ad13 vanced telecommunications capability. 

14 ‘‘(3) INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS AND DEMO15 GRAPHIC INFORMATION.—The Commission may use 

16 readily available data to draw appropriate compari17 sons between the United States communications 

18 marketplace and the international communications 

19 marketplace and to correlate its assessments with 

20 demographic information. 

21 ‘‘(4) CONSIDERING SMALL BUSINESSES.—In as22 sessing the state of competition under subsection 

23 (b)(1) and regulatory barriers under subsection 

24 (b)(3), the Commission shall consider market entry 

25 barriers for entrepreneurs and other small busimstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

5 

•HR 2844 IH

1 nesses in the communications marketplace in accord2 ance with the national policy under section 257(b).’’. 

3 SEC. 3. CONSOLIDATION OF REDUNDANT REPORTS; CON4 FORMING AMENDMENTS. 

5 (a) ORBIT ACT REPORT.—Section 646 of the Com6 munications Satellite Act of 1962 (47 U.S.C. 765e; 114 

7 Stat. 57) is repealed. 

8 (b) SATELLITE COMPETITION REPORT.—Section 4 of 

9 Public Law 109–34 (47 U.S.C. 703) is repealed. 

10 (c) INTERNATIONAL BROADBAND DATA REPORT.— 

11 Section 103 of the Broadband Data Improvement Act (47 

12 U.S.C. 1303) is amended— 

13 (1) by striking subsection (b); and 

14 (2) by redesignating subsections (c) through (e) 

15 as subsections (b) through (d), respectively. 

16 (d) STATUS OF COMPETITION IN THE MARKET FOR

17 THE DELIVERY OF VIDEO PROGRAMMING REPORT.—Sec18 tion 628 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

19 548) is amended— 

20 (1) by striking subsection (g); 

21 (2) by redesignating subsection (j) as sub22 section (g); and 

23 (3) by transferring subsection (g) (as redesig24 nated) so that it appears after subsection (f). 

25 (e) REPORT ON CABLE INDUSTRY PRICES.— 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

6 

•HR 2844 IH

1 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 623 of the Commu2 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 543) is amended— 

3 (A) by striking subsection (k); and 

4 (B) by redesignating subsections (l) 

5 through (n) as subsections (k) through (m), re6 spectively. 

7 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 

8 613(a)(3) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

9 U.S.C. 533(a)(3)) is amended by striking ‘‘623(l)’’ 

10 and inserting ‘‘623(k)’’. 

11 (f) TRIENNIAL REPORT IDENTIFYING AND ELIMI12 NATING MARKET ENTRY BARRIERS FOR ENTRE13 PRENEURS AND OTHER SMALL BUSINESSES.—Section 

14 257 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 257) 

15 is amended by striking subsection (c). 

16 (g) SECTION 706 REPORT.—Section 706 of the Tele17 communications Act of 1996 (47 U.S.C. 1302) is amend18 ed— 

19 (1) in subsection (b)— 

20 (A) in the last sentence, by striking ‘‘If the 

21 Commission’s determination is negative, it’’ and 

22 inserting ‘‘If the Commission determines in its 

23 report under section 14 of the Communications 

24 Act of 1934 that advanced telecommunications 

25 capability is not being deployed to all Amerimstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

7 

•HR 2844 IH

1 cans in a reasonable and timely fashion, the 

2 Commission’’; and 

3 (B) by striking the first and second sen4 tences; 

5 (2) by striking subsection (c); 

6 (3) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘this sub7 section’’ and inserting ‘‘this section’’; and 

8 (4) by redesignating subsection (d) as sub9 section (c). 

10 (h) STATE OF COMPETITIVE MARKET CONDITIONS

11 WITH RESPECT TO COMMERCIAL MOBILE RADIO SERV12 ICES.—Section 332(c)(1)(C) of the Communications Act 

13 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(c)(1)(C)) is amended by striking 

14 the first and second sentences. 

15 (i) PREVIOUSLY ELIMINATED ANNUAL REPORT.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 4 of the Commu17 nications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 154) is amended— 

18 (A) by striking subsection (k); and 

19 (B) by redesignating subsections (l) 

20 through (o) as subsections (k) through (n), re21 spectively. 

22 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—The Commu23 nications Act of 1934 is amended— 

24 (A) in section 9(i), by striking ‘‘In the 

25 Commission’s annual report, the Commission 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

8 

•HR 2844 IH

1 shall prepare an analysis of its progress in de2 veloping such systems and’’ and inserting ‘‘The 

3 Commission’’; and 

4 (B) in section 309(j)(8)(B), by striking the 

5 last sentence. 

6 (j) ADDITIONAL OUTDATED REPORTS.—The Com7 munications Act of 1934 is further amended— 

8 (1) in section 4— 

9 (A) in subsection (b)(2)(B)(ii), by striking 

10 ‘‘and shall furnish notice of such action’’ and 

11 all that follows through ‘‘subject of the waiver’’; 

12 and 

13 (B) in subsection (g), by striking para14 graph (2); 

15 (2) in section 215— 

16 (A) by striking subsection (b); and 

17 (B) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub18 section (b); 

19 (3) in section 227(e), by striking paragraph (4); 

20 (4) in section 309(j)— 

21 (A) by striking paragraph (12); and 

22 (B) in paragraph (15)(C), by striking 

23 clause (iv); 

24 (5) in section 331(b), by striking the last sen25 tence; 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

9 

•HR 2844 IH

1 (6) in section 336(e), by amending paragraph 

2 (4) to read as follows: 

3 ‘‘(4) REPORT.—The Commission shall annually 

4 advise the Congress on the amounts collected pursu5 ant to the program required by this subsection.’’; 

6 (7) in section 339(c), by striking paragraph (1); 

7 (8) in section 396— 

8 (A) by striking subsection (i); 

9 (B) in subsection (k)— 

10 (i) in paragraph (1), by striking sub11 paragraph (F); and 

12 (ii) in paragraph (3)(B)(iii), by strik13 ing subclause (V); 

14 (C) in subsection (l)(1)(B), by striking 

15 ‘‘shall be included’’ and all that follows through 

16 ‘‘The audit report’’; and 

17 (D) by striking subsection (m); 

18 (9) in section 398(b)(4), by striking the third 

19 sentence; 

20 (10) in section 624A(b)(1)— 

21 (A) by striking ‘‘REPORT; REGULATIONS’’ 

22 and inserting ‘‘REGULATIONS’’; 

23 (B) by striking ‘‘Within 1 year after’’ and 

24 all that follows through ‘‘on means of assuring’’ 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS

10 

•HR 2844 IH

1 and inserting ‘‘The Commission shall issue such 

2 regulations as are necessary to assure’’; and 

3 (C) by striking ‘‘Within 180 days after’’ 

4 and all that follows through ‘‘to assure such 

5 compatibility.’’; and 

6 (11) in section 713, by striking subsection (a). 

7 SEC. 4. EFFECT ON AUTHORITY. 

8 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

9 Act shall be construed to expand or contract the authority 

10 of the Federal Communications Commission. 

Æ 

mstockstill on DSK4VPTVN1PROD with BILLS