II

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2106

To establish a fee schedule for users of communications sites on public

lands, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 11 (legislative day, MAY 2), 1994

Mr. CRAIG (for himself, Mr. DOMENICI, Mr. DECONCINI, Mr. WALLOP, Mr.

BENNETT, Mr. BINGAMAN, Mr. BURNS, Mr. HATCH, Mr. KEMPTHORNE,

Mr. MURKOWSKI, Mr. PRESSLER, Mr. SIMPSON, and Mr. STEVENS) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To establish a fee schedule for users of communications

sites on public lands, 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 ‘‘Equitable Communica5 tion Site Fee Act of 1994’’.

6 SEC. 2. RADIO AND TELEVISION USE FEE.

7 The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of

8 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) is amended—
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1 (1) by redesignating sections 510 and 511 as

2 sections 511 and 512, respectively; and

3 (2) by inserting after section 509, the following

4 new section 510:

5 ‘‘SEC. 510. USE FEES FOR USERS OF COMMUNICATIONS

6 SITES ON PUBLIC LANDS.

7 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—For the purposes of this sec8 tion—

9 ‘‘(1) the term ‘ADI TV households’ means the

10 area of dominant influence for television, an exclu11 sive geographic area based on measurable television

12 viewing patterns, as described in section

13 73.3555(e)(3)(i) of title 47, Code of Federal Regula14 tions, or any succeeding regulation;

15 ‘‘(2) the term ‘commercial mobile radio commu16 nications site’ means a multipurpose communica17 tions site that is—

18 ‘‘(A) operated for profit;

19 ‘‘(B) operated by a site owner, manager, or

20 permittee who leases space to a variety of users,

21 including individuals and businesses of all sizes,

22 for the purpose of providing—

23 ‘‘(i) land mobile radio communications

24 services;

25 ‘‘(ii) paging services;
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1 ‘‘(iii) cellular telephone services;

2 ‘‘(iv) private or commercial mobile

3 services;

4 ‘‘(v) radio or television broadcasting

5 services;

6 ‘‘(vi) microwave transmissions; and

7 ‘‘(vii) satellite receiver stations; and

8 other related and compatible users and

9 services; and

10 ‘‘(C) is located on a site managed by either

11 the United States Forest Service or the Bureau

12 of Land Management under the terms of a

13 lease, permit, or right-of-way;

14 ‘‘(3) the term ‘FM translator station’ means a

15 station in the broadcast service operated for the pur16 pose of retransmitting the signals of an FM radio

17 broadcast station or another FM broadcast trans18 lator station without significantly altering any char19 acteristic of the incoming signal other than its fre20 quency and amplitude, for the purpose of providing

21 FM broadcast service to the general public;

22 ‘‘(4) the term ‘holder’ means an individual,

23 partnership, corporation, association, or other busi24 ness entity, and any Federal, State, or governmental
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1 entity that has applied for, and received, a site use

2 authorization;

3 ‘‘(5) the term ‘MSA population’ means the met4 ropolitan market survey area for radio in an exclu5 sive geographic area based on measurable listening

6 patterns;

7 ‘‘(6) the term ‘private radio communication

8 site’ means a communications site that—

9 ‘‘(A) is operated by an entity to provide in10 ternal telecommunications capabilities;

11 ‘‘(B) is operated by an individual, industry,

12 or other entity with private telecommunications

13 service requirements;

14 ‘‘(C) provides land mobile, aeronautical,

15 maritime, microwave, or satellite radio services;

16 and

17 ‘‘(D) is located on a site managed by ei18 ther the National Forest Service or the Bureau

19 of Land Management under the terms of a

20 lease, permit, or right-of-way;

21 ‘‘(7) the term ‘radio broadcast communications

22 site’ means a site on which is located a commercial

23 broadcast station that—
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1 ‘‘(A) is licensed for the dissemination of

2 aural communications intended to be received

3 by the general public;

4 ‘‘(B) is operated on a channel in either—

5 ‘‘(i) the AM broadcast band of fre6 quencies, which extends from 535 to 1705

7 kHz; or

8 ‘‘(ii) the FM broadcast band, which

9 extends from 88 to 108 MHz;

10 ‘‘(C) is located on a site managed by either

11 the United States Forest Service or the Bureau

12 of Land Management under the terms of a

13 lease, permit, or right-of-way; and

14 ‘‘(D) does not include the operation of—

15 ‘‘(i) FM translators;

16 ‘‘(ii) FM boosters;

17 ‘‘(iii) AM synchronous transmitters;

18 or

19 ‘‘(iv) passive repeaters that operate

20 pursuant to part 74 of title 47, Code of

21 Federal Regulations, or succeeding regula22 tion;

23 ‘‘(8) the term ‘Secretaries’ means the Secretary

24 of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior;
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1 ‘‘(9) the term ‘site use authorization’ means a

2 permit, term permit, lease, easement, or right-of-way

3 that authorizes occupancy, use, rights, or privileges

4 on public land for the transmission or reception of

5 radio, television, telephone, telegraph, and other

6 electronic signals and other means of communica7 tion;

8 ‘‘(10) the term ‘television broadcast commu9 nications site’ means a site on which is located a

10 commercial broadcast station that—

11 ‘‘(A) is licensed for the transmission of si12 multaneous visual and aural signals intended to

13 be received by the general public;

14 ‘‘(B) is operated on a channel in the tele15 vision broadcast band, which extends from 54

16 to 806 MHz;

17 ‘‘(C) is located on a site managed by either

18 the United States Forest Service or the Bureau

19 of Land Management under the terms of a

20 lease, permit, or right-of-way; and

21 ‘‘(D) does not include the operation of—

22 ‘‘(i) low power television stations;

23 ‘‘(ii) UHF or VHF television trans24 lator stations; or
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1 ‘‘(iii) passive repeaters that operate

2 pursuant to part 74 of title 47, Code of

3 Federal Regulations, or succeeding regula4 tion; and

5 ‘‘(11) the term ‘television translator station’

6 means a station in the broadcast service operated on

7 a VHF or UHF channel for the purpose of

8 retransmitting the programs and signals of a tele9 vision broadcast station, without significantly alter10 ing any characteristic of the original signal other

11 than its frequency and amplitude, for the purpose of

12 providing television reception to the general public.

13 ‘‘(b) BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS SITES.—

14 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF FEE.—The Secretary

15 of Agriculture, with respect to National Forest Sys16 tem land administered by the Forest Service, and

17 the Secretary of the Interior, with respect to public

18 lands administered by the Bureau of Land Manage19 ment, shall establish and collect an annual fee for

20 the use of radio and television communications sites

21 and commercial mobile radio communications sites

22 located on public lands in accordance with the fol23 lowing fee schedules:

24 ‘‘(A) TELEVISION AND RADIO BROADCAST

25 COMMUNICATIONS SITES.—
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‘‘Television Rental Fee Schedule

‘‘ADI TV Households (Rank) Rental Fee

1–10 $42,000

11–30 21,000

31–70 10,500

71–120 5,250

121–210 2,625

Non-ADI 2,500.

‘‘Radio Rental Fee Schedule

‘‘MSA Population (Rank) Radio Rental Fee

1–10 $29,400

11–30 14,700

31–90 7,350

91–160 3,675

161–261 1,838

Unrated 1,500.

1 ‘‘(B) COMMERCIAL MOBILE RADIO COMMU2 NICATIONS SITES.—

‘‘Nonbroadcast Fee Schedule

‘‘Population Served Rental Fee

1,000,000 + $12,000

500,000–999,999 5,000

250,000–499,999 3,500

150,000–249,999 2,000

75,000–149,999 1,000

30,000–74,999 500

29,999 and fewer 300.
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1 ‘‘(2) ANNUAL REVIEW.—The fees established

2 under this section shall be reviewed annually by the

3 Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Manage4 ment.

5 ‘‘(3) ADJUSTMENT.—

6 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara7 graphs (B) and (C), the fee established under

8 this section shall be adjusted annually to reflect

9 changes in the Consumer Price Index published

10 by the Department of Labor.

11 ‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—

12 ‘‘(i) The fee charged for a television

13 or radio broadcast communications site for

14 any given year shall not increase less than

15 3 percent or more than 5 percent of the

16 fee charged to the holder in the preceding

17 year.

18 ‘‘(ii) The fee charged for a commercial

19 mobile radio communications site for any

20 given year shall not increase less than 1

21 percent or more than 3 percent of the fee

22 charged to the holder in the preceding

23 year.

24 ‘‘(C) NOTICE.—Not later than 60 days be25 fore the effective date of an adjustment under
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1 this paragraph, the Secretaries shall transmit

2 to Congress notice of such adjustment.

3 ‘‘(4) LIMITATION ON FEE.—During the first

4 year in which the schedule established pursuant to

5 paragraph (1) is in effect, if the amount of the fee

6 charged for a holder pursuant to the schedule is—

7 ‘‘(A) greater than the amount that the

8 holder paid for the use of the site on January

9 1, 1993, plus $1,000, the holder shall pay an

10 amount equal to the sum of—

11 ‘‘(i) the amount the holder paid for

12 the use of the site on January 1, 1993;

13 and

14 ‘‘(ii) $1,000; or

15 ‘‘(B) less than the amount the holder paid

16 for the use of the site on January 1, 1993, the

17 holder shall pay the greater amount until such

18 time as the fee charged under the schedule

19 equals or exceeds the amount charged on Janu20 ary 1, 1993.

21 ‘‘(5) ADDITIONAL USERS.—In the case of a tel22 evision or radio communications site—

23 ‘‘(A) if a holder is permitted under the

24 terms of the site use authorization to grant ac25 cess to the site to users other than the holder,
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1 the Secretary concerned shall charge an annual

2 fee in an amount equal to 25 percent of the

3 gross income the holder receives from additional

4 users during each year;

5 ‘‘(B) each site use authorization shall re6 quire the holder to provide to the Secretary

7 concerned a certified list identifying all addi8 tional users of the site and gross revenues re9 ceived from each additional user; and

10 ‘‘(C) additional users shall not be required

11 to obtain separate authorization to use the site.

12 ‘‘(6) TRANSLATOR STATIONS.—The Secretary

13 of the Interior, with respect to public lands adminis14 tered by each of its internal bureaus, including the

15 Bureau of Land Management, shall establish and

16 collect an annual fee for the use of television trans17 lator stations and FM translator stations located on

18 public lands, in accordance with the regulations gov19 erning the collection of such fees on National Forest

20 System land administered by the National Forest

21 Service of the Department of Agriculture.

22 ‘‘(7) REGULATIONS.—The Secretaries shall pro23 mulgate and implement appropriate regulations to

24 carry out this section. The regulations shall imple25 ment consistent policies and procedures between the
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1 Department of Agriculture and the Department of

2 the Interior.

3 ‘‘(8) ADVISORY GROUPS.—

4 ‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 10

5 years after the date of enactment of this sec6 tion, the Secretaries shall establish a broad7 based advisory group for each of—

8 ‘‘(i) the television and radio broadcast

9 industries; and

10 ‘‘(ii) the commercial mobile radio in11 dustry.

12 ‘‘(B) MEMBERS.—The members of each

13 advisory group shall include representatives

14 from the relevant communications industries.

15 ‘‘(C) DUTIES.—The advisory groups shall

16 review the fee schedule and other criteria for

17 determining fair market value for the use of

18 communications sites on public land.

19 ‘‘(D) REPORT.—Not later than 1 year

20 after the date on which the advisory groups are

21 established under this paragraph, the advisory

22 groups shall report their findings to Congress.

23 ‘‘(c) ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR PRIVATE RADIO

24 COMMUNICATIONS SITE USERS.—
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1 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Chief Forester of

2 the National Forest Service and the Director of the

3 Bureau of Land Management shall jointly establish

4 a broad-based advisory committee. The advisory

5 committee shall be comprised of an equal number of

6 representatives from—

7 ‘‘(A) private radio communications site

8 users from public and private communications

9 sites;

10 ‘‘(B) the National Forest Service; and

11 ‘‘(C) the Bureau of Land Management.

12 ‘‘(2) DUTIES.—The advisory committee shall—

13 ‘‘(A) review recommendations for accept14 able criteria for determining fair market values

15 and next best alternative uses;

16 ‘‘(B) review existing methodology for de17 termining fair market value and next best alter18 native uses;

19 ‘‘(C) assess the validity of the methodol20 ogy, taking into account all reasonable alter21 natives; and

22 ‘‘(D) evaluate and recommend appropriate

23 fee waivers or discounts for public services by

24 communications site users who provide for the

25 public convenience, interest, and necessity, as
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1 required for licensing under the Communica2 tions Act of 1934.

3 ‘‘(3) REPORT.—Not later than 8 months after

4 the date of enactment of the Equitable Communica5 tion Site Fee Act of 1994, the advisory committee

6 shall report its finding to the Committees on Appro7 priations of the Senate and the House of Represent8 atives.’’.

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