II

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2136

To prohibit sponsorship of television violence by agencies of the Federal

Government, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 19 (legislative day, MAY 16), 1994

Mr. GRAHAM (for himself and Mr. DORGAN) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To prohibit sponsorship of television violence by agencies

of the Federal Government, 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 ‘‘Federal Advertisement

5 Reform Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

7 For purposes of this Act—

8 (1) the term ‘‘Federal agency’’ means each au9 thority of Government of the United States, whether
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1 or not it is within or subject to review by another

2 agency, including—

3 (A) an executive agency, as defined by sec4 tion 105 of title 5, United States Code; and

5 (B) the United States Postal Service and

6 the Postal Rate Commission; and

7 (2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary

8 of Commerce, acting through the National Tele9 communications and Information Administration.

10 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION.

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection

12 (b), a Federal agency may not advertise, or enter into a

13 contract to advertise, any product, program, or policy dur14 ing any television program identified as having a high de15 gree of violence pursuant to section 4.

16 (b) EXCEPTIONS.—The identification of a television

17 program as containing a high degree of violence pursuant

18 to section 4 shall not apply to an advertisement pursuant

19 to—

20 (1) any contract entered into prior to the date

21 of enactment of this Act; or

22 (2) any contract entered into prior to the date

23 of publication of such identification in the Federal

24 Register.
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1 SEC. 4. IDENTIFICATION OF VIOLENT PROGRAMMING.

2 (a) PROGRAM.—Not later than 6 months after the

3 date of enactment of this Act, the National Telecommuni4 cations and Information Administration (in this Act re5 ferred to as the ‘‘Administration’’) shall establish a pro6 gram to evaluate television programs with respect to vio7 lent content contained in the programs. The Administra8 tion shall establish the program in accordance with this

9 section.

10 (b) PROGRAM SELECTION.—The Administration

11 shall evaluate each program on each of the national broad12 cast television networks, or on cable television systems (in

13 the case of programs available to a substantial percentage

14 of the households that subscribe to cable television service

15 nationally). For each calendar year, the Administration

16 shall select at least 1 week during television sweeps, as

17 defined by the Secretary.

18 (c) IDENTIFICATION OF PROGRAM.—After evaluating

19 the television programs described in subsection (b), the

20 Administration shall identify programs that contain a high

21 degree of violence, as defined by the Secretary.

22 (d) PUBLICATION.—The Secretary shall publish in

23 the Federal Register a list of the programs identified pur24 suant to subsection (c) each calendar quarter.
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1 SEC. 5. REGULATIONS.

2 The Secretary shall promulgate such regulations as

3 are necessary to carry out this Act.

Æ