I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1999 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to deny the right to grant 

retransmission consent to a television broadcast station if an AM or 

FM radio broadcast station licensed to the same licensee transmits a 

sound recording without providing compensation for programming and 

to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from imposing radio 

tuner mandates for mobile devices. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 23, 2015 

Mrs. BLACKBURN (for herself 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 deny the 

right to grant retransmission consent to a television 

broadcast station if an AM or FM radio broadcast station licensed to the same licensee transmits a sound 

recording without providing compensation for programming and to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from imposing radio tuner mandates for mobile 

devices. 

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


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•HR 1999 IH

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting the Rights 

3 of Musicians Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. EFFECT OF CERTAIN RADIO TRANSMISSIONS ON 

5 RIGHT TO GRANT TELEVISION RETRANS6 MISSION CONSENT. 

7 Section 325(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 

8 1934 (47 U.S.C. 325(b)(2)) is amended— 

9 (1) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 

10 the end; 

11 (2) in subparagraph (E), by striking the period 

12 at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 

13 (3) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol14 lowing: 

15 ‘‘(F) to retransmission of the signal of a tele16 vision broadcast station if the licensee of such sta17 tion is also the licensee of an AM or FM radio 

18 broadcast station and, during the term of the license 

19 for such television broadcast station in which such 

20 retransmission occurs, such licensee has transmitted 

21 a sound recording over such radio station without 

22 providing compensation for all programming carried 

23 over the signal.’’. 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•HR 1999 IH

1 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON RADIO TUNER MANDATES FOR 

2 MOBILE DEVICES. 

3 Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934 

4 (47 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 

5 the following: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 343. PROHIBITION ON RADIO TUNER MANDATES FOR 

7 MOBILE DEVICES. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission may not re9 quire a mobile device to be equipped with a tuner for re10 ceiving the signals of AM or FM radio broadcast stations. 

11 ‘‘(b) MOBILE DEVICE DEFINED.—In this section, the 

12 term ‘mobile device’ means— 

13 ‘‘(1) a device that— 

14 ‘‘(A) is designed to be carried on the per15 son of the user or to be reasonably portable; 

16 ‘‘(B) provides computing and communica17 tions functionality; and 

18 ‘‘(C) is capable of providing access to com19 mercial mobile service (as defined in section 

20 332) or commercial mobile data service (as de21 fined in section 6001 of the Middle Class Tax 

22 Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (47 U.S.C. 

23 1401)); or 

24 ‘‘(2) a device that is comparable to a device de25 scribed in paragraph (1), except for lacking the caVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:26 May 06, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1999.IH H1999

SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•HR 1999 IH

1 pability described in subparagraph (C) of such para2 graph.’’. 

Æ 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS