IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5709 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 24, 2018 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for 

enhanced penalties for pirate radio, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Illegal 

3 Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act’’ or the ‘‘PIRATE 

4 Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. PIRATE RADIO ENFORCEMENT ENHANCEMENTS. 

6 Title V of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

7 U.S.C. 501 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the 

8 following new section: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 511. ENHANCED PENALTIES FOR PIRATE RADIO 

10 BROADCASTING; ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS; RE11 PORTING. 

12 ‘‘(a) INCREASED GENERAL PENALTY.—Any person 

13 who willfully and knowingly does or causes or suffers to 

14 be done any pirate radio broadcasting shall be subject to 

15 a fine of not more than $2,000,000. 

16 ‘‘(b) VIOLATION OF THIS ACT, RULES, OR REGULA17 TIONS.—Any person who willfully and knowingly violates 

18 this Act or any rule, regulation, restriction, or condition 

19 made or imposed by the Commission under authority of 

20 this Act, or any rule, regulation, restriction, or condition 

21 made or imposed by any international radio or wire com22 munications treaty or convention, or regulations annexed 

23 thereto, to which the United States is or may hereafter 

24 become party, relating to pirate radio broadcasting shall, 

25 in addition to any other penalties provided by law, be sub26 ject to a fine of not more than $100,000 for each day 


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1 during which such offense occurs, in accordance with the 

2 limit described in subsection (a). 

3 ‘‘(c) FACILITATION.—Any person who knowingly and 

4 intentionally facilitates pirate radio broadcasting shall be 

5 subject to a fine of not more than $2,000,000. 

6 ‘‘(d) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after 

7 the date of enactment of the PIRATE Act, and annually 

8 thereafter, the Commission shall submit to the House 

9 Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate 

10 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation a 

11 report summarizing the implementation of this section and 

12 associated enforcement activities for the previous fiscal 

13 year, which may include the efforts by the Commission 

14 to enlist the cooperation of Federal, State, and local law 

15 enforcement personnel (including United States Attorneys 

16 and the United States Marshals Service) for service of 

17 process, collection of fines or forfeitures, seizures of equip18 ment, and enforcement of orders. 

19 ‘‘(e) ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS.— 

20 ‘‘(1) ANNUAL SWEEPS.—Not less than once 

21 each year, the Commission shall assign appropriate 

22 enforcement personnel to focus specific and sus23 tained attention on the elimination of pirate radio 

24 broadcasting within the top five radio markets iden25 tified as prevalent for such broadcasts. Such effort 


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1 shall include identifying, locating, and taking en2 forcement actions designed to terminate such oper3 ations. 

4 ‘‘(2) ADDITIONAL MONITORING.—Within 6 

5 months after conducting the enforcement sweeps re6 quired by paragraph (1), the Commission shall con7 duct monitoring sweeps to ascertain whether the pi8 rate radio broadcasting identified by enforcement 

9 sweeps is continuing to broadcast and whether addi10 tional pirate radio broadcasting is occurring. 

11 ‘‘(3) NO EFFECT ON REMAINING ENFORCE12 MENT.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Com13 mission shall not decrease or diminish the regular 

14 enforcement efforts targeted to pirate radio broad15 cast stations for other times of the year. 

16 ‘‘(f) STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHOR17 ITY.—The Commission may not preempt any State or 

18 local law prohibiting pirate radio broadcasting. 

19 ‘‘(g) REVISION OF COMMISSION RULES REQUIRED.— 

20 The Commission shall revise its rules to require that, ab21 sent good cause, in any case alleging a violation of sub22 section (a) or (b), the Commission shall proceed directly 

23 to issue a ‘Notice of Apparent Liability’ without first 

24 issuing a ‘Notice of Unlicensed Operations’. 

25 ‘‘(h) PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING DATABASE.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 

2 after the date of the enactment of this section, and 

3 semi-annually thereafter, the Commission shall pub4 lish a database in a clear and legible format of all 

5 licensed radio stations operating in the AM and FM 

6 bands. The database shall be easily accessible from 

7 the Commission home page through a direct link. 

8 The database shall include the following information: 

9 ‘‘(A) Each licensed station, listed by the 

10 assigned frequency, channel number, or Com11 mission call letters. 

12 ‘‘(B) All entities that have received a No13 tice of Unlicensed Operation, Notice of Appar14 ent Liability, or Forfeiture Order by the Com15 mission. 

16 ‘‘(2) CLEAR IDENTIFICATION.—The Commis17 sion shall clearly identify in the database— 

18 ‘‘(A) each licensed station as a station li19 censed by the Commission; and 

20 ‘‘(B) each entity described in paragraph 

21 (1)(B) as operating without a Commission li22 cense or authorization. 

23 ‘‘(i) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

24 ‘‘(1) PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING.—The term 

25 ‘pirate radio broadcasting’ means the transmission 


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1 of communications on spectrum frequencies between 

2 535 to 1705 kHz or 87.7 to 108 MHz without a li3 cense issued by the Federal Communications Com4 mission, but does not include unlicensed operations 

5 in compliance with part 15 of title 47, Code of Fed6 eral Regulations. 

7 ‘‘(2) FACILITATES.—The term ‘facilitates’ 

8 means providing access to property (and improve9 ments thereon) or providing physical goods or serv10 ices, including providing housing, facilities, or fi11 nancing, that directly aid pirate radio broadcasting. 

12 ‘‘(3) KNOWINGLY AND INTENTIONALLY.—The 

13 term ‘knowingly and intentionally’ means the person 

14 was previously served by the Commission with a no15 tice of unlicensed operations, notice of apparent li16 ability, or citation for efforts to facilitate pirate 

17 radio broadcasting.’’. 

18 SEC. 3. NO ADDITIONAL FUNDS AUTHORIZED. 

19 No additional funds are authorized to be appro20 priated to carry out this Act or the amendment made by 


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1 this Act. This Act and the amendment made by this Act 

2 shall be carried out using amounts otherwise authorized. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 23, 2018. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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