I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1765

To increase penalties for common carrier violations of the Communications

Act of 1934, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 8, 2001

Mr. UPTON (for himself, Mr. STEARNS, Mr. FOSSELLA, Mr. TERRY, Mr.

SHIMKUS, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. SAWYER, Mr. GORDON, Mr. RUSH,

Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. EHRLICH, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. GILLMOR, and Mr. BILIRAKIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee

on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To increase penalties for common carrier violations of the

Communications Act of 1934, 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. COMMON CARRIER ENFORCEMENT.

4 (a) CEASE AND DESIST AUTHORITY.—Section 501 of

5 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 501) is

6 amended—

7 (1) by striking ‘‘Any person’’ and inserting ‘‘(a)

8 FINES AND IMPRISONMENT.—Any person’’;
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1 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub2 section:

3 ‘‘(b) CEASE AND DESIST ORDERS.— If, after a hear4 ing, the Commission determines that any common carrier

5 is engaged in an act, matter, or thing prohibited by this

6 Act, or is failing to perform any act, matter, or thing re7 quired by this Act, the Commission may order such com8 mon carrier to cease or desist from such action or inac9 tion.’’.

10 (b) FORFEITURE PENALTIES.—Section 503(b) of the

11 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 503(b)) is

12 amended—

13 (1) in paragraph (2)(B)—

14 (A) by striking ‘‘exceed $100,000’’ and in15 serting ‘‘exceed $1,000,000’’; and

16 (B) by striking ‘‘of $1,000,000’’ and in17 serting ‘‘of $10,000,000’’;

18 (2) in paragraph (2)(C), by striking ‘‘subpara19 graph (A) or (B)’’ and inserting ‘‘subparagraph (A),

20 (B), or (C)’’;

21 (3) by redesignating subparagraphs (C) and

22 (D) of paragraph (2) as subparagraphs (D) and (E),

23 respectively;

24 (4) by inserting after subparagraph (B) of

25 paragraph (2) the following new subparagraph:
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1 ‘‘(C) If a common carrier has violated a cease and

2 desist order or has previously been assessed a forfeiture

3 penalty for a violation of a provision of this Act or of any

4 rule, regulation, or order issued by the Commission, and

5 if the Commission or an administrative law judge deter6 mines that such common carrier has willfully violated the

7 same provision, rule, regulation, that this repeated viola8 tion has caused harm to competition, and that such com9 mon carrier has been assessed a forfeiture penalty under

10 this subsection for such previous violation, the Commis11 sion may assess a forfeiture penalty not to exceed

12 $2,000,000 for each violation or each day of continuing

13 violation; except that the amount of such forfeiture pen14 alty shall not exceed $20,000,000.’’; and

15 (5) in paragraph (6)(B), by striking ‘‘1 year’’

16 and inserting ‘‘2 years’’.

17 (c) EVALUATION OF IMPACT.—

18 (1) EVALUATION REQUIRED.—Within 2 years

19 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal

20 Communications Commission shall conduct an eval21 uation of the impact of the increased remedies avail22 able under the amendments made by this section on

23 improving compliance with the requirements of the

24 Communications Act of 1934, and with the rules,
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1 regulations, and orders of the Commission there2 under. Such evaluation shall include—

3 (A) an assessment of the number of en4 forcement proceedings commenced before and

5 after such date of enactment;

6 (B) an analysis of any changes in the num7 ber, type, seriousness, or repetition of viola8 tions; and

9 (C) an analysis of such other factors as the

10 Commission considers appropriate to evaluate

11 such impact.

12 (2) REPORT.—Within 30 months after such

13 date of enactment, the Commission shall submit a

14 report on the evaluation to the Committee on En15 ergy and Commerce of the House of Representatives

16 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and

17 Transportation of the Senate.

18 SEC. 2. DISPUTE RESOLUTION.

19 Section 252 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

20 U.S.C. 252) is amended—

21 (1) by redesignating subsection (j) as sub22 section (k); and

23 (2) by inserting after subsection (i) the fol24 lowing new subsection:

25 ‘‘(j) DISPUTE RESOLUTION.—
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1 ‘‘(1) ARBITRATION.—At any time after any

2 interconnection agreement has been approved by the

3 State under subsection (e), any party to that inter4 connection agreement may petition a State commis5 sion to arbitrate any dispute concerning matters in6 cluded in an interconnection agreement.

7 ‘‘(2) OPPORTUNITY TO RESPOND.—The non8 petitioning party may respond to the other party’s

9 petition and provide such additional information as

10 the nonpetitioning party wishes.

11 ‘‘(3) ACTION BY STATE COMMISSION.—

12 ‘‘(A) The State Commission may require

13 either party to provide such information as may

14 be necessary to reach a decision. If any party

15 refuses or fails unreasonably to respond on a

16 timely basis to any reasonable request from the

17 State Commission; then the State Commission

18 may proceed on the basis of the best informa19 tion available to it from whatever source de20 rived.

21 ‘‘(B) The State Commission shall limit its

22 consideration of any petition to the matters in

23 dispute that are described in the petition.
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1 ‘‘(C) The State Commission shall resolve

2 the disputed matter not later than 60 days

3 after receipt of the petition.

4 ‘‘(D) This subsection is the exclusive ad5 ministrative remedy for disputes concerning

6 matters included in an interconnection agree7 ment.’’.

8 SEC. 3. SERVICE QUALITY.

9 Section 252(e)(3) of the Communications Act of

10 1934 (47 U.S.C. 252(e)(3)) is amended by adding at the

11 end the following new sentence: ‘‘Nothing in this section

12 limits or affects the authority of a State to prescribe meth13 ods to ensure timely and effective compliance with any

14 interconnection agreement, including the imposition of

15 service quality performance requirements.’’.

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