116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 1228 

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 party, relating to 

24 pirate radio broadcasting shall, in addition to any other 

25 penalties provided by law, be subject to a fine of not more 

26 than $100,000 for each day during which such offense oc-
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1 curs, in accordance with the limit described in subsection 

2 (a). 

3 ‘‘(c) ANNUAL REPORT.—Not later than 1 year after 

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

5 thereafter, the Commission shall submit to the Committee 

6 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 

7 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor8 tation of the Senate a report summarizing the implemen9 tation of this section and associated enforcement activities 

10 for the previous fiscal year, which may include the efforts 

11 by the Commission to enlist the cooperation of Federal, 

12 State, and local law enforcement personnel (including 

13 United States attorneys and the United States Marshals 

14 Service) for service of process, collection of fines or forfeit15 ures, seizures of equipment, and enforcement of orders. 

16 ‘‘(d) ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS.— 

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

18 each year, the Commission shall assign appropriate 

19 enforcement personnel to focus specific and sus20 tained attention on the elimination of pirate radio 

21 broadcasting within the top 5 radio markets identi22 fied as prevalent for such broadcasts. Such effort 

23 shall include identifying, locating, and taking en24 forcement actions designed to terminate such oper25 ations. 
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1 ‘‘(2) ADDITIONAL MONITORING.—Within 6 

2 months after conducting the enforcement sweeps re3 quired by paragraph (1), the Commission shall con4 duct monitoring sweeps to ascertain whether the pi5 rate radio broadcasting identified by enforcement 

6 sweeps is continuing to broadcast and whether addi7 tional pirate radio broadcasting is occurring. 

8 ‘‘(3) NO EFFECT ON REMAINING ENFORCE9 MENT.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Com10 mission shall not decrease or diminish the regular 

11 enforcement efforts targeted to pirate radio broad12 cast stations for other times of the year. 

13 ‘‘(e) STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHOR14 ITY.—The Commission may not preempt any State or 

15 local law prohibiting pirate radio broadcasting. 

16 ‘‘(f) REVISION OF COMMISSION RULES REQUIRED.— 

17 The Commission shall revise its rules to require that, ab18 sent good cause, in any case alleging a violation of sub19 section (a) or (b), the Commission shall proceed directly 

20 to issue a notice of apparent liability without first issuing 

21 a notice of unlicensed operation. 

22 ‘‘(g) PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING DATABASE.— 

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

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

25 semi-annually thereafter, the Commission shall pub-
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1 lish a database in a clear and legible format of all 

2 licensed radio stations operating in the AM and FM 

3 bands. The database shall be easily accessible from 

4 the Commission home page through a direct link. 

5 The database shall include the following information: 

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

7 assigned frequency, channel number, or Com8 mission call letters. 

9 ‘‘(B) All entities that have received a no10 tice of unlicensed operation, notice of apparent 

11 liability, or forfeiture order issued by the Com12 mission. 

13 ‘‘(2) CLEAR IDENTIFICATION.—The Commis14 sion shall clearly identify in the database— 

15 ‘‘(A) each licensed station as a station li16 censed by the Commission; and 

17 ‘‘(B) each entity described in paragraph 

18 (1)(B) as operating without a Commission li19 cense or authorization. 

20 ‘‘(h) DEFINITION OF PIRATE RADIO BROAD21 CASTING.—In this section, the term ‘pirate radio broad22 casting’ means the transmission of communications on 

23 spectrum frequencies between 535 and 1705 kilohertz, in24 clusive, or 87.7 and 108 megahertz, inclusive, without a 

25 license issued by the Commission, but does not include un-
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1 licensed operations in compliance with part 15 of title 47, 

2 Code of Federal Regulations.’’. 

Passed the Senate January 8, 2020. 

Attest: 

Secretary. 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 1228 

AN ACT 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to profor other purposes. vide for enhanced penalties for pirate radio, and