II 

Calendar No. 374 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1228 

[Report No. 116–178] 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for enhanced penalties 

for pirate radio, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 29, 2019 

Mr. DAINES (for himself and Mr. PETERS) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

Transportation 

DECEMBER 17, 2019 

Reported by Mr. WICKER, without amendment 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

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

6 Act’’. 


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•S 1228 RS

1 SEC. 2. PIRATE RADIO ENFORCEMENT ENHANCEMENTS. 

2 Title V of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

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

4 following new section: 

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

6 BROADCASTING; ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS; RE7 PORTING. 

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

9 who willfully and knowingly does or causes or suffers to 

10 be done any pirate radio broadcasting shall be subject to 

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

12 ‘‘(b) VIOLATION OF THIS ACT, RULES, OR REGULA13 TIONS.—Any person who willfully and knowingly violates 

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

15 made or imposed by the Commission under authority of 

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

17 made or imposed by any international radio or wire com18 munications treaty or convention, or regulations annexed 

19 thereto, to which the United States is party, relating to 

20 pirate radio broadcasting shall, in addition to any other 

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

22 than $100,000 for each day during which such offense oc23 curs, in accordance with the limit described in subsection 

24 (a). 

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

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


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1 thereafter, the Commission shall submit to the Committee 

2 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 

3 and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor4 tation of the Senate a report summarizing the implemen5 tation of this section and associated enforcement activities 

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

7 by the Commission to enlist the cooperation of Federal, 

8 State, and local law enforcement personnel (including 

9 United States attorneys and the United States Marshals 

10 Service) for service of process, collection of fines or forfeit11 ures, seizures of equipment, and enforcement of orders. 

12 ‘‘(d) ENFORCEMENT SWEEPS.— 

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

14 each year, the Commission shall assign appropriate 

15 enforcement personnel to focus specific and sus16 tained attention on the elimination of pirate radio 

17 broadcasting within the top 5 radio markets identi18 fied as prevalent for such broadcasts. Such effort 

19 shall include identifying, locating, and taking en20 forcement actions designed to terminate such oper21 ations. 

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

23 months after conducting the enforcement sweeps re24 quired by paragraph (1), the Commission shall con25 duct monitoring sweeps to ascertain whether the piVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:35 Dec 18, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1228.RS S1228

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1 rate radio broadcasting identified by enforcement 

2 sweeps is continuing to broadcast and whether addi3 tional pirate radio broadcasting is occurring. 

4 ‘‘(3) NO EFFECT ON REMAINING ENFORCE5 MENT.—Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the Com6 mission shall not decrease or diminish the regular 

7 enforcement efforts targeted to pirate radio broad8 cast stations for other times of the year. 

9 ‘‘(e) STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHOR10 ITY.—The Commission may not preempt any State or 

11 local law prohibiting pirate radio broadcasting. 

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

13 The Commission shall revise its rules to require that, ab14 sent good cause, in any case alleging a violation of sub15 section (a) or (b), the Commission shall proceed directly 

16 to issue a notice of apparent liability without first issuing 

17 a notice of unlicensed operation. 

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

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

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

21 semi-annually thereafter, the Commission shall pub22 lish a database in a clear and legible format of all 

23 licensed radio stations operating in the AM and FM 

24 bands. The database shall be easily accessible from 


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1 the Commission home page through a direct link. 

2 The database shall include the following information: 

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

4 assigned frequency, channel number, or Com5 mission call letters. 

6 ‘‘(B) All entities that have received a no7 tice of unlicensed operation, notice of apparent 

8 liability, or forfeiture order issued by the Com9 mission. 

10 ‘‘(2) CLEAR IDENTIFICATION.—The Commis11 sion shall clearly identify in the database— 

12 ‘‘(A) each licensed station as a station li13 censed by the Commission; and 

14 ‘‘(B) each entity described in paragraph 

15 (1)(B) as operating without a Commission li16 cense or authorization. 

17 ‘‘(h) DEFINITION OF PIRATE RADIO BROAD18 CASTING.—In this section, the term ‘pirate radio broad19 casting’ means the transmission of communications on 

20 spectrum frequencies between 535 and 1705 kilohertz, in21 clusive, or 87.7 and 108 megahertz, inclusive, without a 

22 license issued by the Commission, but does not include un23 licensed operations in compliance with part 15 of title 47, 

24 Code of Federal Regulations.’’. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
Calendar No. 374 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1228 

[Report No. 116–178] 

A BILL 

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

DECEMBER 17, 2019 

Reported without amendment 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS