IB
Union Calendar No. 409
106TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3489
[Report No. 106–725, Parts I and II]
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate interstate commerce
in the use of mobile telephones and to strengthen and clarify prohibitions
on electronic eavesdropping, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 18, 1999
Mr. PICKERING (for himself, Mr. MARKEY, Mrs. WILSON, Mr. LARGENT, and
Mr. TAUZIN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on the Judi-
ciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each
case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
JULY 11, 2000
Additional sponsors: Mr. DINGELL, Mr. FOSSELLA, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. SUNUNU,
Mrs. CUBIN, Mr. STEARNS, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. EHRLICH, Ms. MCCAR-
THY of Missouri, Mr. BLUNT, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. WYNN, Mr.
DEAL of Georgia, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. SWEENEY, Mr. COBURN, and Mr.
GONZALEZ
JULY 11, 2000
Reported from the Committee on Commerce with an amendment
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
JULY 11, 2000
Reported from the Committtee on the Judiciary with amendments, committed
to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and
ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in boldface roman]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on November 18, 1999]
A BILL
To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate inter-
state commerce in the use of mobile telephones and
to strengthen and clarify prohibitions on electronic eaves-
dropping, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wireless Telecommuni-
cations Sourcing and Privacy Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The provision of mobile telecommunications
services is a matter of interstate commerce within the
jurisdiction of the United States Congress under Arti-
cle I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.
Certain aspects of mobile telecommunications tech-
nologies and services do not respect, and operate inde-
pendently of, State and local jurisdictional bound-
aries.
(2) The mobility afforded to millions of Amer-
ican consumers by mobile telecommunications services
helps to fuel the American economy, facilitate the de-
velopment of the information superhighway and pro-
vide important safety benefits.
(3) Users of mobile telecommunications services
can originate a call in one State or local jurisdiction
and travel through other States or local jurisdictions
during the course of the call. These circumstances
make it more difficult to track the separate segments
of a particular call with all of the States and local
jurisdictions involved with the call. In addition, ex-
panded home calling areas, bundled service offerings
and other marketing advances make it increasingly
difficult to assign each transaction to a specific tax-
ing jurisdiction.
(4) State and local taxes imposed on mobile tele-
communications services that are not consistently
based can subject consumers, businesses and others en-
gaged in interstate commerce to multiple, confusing
and burdensome State and local taxes and result in
higher costs to consumers and the industry.
(5) State and local taxes that are not consist-
ently based can result in some telecommunications
revenues inadvertently escaping State and local tax-
ation altogether, thereby violating standards of tax
fairness, creating inequities among competitors in the
telecommunications market and depriving State and
local governments of needed tax revenues.
(6) Because State and local tax laws and regula-
tions of many jurisdictions were established before the
proliferation of mobile telecommunications services,
the application of these laws to the provision of mo-
bile telecommunications services may produce con-
flicting or unintended tax results.
(7) State and local governments provide essential
public services, including services that Congress en-
courages State and local governments to undertake in
partnership with the Federal government for the
achievement of important national policy goals.
(8) State and local governments provide services
that support the flow of interstate commerce, includ-
ing services that support the use and development of
mobile telecommunications services.
(9) State governments as sovereign entities in
our Federal system may require that interstate com-
merce conducted within their borders pay its fair
share of tax to support the governmental services pro-
vided by those governments.
(10) Local governments as autonomous subdivi-
sions of a State government may require that inter-
state commerce conducted within their borders pay its
fair share of tax to support the governmental services
provided by those governments.
(11) To balance the needs of interstate commerce
and the mobile telecommunications industry with the
legitimate role of State and local governments in our
system of federalism, Congress needs to establish a
uniform and coherent national policy regarding the
taxation 
of 
mobile 
telecommunications 
services
through the exercise of its constitutional authority to
regulate interstate commerce.
(12) Congress also recognizes that the solution es-
tablished by this legislation is a necessarily practical
one and must provide for a system of State and local
taxation of mobile telecommunications services that in
the absence of this solution would not otherwise occur.
To this extent, Congress exercises its power to provide
a reasonable solution to otherwise insoluble problems
of multi-jurisdictional commerce.
‘‘(2) any tax, charge, or fee that is applied to an
equitably apportioned amount that is not determined
on a transactional basis;
‘‘(3) any tax, charge, or fee that represents com-
pensation for a mobile telecommunications service
provider’s use of public rights of way or other public
property, provided that such tax, charge, or fee is not
levied by the taxing jurisdiction as a fixed charge for
each customer or measured by gross amounts charged
to customers for mobile telecommunication services;
‘‘(4) any generally applicable business and occu-
pation tax that is imposed by a State, is applied to
gross receipts or gross proceeds, is the legal liability
of the carrier, and statutorily allows the taxpayer to
elect to use the sourcing method required in this Act;
or
‘‘(5) any fee related to obligations under section
254 of this Act.’’.
‘‘(c) SPECIFIC EXCEPTIONS.—This title—
‘‘(1) does not apply to the determination of the
taxing situs of prepaid telephone calling services;
‘‘(2) does not affect the taxability of either the
initial sale of mobile telecommunications services or
subsequent resale, whether as sales of the service alone
or as a part of a bundled product, where the Internet
Tax Freedom Act would preclude a taxing jurisdic-
tion from subjecting the charges of the sale of these
mobile telecommunications services to a tax, charge,
or fee but this section provides no evidence of the in-
tent of Congress with respect to the applicability of
the Internet Tax Freedom Act to such charges; and
‘‘(3) does not apply to the determination of the
taxing situs of air-ground radiotelephone service as
defined in section 22.99 of the Commission’s regula-
tions (47 C.F.R. 22.99).
‘‘SEC. 802. SOURCING RULES.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding the law of any
State or political subdivision thereof to the contrary, mobile
telecommunications services provided in a taxing jurisdic-
tion to a customer, the charges for which are billed by or
for the customer’s home service provider, shall be deemed
to be provided by the customer’s home service provider.
‘‘(b) JURISDICTION.—All charges for mobile tele-
communications services that are deemed to be provided by
the customer’s home service provider under this title are au-
thorized to be subjected to tax, charge, or fee by the taxing
jurisdictions whose territorial limits encompass the cus-
tomer’s place of primary use, regardless of where the mobile
telecommunication services originate, terminate or pass
through, and no other taxing jurisdiction may impose taxes,
charges, or fees on charges for such mobile telecommuni-
cations services.
‘‘SEC. 803. LIMITATIONS.
‘‘This title does not—
‘‘(1) provide authority to a taxing jurisdiction to
impose a tax, charge, or fee that the laws of the juris-
diction do not authorize the jurisdiction to impose; or
‘‘(2) modify, impair, supersede, or authorize the
modification, impairment, or supersession of, the law
of any taxing jurisdiction pertaining to taxation ex-
cept as expressly provided in this title.
‘‘SEC. 804. ELECTRONIC DATABASES FOR NATIONWIDE
STANDARD 
NUMERIC 
JURISDICTIONAL
CODES.
‘‘(a) ELECTRONIC DATABASE.—A State may provide
an electronic database to a home service provider or, if a
State does not provide such an electronic database to home
service providers, then the designated database provider
may provide an electronic database to a home service pro-
vider. The electronic database, whether provided by the
State or the designated database provider, shall be provided
in a format approved by the American National Standards
Institute’s Accredited Standards Committee X12, that, al-
lowing for de minimis deviations, designates for each street
address in the State, including to the extent practicable,
any multiple postal street addresses applicable to one street
location, the appropriate taxing jurisdictions, and the ap-
propriate code for each taxing jurisdiction, for each level
of taxing jurisdiction, identified by one nationwide stand-
ard numeric code. The electronic database shall also provide
the appropriate code for each street address with respect to
political subdivisions which are not taxing jurisdictions
when reasonably needed to determine the proper taxing ju-
risdiction. The nationwide standard numeric codes shall
contain the same number of numeric digits with each digit
or combination of digits referring to the same level of taxing
jurisdiction throughout the United States using a format
similar to FIPS 55–3 or other appropriate standard ap-
proved by the Federation of Tax Administrators and the
Multistate Tax Commission, or their successors. Each ad-
dress shall be provided in standard postal format.
‘‘(b) NOTICE; UPDATES.—A State or designated data-
base provider that provides or maintains an electronic
database described in subsection (a) shall provide notice of
the availability of the then current electronic database, and
any subsequent revisions thereof, by publication in the man-
ner normally employed for the publication of informational
tax, charge, or fee notices to taxpayers in that State.
‘‘(c) USER HELD HARMLESS.—A home service pro-
vider using the data contained in the electronic database
described in subsection (a) shall be held harmless from any
tax, charge, or fee liability that otherwise would be due sole-
ly as a result of any error or omission in the electronic
database provided by a State or designated database pro-
vider. The home service provider shall reflect changes made
to the electronic database during a calendar quarter no
later than 30 days after the end of that calendar quarter
for each State that issues notice of the availability of an
electronic database reflecting such changes under subsection
(b).
‘‘SEC. 805. PROCEDURE WHERE NO ELECTRONIC DATABASE
PROVIDED.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—If neither a State nor designated
database provider provides an electronic database under
section 804, a home service provider shall be held harmless
from any tax, charge, or fee liability in that State that oth-
erwise would be due solely as a result of an assignment of
a street address to an incorrect taxing jurisdiction if, sub-
ject to section 806, the home service provider employs an
enhanced zip code to assign each street address to a specific
taxing jurisdiction for each level of taxing jurisdiction and
exercises due diligence at each level of taxing jurisdiction
to ensure that each such street address is assigned to the
correct taxing jurisdiction. Where an enhanced zip code
overlaps boundaries of taxing jurisdictions of the same level,
the home service provider must designate one specific juris-
diction within such enhanced zip code for use in taxing the
activity for that enhanced zip code for each level of taxing
jurisdiction. Any enhanced zip code assignment changed in
accordance with section 806 is deemed to be in compliance
with this section. For purposes of this section, there is a
rebuttable presumption that a home service provider has ex-
ercised due diligence if such home service provider dem-
onstrates that it has—
‘‘(1) expended reasonable resources to implement
and maintain an appropriately detailed electronic
database of street address assignments to taxing juris-
dictions;
‘‘(2) implemented and maintained reasonable in-
ternal controls to promptly correct misassignments of
street addresses to taxing jurisdictions; and
‘‘(3) used all reasonably obtainable and usable
data 
pertaining 
to 
municipal 
annexations,
incorporations, 
reorganizations 
and 
any 
other
changes in jurisdictional boundaries that materially
affect the accuracy of the electronic database.
‘‘(b) TERMINATION OF SAFE HARBOR.—Subsection (a)
applies to a home service provider that is in compliance
with the requirements of subsection (a), with respect to a
State for which an electronic database is not provided under
section 804 until the later of—
‘‘(1) 18 months after the nationwide standard
numeric code described in section 804(a) has been ap-
proved by the Federation of Tax Administrators and
the Multistate Tax Commission; or
‘‘(2) 6 months after that State or a designated
database provider in that State provides the electronic
database as prescribed in section 804(a).
‘‘SEC. 806. CORRECTION OF ERRONEOUS DATA FOR PLACE
OF PRIMARY USE.
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A taxing jurisdiction, or a State
on behalf of any taxing jurisdiction or taxing jurisdictions
within such State, may—
‘‘(1) determine that the address used for purposes
of determining the taxing jurisdictions to which taxes,
charges, or fees for mobile telecommunications services
are remitted does not meet the definition of place of
primary use in section 809(3) and give binding no-
tice to the home service provider to change the place
of primary use on a prospective basis from the date
of notice of determination if—
‘‘(A) where the taxing jurisdiction making
such determination is not a State, such taxing
jurisdiction obtains the consent of all affected
taxing jurisdictions within the State before giv-
ing such notice of determination; and
‘‘(B) the customer is given an opportunity,
prior to such notice of determination, to dem-
onstrate in accordance with applicable State or
local tax, charge, or fee administrative proce-
dures that the address is the customer’s place of
primary use;
‘‘(2) determine that the assignment of a taxing
jurisdiction by a home service provider under section
805 does not reflect the correct taxing jurisdiction and
give binding notice to the home service provider to
change the assignment on a prospective basis from the
date of notice of determination if—
‘‘(A) where the taxing jurisdiction making
such determination is not a State, such taxing
jurisdiction obtains the consent of all affected
taxing jurisdictions within the State before giv-
ing such notice of determination; and
‘‘(B) the home service provider is given an
opportunity to demonstrate in accordance with
applicable State or local tax, charge, or fee ad-
ministrative procedures that the assignment re-
flects the correct taxing jurisdiction.
‘‘SEC. 807. DUTY OF HOME SERVICE PROVIDER REGARDING
PLACE OF PRIMARY USE.
‘‘(a) PLACE OF PRIMARY USE.—A home service pro-
vider is responsible for obtaining and maintaining the cus-
tomer’s place of primary use (as defined in section 809).
Subject to section 806, and if the home service provider’s
reliance on information provided by its customer is in good
faith, a home service provider—
‘‘(1) may rely on the applicable residential or
business street address supplied by the home service
provider’s customer; and
‘‘(2) is not liable for any additional taxes,
charges, or fees based on a different determination of
the place of primary use for taxes, charges or fees that
are customarily passed on to the customer as a sepa-
rate itemized charge.
‘‘(b) ADDRESS UNDER EXISTING AGREEMENTS.—Ex-
cept as provided in section 806, a home service provider
may treat the address used by the home service provider
for tax purposes for any customer under a service contract
or agreement in effect 2 years after the date of enactment
of the Wireless Telecommunications Sourcing and Privacy
Act as that customer’s place of primary use for the remain-
ing term of such service contract or agreement, excluding
any extension or renewal of such service contract or agree-
ment, for purposes of determining the taxing jurisdictions
to which taxes, charges, or fees on charges for mobile tele-
communications services are remitted.
‘‘SEC. 808. SCOPE; SPECIAL RULES.
‘‘(a) TITLE DOES NOT SUPERSEDE CUSTOMER’S LI-
ABILITY TO TAXING JURISDICTION.—Nothing in this title
modifies, impairs, supersedes, or authorizes the modifica-
tion, impairment, or supersession of, any law allowing a
taxing jurisdiction to collect a tax, charge, or fee from a
customer that has failed to provide its place of primary
use.
‘‘(b) ADDITIONAL TAXABLE CHARGES.—If a taxing ju-
risdiction does not otherwise subject charges for mobile tele-
communications services to taxation and if these charges
are aggregated with and not separately stated from charges
that are subject to taxation, then the charges for otherwise
non-taxable mobile telecommunications services may be sub-
ject to taxation unless the home service provider can reason-
ably identify charges not subject to such tax, charge, or fee
from its books and records that are kept in the regular
course of business.
‘‘(c) NON-TAXABLE CHARGES.—If a taxing jurisdic-
tion does not subject charges for mobile telecommunications
services to taxation, a customer may not rely upon the non-
taxability of charges for mobile telecommunications services
unless the customer’s home service provider separately states
the charges for non-taxable mobile telecommunications serv-
ices from taxable charges or the home service provider elects,
after receiving a written request from the customer in the
form required by the provider, to provide verifiable data
based upon the home service provider’s books and records
that are kept in the regular course of business that reason-
ably identifies the nontaxable charges.
‘‘(d) REFERENCES TO REGULATIONS.—Any reference
in this title to the Commission’s regulations is a reference
to those regulations as they were in effect on June 1, 1999.
‘‘SEC. 809. DEFINITIONS.
‘‘In this title:
‘‘(1) CHARGES
FOR
MOBILE
TELECOMMUNI-
CATIONS
SERVICES.—The term ‘charges for mobile
telecommunications services’ means any charge for, or
associated with, the provision of commercial mobile
radio service, as defined in section 20.3 of the Com-
mission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 20.3), or any charge
for, or associated with, a service provided as an ad-
junct to a commercial mobile radio service, that is
billed to the customer by or for the customer’s home
service provider regardless of whether individual
transmissions originate or terminate within the li-
censed service area of the home service provider.
‘‘(2) TAXING JURISDICTION.—The term ‘taxing
jurisdiction’ means any of the several States, the Dis-
trict of Columbia, or any territory or possession of the
United States, any municipality, city, county, town-
ship, parish, transportation district, or assessment ju-
risdiction, or any other political subdivision within
the territorial limits of the United States with the au-
thority to impose a tax, charge, or fee.
‘‘(3) PLACE OF PRIMARY USE.—The term ‘place
of primary use’ means the street address representa-
tive of where the customer’s use of the mobile tele-
communications service primarily occurs, which must
be—
‘‘(A) either the residential street address or
the primary business street address of the cus-
tomer; and
‘‘(B) within the licensed service area of the
home service provider.
‘‘(4) LICENSED SERVICE AREA.—The term ‘li-
censed service area’ means the geographic area in
which the home service provider is authorized by law
or contract to provide commercial mobile radio serv-
ice to the customer.
‘‘(5) HOME
SERVICE
PROVIDER.—The term
‘home service provider’ means the facilities-based car-
rier or reseller with which the customer contracts for
the provision of mobile telecommunications services.
‘‘(6) CUSTOMER.—
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘customer’
means—
‘‘(i) the person or entity that contracts
with the home service provider for mobile
telecommunications services; or
‘‘(ii) where the end user of mobile tele-
communications services is not the con-
tracting party, the end user of the mobile
telecommunications service, but this clause
applies only for the purpose of determining
the place of primary use.
‘‘(B) The term ‘customer’ does not include—
‘‘(i) a reseller of mobile telecommuni-
cations service; or
‘‘(ii) a serving carrier under an ar-
rangement to serve the customer outside the
home service provider’s licensed service
area.
‘‘(7) DESIGNATED
DATABASE
PROVIDER.—The
term ‘‘designated database provider’’ means a cor-
poration, association, or other entity representing all
the political subdivisions of a State that is—
‘‘(A) responsible for providing the electronic
database prescribed in section 804(a) if the State
has not provided such electronic database; and
‘‘(B) sanctioned by municipal and county
associations or leagues of the State whose respon-
sibility it would otherwise be to provide the elec-
tronic database prescribed by this title.
‘‘(8) PREPAID TELEPHONE CALLING SERVICES.—
The term ‘prepaid telephone calling service’ means the
right to purchase exclusively telecommunications serv-
ices that must be paid for in advance, that enables the
origination of calls using an access number, author-
ization code, or both, whether manually or electroni-
cally dialed, if the remaining amount of units of serv-
ice that have been prepaid is known by the provider
of the prepaid service on a continuous basis.
‘‘(9) RESELLER.—The term ‘reseller’—
‘‘(A) means a provider who purchases tele-
communications services from another tele-
communications service provider and then re-
sells, uses as a component part of, or integrates
the purchased services into a mobile tele-
communications service; but
‘‘(B) does not include a serving carrier with
which a home service provider arranges for the
services to its customers outside the home service
provider’s licensed service area.
‘‘(10) SERVING
CARRIER.—The term ‘serving
carrier’ means a facilities-based carrier providing
mobile telecommunications service to a customer out-
side a home service provider’s or reseller’s licensed
service area.
‘‘(11) 
MOBILE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
SERV-
ICE.—The term ‘mobile telecommunications service’
means commercial mobile radio service, as defined in
section 20.3 of the Commission’s regulations (47
C.F.R. 20.3).
‘‘(12) ENHANCED
ZIP
CODE.—The term ‘en-
hanced zip code’ means a United States postal zip
code of 9 or more digits.
‘‘SEC. 810. COMMISSION NOT TO HAVE JURISDICTION OF
TITLE.
‘‘Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the
Commission shall have no jurisdiction over the interpreta-
tion, implementation, or enforcement of this title.
‘‘SEC. 811. NONSEVERABILITY.
‘‘If a court of competent jurisdiction enters a final
judgment on the merits that is no longer subject to appeal,
which substantially limits or impairs the essential elements
of this title based on Federal statutory or Federal Constitu-
tional grounds, or which determines that this title violates
the United States Constitution, then the provisions of this
title are null and void and of no effect.
‘‘SEC. 812. NO INFERENCE.
‘‘(a) INTERNET TAX FREEDOM ACT.—Nothing in this
title may be construed as bearing on Congressional intent
in enacting the Internet Tax Freedom Act or as affecting
that Act in any way.
‘‘(b) TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1996.—Nothing
in this title shall limit or otherwise affect the implementa-
tion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 or the amend-
ments made by that Act.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by sub-
section (a) applies to customer bills issued after the first
day of the first month beginning more than 2 years after
the date of enactment of this Act.
SEC. 4. GAO DETERMINATION OF FCC REGULATORY FEES.
Within 180 days after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall—
(1) conduct a review of the regulatory fees with
respect to mobile telecommunications services that
were collected during fiscal years 1998, 1999, and
2000 by the Federal Communications Commission to
determine—
(A) whether such fees were assessed in ac-
cordance with section 9 of the Communications
Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 159) and applicable pub-
lic notices; and
(B) whether the Commission acquired infor-
mation related to the assessment of such fees in
a timely and accurate manner, and has main-
tained such information, that is sufficient to
support the transactions; and
(2) submit a report to the Congress regarding
such review and determinations.
SEC. 5. COMMERCE IN ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING DE-
VICES.
(a) PROHIBITION ON MODIFICATION.—Section 302(b)
of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 302a(b)) is
amended by inserting before the period at the end thereof
the following: ‘‘, or modify any such device, equipment, or
system in any manner that causes such device, equipment,
or system to fail to comply with such regulations’’.
(b) PROHIBITION ON COMMERCE IN SCANNING RE-
CEIVERS.—Section 302(d) of such Act (47 U.S.C. 302a(d))
is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(d) EQUIPMENT AUTHORIZATION REGULATIONS.—
‘‘(1) PRIVACY
PROTECTIONS
REQUIRED.—The
Commission shall prescribe regulations, and review
and revise such regulations as necessary in response
to subsequent changes in technology or behavior, deny-
ing equipment authorization (under part 15 of title
47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any other part of
that title) for any scanning receiver that is capable
of—
‘‘(A) receiving transmissions in the fre-
quencies that are allocated to the domestic cel-
lular radio telecommunications service or the
personal communications service;
‘‘(B) readily being altered to receive trans-
missions in such frequencies;
‘‘(C) being equipped with decoders that—
‘‘(i) convert digital domestic cellular
radio telecommunications service, personal
communications service, or protected spe-
cialized mobile radio service transmissions
to analog voice audio; or
‘‘(ii) convert protected paging service
transmissions to alphanumeric text; or
‘‘(D) being equipped with devices that other-
wise decode encrypted radio transmissions for
the purposes of unauthorized interception.
‘‘(2) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR SHARED FRE-
QUENCIES.—The Commission shall, with respect to
scanning receivers capable of receiving transmissions
in frequencies that are used by commercial mobile
services and that are shared by public safety users,
examine methods, and may prescribe such regulations
as may be necessary, to enhance the privacy of users
of such frequencies.
‘‘(3) TAMPERING
PREVENTION.—In prescribing
regulations pursuant to paragraph (1), the Commis-
sion shall consider defining ‘capable of readily being
altered’ to require scanning receivers to be manufac-
tured in a manner that effectively precludes alter-
ation of equipment features and functions as nec-
essary to prevent commerce in devices that may be
used unlawfully to intercept or divulge radio commu-
nication.
‘‘(4) WARNING LABELS.—In prescribing regula-
tions under paragraph (1), the Commission shall con-
sider requiring labels on scanning receivers warning
of the prohibitions in Federal law on intentionally
intercepting or divulging radio communications.
‘‘(5) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this subsection,
the term ‘protected’ means secured by an electronic
method that is not published or disclosed except to au-
thorized users, as further defined by Commission reg-
ulation.’’.
(c) IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS.—Within 90 days
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Commu-
nications Commission shall prescribe amendments to its
regulations for the purposes of implementing the amend-
ments made by this section.
SEC. 6. UNAUTHORIZED INTERCEPTION OR PUBLICATION
OF COMMUNICATIONS.
Section 705 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 605) is amended—
(1) in the heading of such section, by inserting
‘‘INTERCEPTION OR’’ after ‘‘UNAUTHORIZED’’;
(2) in the first sentence of subsection (a), by
striking ‘‘Except as authorized by chapter 119, title
18, United States Code, no person’’ and inserting ‘‘No
person’’;
(3) in the second sentence of subsection (a)—
(A) by inserting ‘‘intentionally’’ before
‘‘intercept’’; and
(B) by striking ‘‘communication and di-
vulge’’ and inserting ‘‘communication, and no
person having intercepted such a communication
shall intentionally divulge’’;
(4) in the fourth sentence of subsection (a)—
(A) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ after ‘‘intercepted,
shall’’; and
(B) by striking ‘‘thereof) or’’ and inserting
‘‘thereof); or (B)’’;
(5) by striking the last sentence of subsection (a)
and inserting the following: ‘‘Nothing in this sub-
section prohibits an interception or disclosure of a
communication as authorized by chapter 119 of title
18, United States Code.’’;
(6) in subsection (e)(1)—
(A) by striking ‘‘fined not more than $2,000
or’’; and
(B) by inserting ‘‘or fined under title 18,
United States Code,’’ after ‘‘6 months,’’;
(7) in subsection (e)(3), by striking ‘‘any viola-
tion’’ and inserting ‘‘any receipt, interception, divul-
gence, publication, or utilization of any communica-
tion in violation’’;
(8) in subsection (e)(4), by striking ‘‘any other
activity prohibited by subsection (a)’’ and inserting
‘‘any receipt, interception, divulgence, publication, or
utilization of any communication in violation of sub-
section (a)’’; and
(9) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the fol-
lowing new paragraph:
‘‘(7) Notwithstanding any other investigative or en-
forcement activities of any other Federal agency, the Com-
mission shall investigate alleged violations of this section
and may proceed to initiate action under section 503 of
this Act to impose forfeiture penalties with respect to such
violation upon conclusion of the Commission’s investiga-
tion.’’.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wireless
Telecommunications Privacy Act of 2000’’.
SEC. 2. GAO DETERMINATION OF FCC REGULATORY FEES.
Within 180 days after the date of the en-
actment of this Act, the Comptroller General
of the United States shall conduct a review of
the annual regulatory fees collected by the
Federal Communications Commission pursu-
ant to section 9 of the Communications Act of
1934 (47 U.S.C. 159) to determine whether
such fees have been accurately assessed since
their inception and shall submit a report to
the Congress regarding such review and de-
termination.
SEC. 3. COMMERCE IN ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING DE-
VICES.
(a) PROHIBITION
ON
MODIFICATION.—Sec-
tion 302(b) of the Communications Act of 1934
(47 U.S.C. 302a(b)) is amended by inserting be-
fore the period at the end thereof the fol-
lowing: ‘‘, or modify any such device, equip-
ment, or system in any manner that causes
such device, equipment, or system to fail to
comply with such regulations’’.
(b) PROHIBITION ON COMMERCE IN SCANNING
RECEIVERS.—Section 302(d) of such Act (47
U.S.C. 302a(d)) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(d) EQUIPMENT AUTHORIZATION REGULA-
TIONS.—
‘‘(1) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS REQUIRED.—
The Commission shall prescribe regula-
tions, and review and revise such regula-
tions as necessary in response to subse-
quent changes in technology or behavior,
denying equipment authorization (under
part 15 of title 47, Code of Federal Regu-
lations, or any other part of that title) for
any scanning receiver that is capable of—
‘‘(A) receiving transmissions in
the frequencies that are allocated to
the 
domestic 
cellular 
radio 
tele-
communications service or the per-
sonal communications service;
‘‘(B) readily being altered to re-
ceive 
transmissions 
in 
such 
fre-
quencies;
‘‘(C) being equipped with decod-
ers that—
‘‘(i) convert digital domestic
cellular radio telecommunications
service, personal communications
service, or protected specialized
mobile 
radio 
service 
trans-
missions to analog voice audio; or
‘‘(ii) convert protected paging
service transmissions to alpha-
numeric text; or
‘‘(D) being equipped with devices
that 
otherwise 
decode 
encrypted
radio transmissions for the purposes
of unauthorized interception.
‘‘(2) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR SHARED
FREQUENCIES.—The 
Commission 
shall,
with respect to scanning receivers capa-
ble of receiving transmissions in fre-
quencies that are used by commercial
mobile services and that are shared by
public safety users, examine methods,