IV 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 500
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Federal Com-
munications Commission should vigorously enforce indecency and pro-
fanity laws pursuant to the intent of Congress in order to protect 
children in the United States from indecent and profane programming 
on broadcast television and radio. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 21, 2004
Mr. PICKERING (for himself, Mr. PITTS, Mrs. WILSON of New Mexico, Mr. 
TERRY, Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia, Mrs. CUBIN, Mr. ISTOOK, Mr. 
BURGESS, Mr. WHITFIELD, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. AKIN, and Mrs. BONO) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Energy and Commerce 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the Federal Communications Commission should vigor-
ously enforce indecency and profanity laws pursuant to 
the intent of Congress in order to protect children in 
the United States from indecent and profane program-
ming on broadcast television and radio.
Whereas millions of people in the United States are increas-
ingly concerned with the patently offensive television and 
radio programming being sent into their homes;
•HRES 500 IH 
Whereas millions of families in the United States are particu-
larly concerned with the adverse impact of this program-
ming on children; 
Whereas obscene, indecent, and profane programming is con-
tributing to a systematic and detrimental coarsening of 
civil society of the United States; 
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission is statu-
torily charged with ‘‘encourag[ing] the larger and more 
effective use of radio in the public interest’’ (47 U.S.C. 
303(g)) and correspondingly enforcing standards of de-
cency in broadcast media pursuant to section 1464 of 
title 18, United States Code; 
Whereas section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, pro-
hibits the utterance of ‘‘any obscene, indecent or profane 
language by means of radio communication’’; 
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission estab-
lished a standard defining what constitutes indecency in 
the declaratory order In the Matter of a Citizen’s Com-
plaint Against Pacifica Foundation Station WBAI(FM), 
56 F.C.C.2d 94 (1975) (referred to in this Resolution as 
the ‘‘Pacifica order’’); 
Whereas the standard established in the Pacifica order fo-
cuses on protecting children from exposure to indecent 
language; 
Whereas the standard established in the Pacifica order was 
upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme 
Court in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica 
Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978); 
Whereas the Federal Communications Commission has not 
used all of its available authority to impose penalties on 
broadcasters that air indecent material even when egre-
•HRES 500 IH 
gious and repeated violations have been found in the 
cases of WKRK–FM, Detroit, MI, File No. EB–02–IH–
0109 (April 3, 2003) and WNEW–FM, New York, New 
York, EB–02–IH–0685 (September 30, 2003); 
Whereas the Enforcement Bureau of the Federal Commu-
nications Commission found on October 3, 2003, that no 
violation of the decency laws or regulations had occurred 
as a result of the airing of indecent language during the 
broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards on broadcast tele-
vision, at a time when millions of children were in the po-
tential audience; and 
Whereas an application for review is pending before the Fed-
eral Communications Commission as of January 2004, 
requesting that the full Commission review that decision 
of the Enforcement Bureau: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that—
(1) the commissioners of the Federal Commu-
nications Commission should reverse the Enforce-
ment Bureau’s decision In the Matter of Complaints 
Against Various Broadcast Licensees Regarding 
Their Airing of the ‘‘Golden Globe Awards’’ Pro-
gram, File No. EB–03–IH–0110, 2003 FCC LEXIS 
5382 (October 3, 2003), in light of the public policy 
considerations of protecting children from indecent 
and profane material; 
(2) the Federal Communications Commission 
should return to vigorously and expeditiously enforc-
•HRES 500 IH 
ing the indecency and profanity statute pursuant to 
its declaratory order In the Matter of a Citizen’s 
Complaint Against Pacifica Foundation Station 
WBAI(FM), 56 F.C.C.2d 94 (1975), which was af-
firmed by the United States Supreme Court; 
(3) the Federal Communications Commission 
should make every reasonable and lawful effort and 
use all of its available authority to protect children 
from the degrading influences of indecent and pro-
fane programming, including—
(A) the discretion to impose fines up to a 
statutory maximum for each separate ‘‘utter-
ance’’ or ‘‘material’’ found to be indecent; and 
(B) the initiation of license revocation pro-
ceedings for repeated violations of its indecency 
rules; 
(4) the Federal Communications Commission 
should resolve all indecency and profanity complaints 
expeditiously and should consider reviewing such 
complaints at the full Commission level; 
(5) the Federal Communications Commission 
should aggressively investigate and enforce all inde-
cency and profanity allegations; and 
(6) the Federal Communications Commission 
should reassert its responsibility as defender of the
•HRES 500 IH 
public interest by undertaking new and serious ef-
forts to sanction broadcast licensees that refuse to 
adhere to the Federal statute prohibiting profane 
and indecent utterances on broadcast media.
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